ED214 - Module 6 History of Education

1. African American Education
– 19th Century
JIM CROW LAWS -- PLESSY VS FERGUSON
BY DR. MELINDA TOMPKINS - ED 214 – PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION --

2. After
Reconstruction…
The freedmen were ‘free’ however
they were unable to enjoy their
freedom as a result of systematic
discrimination and threats of
violence

3. After Reconstruction,
Separation of the races
became legalized in the
South – but the progress
was slow.

4. During the Reconstruction Era, African Americans in
the former slave-holding states saw education as an
important step towards achieving equality,
independence, and prosperity. As a result, they
found ways to learn despite the many obstacles that
poverty and white people placed in their path.
Although efforts were made in the newly formed
free black communities to organize schools, they
faced significant challenges. Few African Americans
received any education at all before the
Reconstruction Era so there was a shortage of
qualified teachers when public schools were
opened. Even then, establishments for black
children were poorly financed and largely ignored.

5. Jim Crow Laws
 To make things more difficult – the Jim Crow Laws were in effect
 Jim Crow laws were a collection of state and local statutes that legalized racial
segregation.
 The laws—which existed for about 100 years, from the post-Civil War era until
1968—were meant to marginalize African Americans by denying them the right
to vote, hold jobs, get an education or other opportunities.
 Those who attempted to defy Jim Crow laws often faced arrest, fines, jail
sentences, violence and death.

6. Jim Crow laws ruled the educational
system and schools became legally
racially segregated

7. In 1892 a group of
people got together and
decided to protest
against a Jim Crow law
that required people of
color to ride in a separate
train car.

8. Homer Plessy
 A man named Homer Plessy was at the center of the
uprising.
 Homer Plessy was a Louisiana shoemaker and abolition
activist who had pale skin and largely European ancestors.
 However, he had a great-grandmother who was African,
making him He was 7/8 white and 1/8 black.
 But in the eyes of the law – this made him black.
 The Separate Car Act required railroads to separate the
white and black races as they traveled on railway cars:
 Railroads had “white” cars and “colored” cars. This law was
one of many that served to keep whites and blacks
separate in public places.
 On June 7, 1892, Plessy went to the Press Street Depot, in
New Orleans, and bought a first-class ticket to Covington,
La.
 Plessy got on the “whites-only” car. Railroad staff asked
him to leave, telling him that he was required to sit in the
“colored” car; Plessy refused to leave.
 He was arrested and charged
with breaking an existing law,
and the result was a trial before
a judge, John Ferguson.

10.  Intrastate railroads were among many
segregated public facilities the verdict
sanctioned; others included buses, hotels,
theaters, swimming pools and schools.
 Judge John H. Ferguson upheld the law,
and the case of Plessy v. Ferguson slowly
moved up to the U.S. Supreme Court. On
May 18, 1896, the Court, with only one
dissenting vote, ruled that segregation in
America was constitutional.

11. Alexander Clark and the First Successful Desegregation Case
in the United States
 In 1867, an African-American businessman named
Alexander Clark filed a lawsuit against the Muscatine,
Iowa, school district for denying his daughter admission
to a public school because she was black.
 Clark won his lawsuit but it was appealed by the school
board and went to the Iowa Supreme Court.
 Again he prevailed and in the fall of 1868 his daughter
attended the local school.
 In this clip from the Lost in History: Alexander
Clark documentary, historians explain the importance of
this first successful school desegregation case in the
history of the United States.
CLICK HERE FOR THE VIDEO

12.  The commitment of African American teachers and parents to education never
faltered. They established a tradition of educational self-help and were among the
first southerners to campaign for universal public education. African American
educational institutions were funded by a variety of sources, including black
churches, white churches, local community fundraisers, state governments, and
northern philanthropists.
 Despite the burdens of segregation and racism, some high schools and colleges for
black students provided educational opportunities that rivaled those offered to
white students. Morehouse College and Tuskegee, Howard, and Fisk Universities
have educated African Americans since the late 1800s.
 Separate public schools were also often created for Asian Pacific American, Latino
and American Indian children. Where there were not enough children of a single
racial group to form their own school, they were usually required to attend black
institutions. With little money or public support, parents and community leaders
argued their cases before white judges and all-white school boards that had little
sympathy for their concerns.
From the SEPARATE IS NOT EQUAL BROWN v. BOARD OF EDUCATION , instructional website -
https://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/2-battleground/quest-for-education-2.html

14. However, It would not be until the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education in
1954, at the dawn of the civil rights movement, that things would begin to change
for the nation…….

15. May 17, 1954, marks a
defining event in U.S. History
– The Supreme Court
unanimously overturned the
Plessy vs Ferguson decision,
and stated that "separate
educational facilities are
inherently unequal.”
But the struggle was not over
---
We come then to the question presented: Does segregation of children in
public schools solely on the basis of race…… deprive the children of the
minority group of equal educational opportunities?
We believe that it does." --- Judge Earl Warren

16. Brown vs Board of Education
 It did not transform the country overnight
 It did provide a major catalyst for the civil
rights movement, making possible advances
in desegregating housing, public
accommodations, and institutions of higher
education…… and K-12 Public Education.