ch6 1

Chapter SixChapter Six

Diversity and Equity:

Schooling and African Americans

ch6 2

Major ThemesMajor Themes

• What dominant ideology(-ies) legitimized the subordination of women/African American/Native Americans?

• What dominant ideology(-ies) legitimize(s) the subordination of women/African American/Native Americans today?

• What were called “radical proposals” to reform society and education in the past?

• What may be called “radical proposals” to reform society and education today?

ch6 3

Reconstruction 1865-1877Reconstruction 1865-1877

• Thirteenth Amendment

• Freedmen's Bureau

• Rebuilding the South without slavery at its center

• Higher education and political power for African Americans

ch6 4

Redemption 1877Redemption 1877

• White southerners regain control

• White supremacy laws and voting requirements for blacks established

• Destroyed African American gains of Reconstruction

ch6 5

African American SchoolingAfrican American Schooling

• Vague references to education in state constitutions give way to frameworks for universal public schooling in Reconstruction

• Redemption brought renewed efforts to shift resources to white schools, strip blacks of voting rights, and reconfigure constitutions

• Black communities, churches, and private citizens supported schools while disparities increased, beginning around 1890

ch6 6

Booker T. Washington’s CareerBooker T. Washington’s Career

• The Myth– advanced public education in black

communities– “lifting veil of ignorance from Negro race”

• The Reality – Washington era featured worst treatment of

black public education since slavery – supported state-enforced illiteracy– took accommodationist stance

ch6 7

Washington’s Perception of African Washington’s Perception of African American “Inferiority” and OpportunityAmerican “Inferiority” and Opportunity

• Racial evolution– Blacks need to “evolve”; should be grateful for

advantages.• Blacks unfit to vote• Blacks should avoid confronting racial

prejudice• Hard labor and accumulation of property

the key to success• Natural laws of economics would not

tolerate racism

ch6 8

W. E. B. Du BoisW. E. B. Du Bois

• Opposed stifling of criticisms of Washington and his followers

• Spoke out against continued oppression of black Southerners and prejudice in the North

• Self-assertion rather than acquiescence

ch6 9

Concluding RemarksConcluding Remarks

• The struggle over African American schooling, and the distinctions between Washington’s and Du Bois’s perspectives, highlight enduring concerns:

– schooling for social stability or a free society?– schooling for employment or intellectual growth?– schooling for social reform or individual human

development?– schooling that emphasizes commonalities or

differences?– schooling in whose interests?

ch6 10

Developing your Professional Developing your Professional VocabularyVocabulary

• black codes • The Crisis • W. E. B. Du Bois• Freedmen's Bureau • historically black colleges• Mississippi Plan• NAACP• Reconstruction• Redemption • 13th, 14th, 15th Amendments• Tuskegee Institution• Booker T. Washington