Racial Discrimination: Education in the late 1800's.
In the south, pre-civil war and emancipation proclamation, free blacks had few rights and still had to do many things underground. When it came to education, they taught their children what they knew from their heads and the sparse materials shared between them. A common strategy was to send them to church to be educated, but when they were caught by ever-prejudiced whites, the outcome was often violent. Post-war and proclamation, things were a tad bit better for blacks, but the bad blood between former slaves and the now-racist white people remained. Despite white opposition, black public schools began popping up all over the states.
In the north, blacks had it a little easier both pre and post war and proclamation, simply because white citizens were more used to them being around. Segregation in public schools was still the most common, though. Later on, white public schools began allowing blacks to be educated in the same buildings. However, this progress also had violent reactions from the south, and even opposition in the north as well. Gradually, the segregation thinned, but never really disappeared from the education systems until the mid-1900's. Even then, racism remained.
Public schools for black children had facilities and materials that were greatly inferior to those for white childrens' public schools. The teachers in black schools were also paid less and got less respect than those who taught in white schools. In co-racial schools, black children were taught their lessons only after all the white children were finished learning theirs, and what they were taught was also of less quality. Plus, black in white schools faced daily discrimination from their white peers and white locals. Despite all this unfairness, blacks continued to push for equality in education. They believed a higher education would eventually result in a higher political, economical, and social standing for their future generations.
Learning this as I reseached it, I wasn't all that surprised at the treatment free blacks recieved. For one, they had only recently been freed after generations of abuse; of course it was still a long road head to equality and respect, not just in the area of education. And, since, you know, this is a review topic I've already learned before. But still, I can't hep feeling a little sorry for them, since they never did anything wrong to deserve that treatment from our ancestors....
An early school house featured in an article (the article is irrelevent to my topic, but it's still a school house).
A bullitin announcing the Emancipation Proclamation, a cause to celebrate for African Americans. (passed by Pres. Lincoln, 1862)
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