the community
Reflections from the Ninth Decade
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Coming From Behind: A Historical Perspective on Black Education and Attainment Murray Levine and Adeline G. Levine State University of New York at Buffalo
S
ince the establishment of taxpayer-funded schools, the United States public education system has been under attack, subject to criticism and prone to adopting various fads for its improvement. In recent decades, the criticism has heightened, with semihysterical articles in scholarly and popular outlets, newspaper editorials, and other media, all in agreement that the system is “’broken.” The implementation of the idea that the broken system must be fixed overnight by wonder-working educational messiahs, each of whom has THE answer, has cost the taxpayers countless dollars. In fact, the clamor is occasioned by that portion of the public education system which serves the poorest neighborhoods, particularly those in the poorest urban areas. Urbanites in nonpoverty neighborhoods have been quite satisfied with their schools, as have suburbanites served by well-financed public schools. In recent years, the benchmark for schools’ performances has been comparisons of the educational achievement test scores of White and Black students. The picture invariably shows a “gap” between White and Black achievement.
In our current reliance on “hard data,” achievement test scores are used incorrectly and without warrant as the ultimate mark of educational progress. While it is true that a gap continues to exist, educational history shows that, overall, both Black and White students have participated steadily in increasing numbers in the educational system, whether the measure is the number of students attending school, the increasing length of the school years, literacy rates, or in the actual level of educational attainment over a period of more than 100 years. The data examined in historical perspective show that the American education system, through thick and thin, has served its students well. Those data also show that change comes slowly, in increments of just a few percent a decade. Expectations of rapid change are totally unreasonable when viewed against the historical data. In addition, the historical data show that the Black population has made progress more rapidly over time than the White population. As a result of more rapid progress, although there is still a gap between
White and Black, the gap has narrowed considerably. We suggest the gap reflects history and culture. The small increments per decade argue that cultures change slowly and persist over time. We will discuss the history of Black education to suggest some reasons for the gap. The history will help us assess today’s achievement gap and help us to understand how far our public education system has brought us.
Education of Black Children in the South We begin with the South where some 85% of the Black population lived during most of the years we discuss. From colonial times, there were two major classes of Blacks in this country: slaves and free Blacks.
Under Slavery During the period from the introduction of slavery into the colonies in the early 17th century until the end of the Civil War, it was for the most part illegal to educate slaves. However, a very
Murray Levine, Department of Psychology, State University of New York at Buffalo; Adeline G. Levine, Department of Sociology, State University of New York at Buffalo. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Murray Levine or Adeline G. Levine, 18 Street Andrew’s Walk, Buffalo, NY 14222. E-mail: [email protected] or [email protected] American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 2014, Vol. 84, No. 5, 447– 454
© 2014 American Orthopsychiatric Association http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0099861
the community small number of slaves were singled out for some education to further the interests of the self-sustaining plantation. Education prepared those select few to undertake skilled operations, to be arti-
lowed by owners to sell their skills could save the pittance the owners permitted them to keep until they had enough to buy freedom for themselves and often for their families. Some slave
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Free Blacks were not free in the sense that we think of freedom today–full citizens, who can come and go, reside and work under rules that apply to everyone sans, to engage in construction, to build and operate machines, and to perform some management tasks involving reading, writing, and arithmetic. Some slaves were hired out as skilled laborers, with the owners pocketing the major portion of their slim wages. As property, these educated slaves were of higher value in the marketplace for their owners. Some owners believed it was important for slaves to have enough literacy to read the Bible in order to help establish Christianity among slaves. Some plantation owners established Bible schools not only out of religious conviction, but because they believed that religious slaves were more obedient. Overall, there was no formal schooling for slave children. Some learned when they played “school” with their master’s children. An occasional slave child would teach him or herself to read. Occasionally, adventurous daughters or wives of slave owners taught slave children surreptitiously. While these practices existed, the vast majority of field hands and their children were illiterate. However, the better treatment enjoyed by educated Blacks may have added to a yearning for education within the slave population.
Free Blacks There had always been free Black people in this country. Some had been indentured servants, as were Whites, who worked for years to pay off their passage to the colonies, their food, and shelter. The small number of slaves al-
owners, based on conscience, freed some of their slaves, a cumbersome process called manumission. By the 19th century, these practices had resulted in the growth of a free Black population ”from 32,523 or 4.7% of the Negro population in the South in 1790 to 258,346 or 6.3% in 1860.”1 The free Black population had also increased naturally as a result of births. Children born in freedom were free. However, “free” Blacks were not free in the sense that we think of freedom today—full citizens, who can come and go, reside and work under rules that apply to everyone. They were hemmed in by antebellum “black codes” dictating every aspect of their lives. In some Southern states, Blacks, once freed, were required to leave the state within a few months, lest they encourage the still enslaved to have notions of freedom. The national’s capital, Washington, DC, considered the least restrictive place for Blacks, and thus a destination, clamped down following the steady growth in the population of free Blacks from 783 in 1800 to 11,131 in 1860. “ . . . the municipality in 1827 . . . placed larger restrictions upon colored people— heavier fines for disturbing the peace, a stricter curfew, and for every free Negro family the cost of a [required] peace bond increased from the former $20 to $500 and signed by two White men.” A few years later, “the
1
H. A. BULLOCK, A HISTORY OF NEGRO EDUSOUTH, FROM 1619 TO PRESENT (1967), at 13. CATION IN THE
448
municipality also increased the bond required of every Negro family to $1,000 with five White freeholders as surety.”2 (At the time, day laborers earned 50 cents to $1 for a 10-hr day’s work.] Activities of educated free Blacks affected White attitudes toward Black education. When some free Blacks wrote antislavery tracts, many slave owners feared rebellious sentiments among their slaves. Some free Blacks’ writings about their slavery experiences provided fodder for the much hated abolitionists. These intellectual activities demonstrated that, contrary to the conventional prejudice of the time, Blacks could learn, but these events also created a backlash against education for slaves, even basic literacy. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, most education for free Blacks was dependent on private, not public, financial support. Some schools were established by religious missionaries from the North, especially New England. Free Blacks also provided for their own children’s education within the limits of their resources by establishing private schools and paying tuition for their children.
Emancipation Proclamation During the Civil War, many slaves fled plantations and wandered the South in large bands. Following the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, massive numbers of newly freed slaves migrated to cities and sought the protection of the Union armies. By 1865, for example, more than 20,000 slaves had reached Washington, DC. In addition to providing the bare necessities of food, clothing, and shelter on a temporary basis, long-term plans were needed for the masses of refugees who for a time were basically wards of the government. Understanding that former slaves had to be assisted to become self-sufficient,
2
CONSTANCE MCLAUGHLIN GREEN, THE SECITY: A HISTORY OF RACE RELATIONS IN THE NATION’S CAPITAL (1967), at 33, 37. CRET
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and that education would be an important priority, the Union Army first looked to private philanthropy. These private efforts had some success, but missionaries recognized that a public
within each, and to saturate the entire program with useful forms of manual training.3
Booker T. Washington studied at Hampton from 1872 to 1875, later became General Armstrong’s secretary and went on to
Over the 30 years after 1870, the politics of Reconstruction, White resistance to Black equality, coercion and violence, undercut the full implementation of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments common school program would be necessary as part of any habilitation effort. They lobbied the Union generals to establish a public education program.
Freedmen’s Bureau In 1865, just before the end of the Civil War, Congress established the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, known as the Freedmen’s Bureau. Operating until 1872, some of the Bureau’s more important accomplishments concerned education. First, General Grant appointed his chaplain to build a large school system in the South. Working in cooperation with missionaries who initially intended to teach the newly freed Blacks to read the Bible, the Freedmen’s Bureau eventually established some 3,000 schools that became the core of a public school system. The Freedmen’s Bureau contributed to the protection of Northern teachers who came to educate the former slaves in a South that, while defeated on the battlefield, was unrepentant. Initially, schools and teachers were safe where Union troops were nearby to protect them. Second, the Freedmen’s Bureau sent General S.C. Armstrong to administer the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute of Virginia. The Institute under his leadership developed strong “industrial” programs based on his principles: He wanted to make the Negroes of service to themselves and Whites, to dignify human labor . . . to develop a sense of responsibility
found Tuskegee Institute, based upon Armstrong’s principles. Washington became famous himself; vocational training became one of the strong pillars of education for Blacks. Third, the missionaries, recognizing that the supply of Northern teachers was insufficient, helped create several institutions of higher education and normal schools to train teachers. Under the influence of General Oliver O. Howard, the Freedmen’s Bureau established a university named for him, open to all races and both men and women, for professional and collegiate studies at a high level. Howard University opened in 1867 with a normal and preparatory department; its first four students were the White daughters of the trustees. It was Howard University that later produced the legal team of dedicated, well trained Black lawyers who argued before the Supreme Court in the 1954 landmark case that ended de jure school segregation, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas.
Reconstruction In the Reconstruction era following the Civil War, from 1865 to 1873, each formerly Confederate state was required to write a new constitution to be readmitted to the Union. Education was an important issue for the constitutional conventions. Newly franchised Black participants were among those who suc3
cessfully pressed for the inclusion of constitutional articles in support of public education. In general, the constitutional provisions called for free public schools open to all children. More controversial requirements for compulsory attendance and for mixed Black and White schools failed to gain approval. Subsequently, although every Southern state legislature passed a law establishing a free public education system, in conformity with their own constitutions, the details were vague. By 1870, white Southerners had developed a consensus concerning the Negro’s status among them . . .. They permitted the education of the Negro, but they rejected the idea that this should be done at public expense. Not all Southerners accepted the idea of public education for Whites, but those who did accept it continued to oppose the mixed school policy that had been adopted by some states.4
Separate and Unequal Attendance at public schools varied by state. By 1871, perhaps 10% of all the children in some Southern states were in school. In Arkansas, the best performing Southern state, about 63% of White children and 50% of Black children were attending public schools. After 1870, and accelerating after 1890, hostile Southerners pressured Black parents whose children attended school: threatening their jobs, evicting them from their homes, using tactics of harassment and violence. Mobs occasionally attacked schools and even set some on fire. Over the 30 years after 1870, the politics of Reconstruction, White resistance to Black equality, coercion and violence, undercut the full implementation of rights guaranteed by the post-Civil War 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the federal Constitution. Civil rights legislation at the federal level was neutered by the U.S. Supreme Court. Other legal and extralegal steps nullified the Black man’s right to vote, eliminating his power to
4
BULLOCK, at 32. 449
Id. at 52.
the community influence public policy at the ballot box. State and local courts in the South and elsewhere in the country made decisions leading up to the 1895 Plessy v Ferguson decision. Plessy
balance of power between political parties. Suits brought in state courts to enforce the antisegregation laws were often successful. However, in practice the nonsegregation provisions were often
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Racially segregated schools operated under severely unequal conditions until 1954 when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down segregated schools nationwide upheld the concept of “separate but equal” in public accommodations that resulted in rigidly segregated schools. By the end of the 19th century, whereas the Southern states had established a system of free public schools for all their children, almost all were segregated by race, a system sanctioned by laws and court decisions. Black schools had difficulty recruiting teachers. In some places, White teachers working in Black schools were harassed. The demand for teachers encouraged the development of segregated normal schools to train Black teachers who, with rare exceptions, were allowed to work only in the Black community. Although segregated schools started in the South, they spread to Northern states as well. Even after the 1830s when the free common public school movement triumphed in most Northern states, in most places Blacks were categorically prohibited from attending them, or they attended all-Black schools. There were some exceptions; in communities with small Black populations, the children could attend nonsegregated schools. However, the great majority of Northern Black children received their education in racially segregated schools. By the 1870s, Northern states had provisions either in their state constitutions or in state legislation that barred segregated schools. The state legislation reflected the political power of Blacks enfranchised after the civil war, especially when the Black vote held the
ignored, especially after the great migrations of Southern Blacks to Northern cities. Separate schools for Blacks and Whites were usually unequal in quality in both the North and South. Black schools were frequently overcrowded, poorly built, and minimally equipped. Black school students were given secondhand textbooks discarded by White schools. Racially segregated schools operated under severely unequal conditions until the middle of the 20th century when the U.S. Supreme Court in Brown v Board of Education (1954) struck down segregated schools nationwide.
Quality of Education In some segments of society, there had long been resistance to any education for Blacks. To a large extent, education for Blacks was to be industrial, not academic, to fit Blacks for the positions open to them. There was a long running debate between Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Dubois about what the thrust of Black education should be. Dubois argued for educating “the talented tenth” in classic studies. In practice, most of the education programs were designed to help Blacks perform better in the low paying jobs they already had, not to advance them socially and occupationally. The very institution, the common school, which had been intended to integrate the freed men and women into the larger society, served to lock them into what was essentially a lower caste. 450
By the end of the 19th century, the inequalities of the dual school systems were glaring. The discrepancies were so large that the NAACP litigation program undertaken from the 1930s on was quite successful in suits arguing that under the Plessy v Ferguson doctrine of “separate but equal,” Black and White schools were drastically unequal in all aspects. Despite the inequalities in facilities and programs, not all Black parents wanted their children to go to White schools. Many complained that some White teachers insulted their children or treated them as unteachable. Moreover, prior to the 1954 Brown v. Board decision, Black teachers were not permitted to teach in White schools. Black parents and teachers were rightly concerned that Black teachers would lose their jobs if schools were integrated. These conditions for children and for teachers persisted until the Brown decision was extended to Northern schools that had engaged in practices resulting in racially separated schools. Despite the obstacles, some notable Black institutions and schools were created during the period before 1900. Dunbar High School in Washington, DC, was first opened in 1870 as a segregated school. For the next 85 years, it was a prime academic high school with an outstanding record of graduating students who succeeded in college, including elite Northern schools. Many Dunbar graduates had remarkable careers. Several factors contributed to Dunbar’s success. Students were self-selected, attracted by Dunbar’s reputation, and supported by their parents. Many of the parents held federal jobs that were at least steady, even if at lower levels of occupational status. The school, named for the black poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, had an outstanding faculty that expected outstanding work from the students in a curriculum that included the study of Greek and Latin, history, and mathematics. Federal law in the District of Columbia required equal pay for all teachers without regard to race or sex. Black professionals had limited opportunities in those days;
the community teaching in an academic high school was a desirable position. Many held advanced degrees from first-rate colleges. Dunbar’s educational program was rigorous and effective over an 85-yr period.
passage” that was to change drastically a highly segregated society. This brief retelling of events in the post-Reconstruction era understates the violence and the comprehensiveness of
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In the days before the rules for class action suits evolved, school officials might admit the successful plaintiff to a White school, but maintain segregation for all others The Dunbar example is not an argument for segregated schools. Congress, unsympathetic to the cause of Black education, controlled the school budget in the District and frequently neglected the needs of the Black schools. Dunbar, like the other segregated schools, was always understaffed, overcrowded, with inadequate physical facilities often in poor repair. Even under these conditions, this fine school was powered by the Black community’s will for education.
Black Colleges The first Morrill Act in 1862 established land grant universities in the Union states. The second Morrill Act in 1890 established what are now called historically Black colleges and universities in the Southern states. Colleges established under this Act had to be either integrated racially, or the funds had to be set aside for all-Black institutions of higher education. When Southern political leaders rejected racially integrated colleges, the money was used in accordance with the law. Black leaders, determined that education was the primary path to social equality, helped to establish these all-Black institutions. Resources for these schools, even when supplemented by philanthropic gifts, were not fully adequate. Critics questioned the educational quality of some of these institutions, but historically Black schools did produce many Black leaders in government and the professions. It was the availability of education that was critical, part of the “hidden
the racial caste system that characterized the South. Major breaks in the caste system came through the successful legal battle to abolish segregated schools. Further definitive blows came with civil rights legislation of the early 1960s that put federal muscle behind the enforcement of Black voting rights and the right to be treated equally in public accommodations.
Black Education in the North Education in the North was affected when the harshness of the caste system prompted “great migrations” of many Blacks from the South to Northern cities. Black migration North increased substantially after legislation and anti-Black sentiment in the South had resulted in increasingly stringent racial restrictions backed by social and economic coercion and violence. Between 1890 and 1910, 2.5% of the Southern Black population went North. In several of the largest cities, the Black population doubled in a relatively short time. A second period of migration occurred in the 1940s in response to both the availability of well-paying jobs in war industries and changes in the agricultural economy of the South. Paradoxically, these moves to seek employment and better lives led to Jim Crow practices affecting education throughout the North. Before the 1900s, when a relatively few Blacks had been more or less tolerated in the Northern cities, Blacks were not yet living in ghettos. The influxes of large numbers of illiterate, poor, rural Blacks aroused strong prejudices in 451
the White populations. Just as racial oppression intensified in the South, partly as a reaction to severe Reconstruction measures, so the first decades of the 20th century were marked by open racial hostilities in the North. Racial covenants in real estate deeds barred Blacks from buying or renting property in certain neighborhoods, thus restricting them to residential ghettos. Because school attendance districts coincided with neighborhoods, schools were also segregated. Facilities in Black schools were most often inferior to those in White schools. Lawsuits based on claims of violations of state antisegregation statutes or state constitutional provisions were often successful. However, court orders were easily evaded or even ignored and had little actual effect on segregated schools. In the days before the rules for class action suits evolved, school officials might admit the successful plaintiff to a White school, but maintain segregation for all others. In 1948, the U. S. Supreme Court5 held that racial covenants could not be enforced in the courts, effectively nullifying them. By 1954, almost all Northern states had removed explicit language from legislation mandating separate schools by race. Despite legal changes, many Northern states and localities within them maintained racial segregation by gerrymandering school districts making schools primarily White or Black, or by using administrative tactics to evade school desegregation. Residential segregation aided by real estate practices, manipulation of mortgage availability, White flight to the suburbs, and threats of violence played roles in establishing and maintaining segregated neighborhoods and thus largely segregated schools.
Unequal Funding Black schools, both North and South, typically continued to have lower funding, overcrowded conditions, and inad-
5
Shelley v. Kraemer, No. 334, U.S. 1 (1948).
the community
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equate facilities compared to White counterparts. In the post-Civil War South, Northern religious leaders and philanthropists continued or increased their antebellum financial
state legislatures to this day have not provided all the funds necessary to equalize schools. This practice has always been unfair, considering the greater needs of poorer children.
Blacks, disenfranchised through coercion, violence, and legal disqualification, could not effectively respond at the ballot box, so the definition of ‘equal’ was left in the hands of White school officials support of private schools for Blacks. Some funds came as well from the Black community in the form of tuition payments and from its church organizations. Early on, the levels of public funding proposed for separate Black and White schools had not differed greatly. However, many people, especially the well-todo, objected to paying for the education of other people’s children. When the burden of taxation for education seemed too great, Southern states avoided tax increases by giving local school authorities the power to distribute school funds to Black and White schools. Blacks, effectively disenfranchised through coercion, violence, and legal disqualification, could not effectively respond at the ballot box, so the definition of “equal” was left in the hands of White school officials. Segregation by school districts in both the South and North promoted unequal funding. Public school funding is based on local real estate taxes and appropriations from state legislatures. Legislatures tend to be more responsive to their affluent constituencies and frequently underfund city schools. In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court held there is no federal constitutional right to education, and thus no financial liability for the federal government to support schools.6 Many lawsuits to equalize funding were brought under state constitutions which did promise to educate all their children. Even though many lawsuits were successful, 6 San Antonia School District v. Rodriguez, No. 411 U.S. 1 (1973).
Educational Progress and the Attainment Gap In this section, we will present quantitative evidence that a linear increase of educational attainment over time held for both Blacks and Whites. It is impressive that Blacks and Whites showed parallel progress, despite educational vicissitudes. An attainment gap between the two groups has remained from the time that education statistics were first recorded, which should give pause to seekers of quick solutions to the gap. On the assumption that you can’t learn if you don’t go to school, enrollment, length of school year, and attendance are crucial. The education census figures show that for each of these benchmarks, Blacks lagged behind Whites from the 1870s until the late 20th century, although the gaps were diminishing.
Enrollment In 1870 about 10% of Black children and 54% of White children were enrolled in school; by 1991, 93% of each race was enrolled.
Length of School Year The school year in 1870 averaged 132 days nationally. But in 1909 –10, in the 12 Southern states where 85% of Blacks then lived, the average school year for White children was 128 days; for Black children, 101 days. By 1928 –1929, the school year for White children was 164 days; for Black children, 144 days. By 452
Questions for Self-Assessment
1. In what ways did the education of free Blacks in the early 1800s create a backlash against education of slaves? 2. Identify factors that contributed to the success of Dunbar High School, a segregated school for Blacks that opened in Washington, DC in 1870. 3. As Blacks moved north in the early 1900s to escape racial restrictions in the South, what Jim Crow practices in the North served to thwart their efforts to seek better lives for themselves and their families? 4. What do the Levines propose as the most effective route to educational reform and why?
1980, the school year nationally was 178 days and is now 180 days or more for all.
Attendance Not only was the school year shorter for Black students in the South, but on average, they attended for a smaller percentage (76%) of the shorter school year than Whites attended (86%) for a longer school year. The Black attendance rates were correlated with the rate of tenant farming in the different states and with the amount of cotton produced in each county. [The] system of farm tenancy would shorten even more the limited time [of the school year] . . . made available to Negro children. . . . They constituted a large pool of unpaid family workers . . . they were frequently excused from school attendance through the influence of large landowners . . . It was ironic that the Negro child’s chance to learn became limited by an economy whose prosperity he helped to produce.7
Attainment Over 100 years and more, there has been a steady increase in the education 7
BULLOCK, at 177.
the community level of our population. The figures challenge the current mantra that our schools are “broken.”
Suggestions for Further Reading Bullock, H. A. (1967). A history of Negro education in the South, from 1619 to the present. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. A comprehensive and very readable study of its topic. Douglas, D. M. (2005). Jim Crow moves north. The battle over Northern school segregation, 1865–1954. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Well documented and readable on a topic few of us know about. Hanushek, E., & Lindseth, A. A. (2009). Schoolhouses, courthouses and statehouses. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Very good review of legal and empirical issues and litigation about equalization of school funding and an argument for performance-based funding. Kluger, R. (1975, 2004). Simple justice. The history of Brown v Board of Education and black America’s struggle for equality, New York, NY: Vintage Books. A marvelous book. If you have never read it, you should. The 2004 edition contains a new chapter reviewing the effects of Brown v Board on education and the culture in general. Levine, M. (1976). The academic achievement test. Its historical context and social functions. American Psychologist, 31, 228 –238. Political and social issues surrounding the creation of the achievement test and its limitations. Rothstein, R. (2004). Class and schools. Using social, economic, and educational reform to close the black–white achievement gap. Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute. An excellent review of factors related to the achievement gap. Snyder, T. D., & Dillow, S. A. (2013). Digest of Education Statistics, 2012 (NCES 2014 – 015). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2014/2014015.pdf 850 pages or so of detailed statistical tables on just about any subject you can think of. Sowell, T. (2005). Black rednecks and White liberals. San Francisco, CA: Encounter Books. Essays by a distinguished conservative economist and social thinker on the history of the Black underclass culture and its persistence through centuries. Good also on Dunbar High School.
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Illiteracy In 1870, 80% of the Black population was illiterate, as were 11.5% of Whites. With more access to education, illiteracy declined for all groups. By 1940, Black illiteracy was 11.5%, and White illiteracy had declined to under 2%. By 1979, illiteracy for both races was below 2%.
High School Enrollment Nowadays we take for granted that everyone goes to high school. We both remember the pictures our parents proudly displayed in the 1930s of relatives who had managed to attend, or even more, to graduate from high school. In 1870, fewer than 5% of all Americans ages 14 to 17 were enrolled in high school. That percent grew to about 15% by 1910 and then increased sharply each decade thereafter, until it reached its present level of about 90%. White high school enrollment almost doubled between 1955 and 2012, from 7.04 million to 12.6 million. In that post-Brown era, Black enrollment almost tripled in the same years, going
from 926,000 to 2.27 million. The enrollment gap may be maintained by a differential dropout rate; in any given year, about 8% of Blacks, but under 3% of Whites, drop out of high schools.
Table 1. Educational Attainment of U.S. Population 25–29 Years of Age, for Selected Years, by Black and White Race, in Percentages
Years % of 1920 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2009 2012
High school completion⫹
Under 5 years elem.
Bachelor’s ⫹
Bl
W
Bl
W
Bl
W
44.6 27.0 16.1 7.2 2.2 0.6 1.0 — 0.3 —
12.9 3.4 3.3 2.2 0.9 0.3 0.3 0.1 0.1 —
6.3 12.3 23.6 38.6 58.4 76.7 81.7 86.8 88.9 88.5
22.0 41.2 56.3 63.7 77.8 89.2 90.1 94.0 94.6 94.6
1.2 1.6 2.8 5.4 10.0 11.6 13.4 17.8 18.9 23.2
4.5ⴱ 6.4ⴱ 8.2ⴱ 11.8ⴱ 17.3ⴱ 25.0ⴱ 26.4ⴱ 34.0ⴱ 37.0ⴱ 39.8ⴱⴱ
ⴱ
Based on Snyder & Dillow. (2010). Digest of Education Statistics 2009. National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education. Table 8, pp. 24 –25. ⴱⴱ Based on Snyder & Dillow. (2013). Digest of Education Statistics 2012. National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education. Table 9, pp. 30 –31. 453
Educational Attainment for Ages 25–29 Table 1 refers to the population ages 25–29; the same trends are clear in other age groupings. We see there has been a steady increase in educational attainment for both races from 1920 to 2012, the dates for which we have data. The changes in educational attainment are basically linear for both races. Whereas there is still a gap between Black and White attainment, it has been much reduced over the years. In 1920, in the 25–29 age group, 3.5 times as many Whites as Blacks had completed high school; in 2012, only 1.1 times as many Whites as Blacks completed high school. The gap narrowed considerably. The gap in college completion in the 25–29 age group also narrowed. In 1920, 3.75 times as many Whites as Blacks had completed college. By 2012, that ratio was 1.72, half of what it had been about 100 years earlier.
the community
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The changes came slowly. On average, the percent change from decade to decade for Blacks is 6.4% for high school graduation and 2.4% for college graduation. The percent change for Whites from decade to decade is 7.1% for high school and 4.4% for college graduation. The average change per year for either race is less than 1%, perhaps not even detectable when examined in the short run.
Conclusion During the 100 years or more for which we have data on education, there were many changes in our society: wars and their aftermaths, prosperity, economic depressions, education laws, compulsory school attendance enforcement, child labor laws, and many court decisions. Despite the variety of social changes and the history of denial of education for Blacks, the tradition of respect for education continues among Blacks as shown by credible data. Their educational progress in the United States has been steady and upward, as it has been for Whites. An attainment gap remains, but it has narrowed dramatically over time. This gap has deep origins. That is no excuse for not trying to improve, but those who proclaim that schools are at fault, because quick fixes fail to close the Black/White gap rapidly, are short-sighted. Those who impose drastic, untested remedies, making education a competition for high test scores, are on the wrong side of history and culture. One important reason for persisting in school is the occupational and financial advantage associated with more education. In the past, the payoff for persisting was less apparent for Blacks.
The types of jobs available to Blacks even in the 20th century were severely limited. Blacks were more vulnerable to unemployment and received lower pay. The situation improved after the civil rights legislation of the 1960s barring discrimination on the basis of race in employment. The culture changed to provide more models of success for Blacks in every aspect of American society. Black unemployment rates, however, have persisted at more than double the rates for Whites. Even as recently as January 2014, when the White unemployment rate was 5.7%, the Black unemployment rate was 12.1%. In January, 2014, the White teen unemployment rate was 17.5%, while the Black teen unemployment rate was 38%. These facts are behind the images, role models, and resources available to many Black youth as they attend school now. Unemployment is only part of the picture. The relationship between socioeconomic status and educational attainment has always been strong. Today that relationship is stronger even than race. Income inequality has grown considerably in the last five decades. In 1970, the top earning 10% of families had incomes 5 times as great as the lowest 10%. Today that difference is 11 times. The resources available to high-income families, when it comes to their children’s education, is surging compared to lowincome families. There has been a slowdown in recent years in the narrowing of the attainment gap between Black and White children. If we do not find ways to reduce the growing inequality in education outcomes, we are in danger of bequeathing our children a society in
which the American Dream—the promise that one can rise, through education and hard work, to any position in society—is no longer a reality. Our schools cannot be expected to solve this problem on their own, but they must be part of the solution.8
In our view, the most effective route to educational reform is a program designed to reduce unemployment. Parents can support their children’s educations when their own stake in the economy is secure, and children can respond to their parent’s exhortations to do well in school when they know that employment opportunity is in sight. The Dunbar school’s success is a case in point. A factor supporting achievement was the steadiness of federal employment. When families, friends, and neighbors are working, they provide the role models to support attending school. We can only hope for both Blacks and Whites that the shortsighted government policy of shifting payment for higher education from government to middle class parents and saddling students with large debts will not be a further impediment to growth in postsecondary education. In sum, despite critics’ shrill cries, our public education system is not “broken”— or at least not yet. In the long haul, it has served us well and has been the envy of much of the world. If the current reformers prevail, however, it will be broken beyond repair. And that would be a disaster for those who most need it.
8 S. F. REARDON, The widening income achievement gap, EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP (July 10, 2014), http://www.ascd.org/publications/ educational-leadership/may13/vol70/num08/ TheWidening-Income-Achievement-Gap.aspx
Keywords: Black education history; inequality; segregation; illiteracy; school attendance; high school graduation; college graduation
454
Reflections from the Ninth Decade
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Coming From Behind: A Historical Perspective on Black Education and Attainment Murray Levine and Adeline G. Levine State University of New York at Buffalo
S
ince the establishment of taxpayer-funded schools, the United States public education system has been under attack, subject to criticism and prone to adopting various fads for its improvement. In recent decades, the criticism has heightened, with semihysterical articles in scholarly and popular outlets, newspaper editorials, and other media, all in agreement that the system is “’broken.” The implementation of the idea that the broken system must be fixed overnight by wonder-working educational messiahs, each of whom has THE answer, has cost the taxpayers countless dollars. In fact, the clamor is occasioned by that portion of the public education system which serves the poorest neighborhoods, particularly those in the poorest urban areas. Urbanites in nonpoverty neighborhoods have been quite satisfied with their schools, as have suburbanites served by well-financed public schools. In recent years, the benchmark for schools’ performances has been comparisons of the educational achievement test scores of White and Black students. The picture invariably shows a “gap” between White and Black achievement.
In our current reliance on “hard data,” achievement test scores are used incorrectly and without warrant as the ultimate mark of educational progress. While it is true that a gap continues to exist, educational history shows that, overall, both Black and White students have participated steadily in increasing numbers in the educational system, whether the measure is the number of students attending school, the increasing length of the school years, literacy rates, or in the actual level of educational attainment over a period of more than 100 years. The data examined in historical perspective show that the American education system, through thick and thin, has served its students well. Those data also show that change comes slowly, in increments of just a few percent a decade. Expectations of rapid change are totally unreasonable when viewed against the historical data. In addition, the historical data show that the Black population has made progress more rapidly over time than the White population. As a result of more rapid progress, although there is still a gap between
White and Black, the gap has narrowed considerably. We suggest the gap reflects history and culture. The small increments per decade argue that cultures change slowly and persist over time. We will discuss the history of Black education to suggest some reasons for the gap. The history will help us assess today’s achievement gap and help us to understand how far our public education system has brought us.
Education of Black Children in the South We begin with the South where some 85% of the Black population lived during most of the years we discuss. From colonial times, there were two major classes of Blacks in this country: slaves and free Blacks.
Under Slavery During the period from the introduction of slavery into the colonies in the early 17th century until the end of the Civil War, it was for the most part illegal to educate slaves. However, a very
Murray Levine, Department of Psychology, State University of New York at Buffalo; Adeline G. Levine, Department of Sociology, State University of New York at Buffalo. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Murray Levine or Adeline G. Levine, 18 Street Andrew’s Walk, Buffalo, NY 14222. E-mail: [email protected] or [email protected] American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 2014, Vol. 84, No. 5, 447– 454
© 2014 American Orthopsychiatric Association http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0099861
the community small number of slaves were singled out for some education to further the interests of the self-sustaining plantation. Education prepared those select few to undertake skilled operations, to be arti-
lowed by owners to sell their skills could save the pittance the owners permitted them to keep until they had enough to buy freedom for themselves and often for their families. Some slave
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Free Blacks were not free in the sense that we think of freedom today–full citizens, who can come and go, reside and work under rules that apply to everyone sans, to engage in construction, to build and operate machines, and to perform some management tasks involving reading, writing, and arithmetic. Some slaves were hired out as skilled laborers, with the owners pocketing the major portion of their slim wages. As property, these educated slaves were of higher value in the marketplace for their owners. Some owners believed it was important for slaves to have enough literacy to read the Bible in order to help establish Christianity among slaves. Some plantation owners established Bible schools not only out of religious conviction, but because they believed that religious slaves were more obedient. Overall, there was no formal schooling for slave children. Some learned when they played “school” with their master’s children. An occasional slave child would teach him or herself to read. Occasionally, adventurous daughters or wives of slave owners taught slave children surreptitiously. While these practices existed, the vast majority of field hands and their children were illiterate. However, the better treatment enjoyed by educated Blacks may have added to a yearning for education within the slave population.
Free Blacks There had always been free Black people in this country. Some had been indentured servants, as were Whites, who worked for years to pay off their passage to the colonies, their food, and shelter. The small number of slaves al-
owners, based on conscience, freed some of their slaves, a cumbersome process called manumission. By the 19th century, these practices had resulted in the growth of a free Black population ”from 32,523 or 4.7% of the Negro population in the South in 1790 to 258,346 or 6.3% in 1860.”1 The free Black population had also increased naturally as a result of births. Children born in freedom were free. However, “free” Blacks were not free in the sense that we think of freedom today—full citizens, who can come and go, reside and work under rules that apply to everyone. They were hemmed in by antebellum “black codes” dictating every aspect of their lives. In some Southern states, Blacks, once freed, were required to leave the state within a few months, lest they encourage the still enslaved to have notions of freedom. The national’s capital, Washington, DC, considered the least restrictive place for Blacks, and thus a destination, clamped down following the steady growth in the population of free Blacks from 783 in 1800 to 11,131 in 1860. “ . . . the municipality in 1827 . . . placed larger restrictions upon colored people— heavier fines for disturbing the peace, a stricter curfew, and for every free Negro family the cost of a [required] peace bond increased from the former $20 to $500 and signed by two White men.” A few years later, “the
1
H. A. BULLOCK, A HISTORY OF NEGRO EDUSOUTH, FROM 1619 TO PRESENT (1967), at 13. CATION IN THE
448
municipality also increased the bond required of every Negro family to $1,000 with five White freeholders as surety.”2 (At the time, day laborers earned 50 cents to $1 for a 10-hr day’s work.] Activities of educated free Blacks affected White attitudes toward Black education. When some free Blacks wrote antislavery tracts, many slave owners feared rebellious sentiments among their slaves. Some free Blacks’ writings about their slavery experiences provided fodder for the much hated abolitionists. These intellectual activities demonstrated that, contrary to the conventional prejudice of the time, Blacks could learn, but these events also created a backlash against education for slaves, even basic literacy. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, most education for free Blacks was dependent on private, not public, financial support. Some schools were established by religious missionaries from the North, especially New England. Free Blacks also provided for their own children’s education within the limits of their resources by establishing private schools and paying tuition for their children.
Emancipation Proclamation During the Civil War, many slaves fled plantations and wandered the South in large bands. Following the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, massive numbers of newly freed slaves migrated to cities and sought the protection of the Union armies. By 1865, for example, more than 20,000 slaves had reached Washington, DC. In addition to providing the bare necessities of food, clothing, and shelter on a temporary basis, long-term plans were needed for the masses of refugees who for a time were basically wards of the government. Understanding that former slaves had to be assisted to become self-sufficient,
2
CONSTANCE MCLAUGHLIN GREEN, THE SECITY: A HISTORY OF RACE RELATIONS IN THE NATION’S CAPITAL (1967), at 33, 37. CRET
the community
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and that education would be an important priority, the Union Army first looked to private philanthropy. These private efforts had some success, but missionaries recognized that a public
within each, and to saturate the entire program with useful forms of manual training.3
Booker T. Washington studied at Hampton from 1872 to 1875, later became General Armstrong’s secretary and went on to
Over the 30 years after 1870, the politics of Reconstruction, White resistance to Black equality, coercion and violence, undercut the full implementation of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments common school program would be necessary as part of any habilitation effort. They lobbied the Union generals to establish a public education program.
Freedmen’s Bureau In 1865, just before the end of the Civil War, Congress established the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, known as the Freedmen’s Bureau. Operating until 1872, some of the Bureau’s more important accomplishments concerned education. First, General Grant appointed his chaplain to build a large school system in the South. Working in cooperation with missionaries who initially intended to teach the newly freed Blacks to read the Bible, the Freedmen’s Bureau eventually established some 3,000 schools that became the core of a public school system. The Freedmen’s Bureau contributed to the protection of Northern teachers who came to educate the former slaves in a South that, while defeated on the battlefield, was unrepentant. Initially, schools and teachers were safe where Union troops were nearby to protect them. Second, the Freedmen’s Bureau sent General S.C. Armstrong to administer the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute of Virginia. The Institute under his leadership developed strong “industrial” programs based on his principles: He wanted to make the Negroes of service to themselves and Whites, to dignify human labor . . . to develop a sense of responsibility
found Tuskegee Institute, based upon Armstrong’s principles. Washington became famous himself; vocational training became one of the strong pillars of education for Blacks. Third, the missionaries, recognizing that the supply of Northern teachers was insufficient, helped create several institutions of higher education and normal schools to train teachers. Under the influence of General Oliver O. Howard, the Freedmen’s Bureau established a university named for him, open to all races and both men and women, for professional and collegiate studies at a high level. Howard University opened in 1867 with a normal and preparatory department; its first four students were the White daughters of the trustees. It was Howard University that later produced the legal team of dedicated, well trained Black lawyers who argued before the Supreme Court in the 1954 landmark case that ended de jure school segregation, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas.
Reconstruction In the Reconstruction era following the Civil War, from 1865 to 1873, each formerly Confederate state was required to write a new constitution to be readmitted to the Union. Education was an important issue for the constitutional conventions. Newly franchised Black participants were among those who suc3
cessfully pressed for the inclusion of constitutional articles in support of public education. In general, the constitutional provisions called for free public schools open to all children. More controversial requirements for compulsory attendance and for mixed Black and White schools failed to gain approval. Subsequently, although every Southern state legislature passed a law establishing a free public education system, in conformity with their own constitutions, the details were vague. By 1870, white Southerners had developed a consensus concerning the Negro’s status among them . . .. They permitted the education of the Negro, but they rejected the idea that this should be done at public expense. Not all Southerners accepted the idea of public education for Whites, but those who did accept it continued to oppose the mixed school policy that had been adopted by some states.4
Separate and Unequal Attendance at public schools varied by state. By 1871, perhaps 10% of all the children in some Southern states were in school. In Arkansas, the best performing Southern state, about 63% of White children and 50% of Black children were attending public schools. After 1870, and accelerating after 1890, hostile Southerners pressured Black parents whose children attended school: threatening their jobs, evicting them from their homes, using tactics of harassment and violence. Mobs occasionally attacked schools and even set some on fire. Over the 30 years after 1870, the politics of Reconstruction, White resistance to Black equality, coercion and violence, undercut the full implementation of rights guaranteed by the post-Civil War 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the federal Constitution. Civil rights legislation at the federal level was neutered by the U.S. Supreme Court. Other legal and extralegal steps nullified the Black man’s right to vote, eliminating his power to
4
BULLOCK, at 32. 449
Id. at 52.
the community influence public policy at the ballot box. State and local courts in the South and elsewhere in the country made decisions leading up to the 1895 Plessy v Ferguson decision. Plessy
balance of power between political parties. Suits brought in state courts to enforce the antisegregation laws were often successful. However, in practice the nonsegregation provisions were often
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Racially segregated schools operated under severely unequal conditions until 1954 when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down segregated schools nationwide upheld the concept of “separate but equal” in public accommodations that resulted in rigidly segregated schools. By the end of the 19th century, whereas the Southern states had established a system of free public schools for all their children, almost all were segregated by race, a system sanctioned by laws and court decisions. Black schools had difficulty recruiting teachers. In some places, White teachers working in Black schools were harassed. The demand for teachers encouraged the development of segregated normal schools to train Black teachers who, with rare exceptions, were allowed to work only in the Black community. Although segregated schools started in the South, they spread to Northern states as well. Even after the 1830s when the free common public school movement triumphed in most Northern states, in most places Blacks were categorically prohibited from attending them, or they attended all-Black schools. There were some exceptions; in communities with small Black populations, the children could attend nonsegregated schools. However, the great majority of Northern Black children received their education in racially segregated schools. By the 1870s, Northern states had provisions either in their state constitutions or in state legislation that barred segregated schools. The state legislation reflected the political power of Blacks enfranchised after the civil war, especially when the Black vote held the
ignored, especially after the great migrations of Southern Blacks to Northern cities. Separate schools for Blacks and Whites were usually unequal in quality in both the North and South. Black schools were frequently overcrowded, poorly built, and minimally equipped. Black school students were given secondhand textbooks discarded by White schools. Racially segregated schools operated under severely unequal conditions until the middle of the 20th century when the U.S. Supreme Court in Brown v Board of Education (1954) struck down segregated schools nationwide.
Quality of Education In some segments of society, there had long been resistance to any education for Blacks. To a large extent, education for Blacks was to be industrial, not academic, to fit Blacks for the positions open to them. There was a long running debate between Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Dubois about what the thrust of Black education should be. Dubois argued for educating “the talented tenth” in classic studies. In practice, most of the education programs were designed to help Blacks perform better in the low paying jobs they already had, not to advance them socially and occupationally. The very institution, the common school, which had been intended to integrate the freed men and women into the larger society, served to lock them into what was essentially a lower caste. 450
By the end of the 19th century, the inequalities of the dual school systems were glaring. The discrepancies were so large that the NAACP litigation program undertaken from the 1930s on was quite successful in suits arguing that under the Plessy v Ferguson doctrine of “separate but equal,” Black and White schools were drastically unequal in all aspects. Despite the inequalities in facilities and programs, not all Black parents wanted their children to go to White schools. Many complained that some White teachers insulted their children or treated them as unteachable. Moreover, prior to the 1954 Brown v. Board decision, Black teachers were not permitted to teach in White schools. Black parents and teachers were rightly concerned that Black teachers would lose their jobs if schools were integrated. These conditions for children and for teachers persisted until the Brown decision was extended to Northern schools that had engaged in practices resulting in racially separated schools. Despite the obstacles, some notable Black institutions and schools were created during the period before 1900. Dunbar High School in Washington, DC, was first opened in 1870 as a segregated school. For the next 85 years, it was a prime academic high school with an outstanding record of graduating students who succeeded in college, including elite Northern schools. Many Dunbar graduates had remarkable careers. Several factors contributed to Dunbar’s success. Students were self-selected, attracted by Dunbar’s reputation, and supported by their parents. Many of the parents held federal jobs that were at least steady, even if at lower levels of occupational status. The school, named for the black poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, had an outstanding faculty that expected outstanding work from the students in a curriculum that included the study of Greek and Latin, history, and mathematics. Federal law in the District of Columbia required equal pay for all teachers without regard to race or sex. Black professionals had limited opportunities in those days;
the community teaching in an academic high school was a desirable position. Many held advanced degrees from first-rate colleges. Dunbar’s educational program was rigorous and effective over an 85-yr period.
passage” that was to change drastically a highly segregated society. This brief retelling of events in the post-Reconstruction era understates the violence and the comprehensiveness of
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In the days before the rules for class action suits evolved, school officials might admit the successful plaintiff to a White school, but maintain segregation for all others The Dunbar example is not an argument for segregated schools. Congress, unsympathetic to the cause of Black education, controlled the school budget in the District and frequently neglected the needs of the Black schools. Dunbar, like the other segregated schools, was always understaffed, overcrowded, with inadequate physical facilities often in poor repair. Even under these conditions, this fine school was powered by the Black community’s will for education.
Black Colleges The first Morrill Act in 1862 established land grant universities in the Union states. The second Morrill Act in 1890 established what are now called historically Black colleges and universities in the Southern states. Colleges established under this Act had to be either integrated racially, or the funds had to be set aside for all-Black institutions of higher education. When Southern political leaders rejected racially integrated colleges, the money was used in accordance with the law. Black leaders, determined that education was the primary path to social equality, helped to establish these all-Black institutions. Resources for these schools, even when supplemented by philanthropic gifts, were not fully adequate. Critics questioned the educational quality of some of these institutions, but historically Black schools did produce many Black leaders in government and the professions. It was the availability of education that was critical, part of the “hidden
the racial caste system that characterized the South. Major breaks in the caste system came through the successful legal battle to abolish segregated schools. Further definitive blows came with civil rights legislation of the early 1960s that put federal muscle behind the enforcement of Black voting rights and the right to be treated equally in public accommodations.
Black Education in the North Education in the North was affected when the harshness of the caste system prompted “great migrations” of many Blacks from the South to Northern cities. Black migration North increased substantially after legislation and anti-Black sentiment in the South had resulted in increasingly stringent racial restrictions backed by social and economic coercion and violence. Between 1890 and 1910, 2.5% of the Southern Black population went North. In several of the largest cities, the Black population doubled in a relatively short time. A second period of migration occurred in the 1940s in response to both the availability of well-paying jobs in war industries and changes in the agricultural economy of the South. Paradoxically, these moves to seek employment and better lives led to Jim Crow practices affecting education throughout the North. Before the 1900s, when a relatively few Blacks had been more or less tolerated in the Northern cities, Blacks were not yet living in ghettos. The influxes of large numbers of illiterate, poor, rural Blacks aroused strong prejudices in 451
the White populations. Just as racial oppression intensified in the South, partly as a reaction to severe Reconstruction measures, so the first decades of the 20th century were marked by open racial hostilities in the North. Racial covenants in real estate deeds barred Blacks from buying or renting property in certain neighborhoods, thus restricting them to residential ghettos. Because school attendance districts coincided with neighborhoods, schools were also segregated. Facilities in Black schools were most often inferior to those in White schools. Lawsuits based on claims of violations of state antisegregation statutes or state constitutional provisions were often successful. However, court orders were easily evaded or even ignored and had little actual effect on segregated schools. In the days before the rules for class action suits evolved, school officials might admit the successful plaintiff to a White school, but maintain segregation for all others. In 1948, the U. S. Supreme Court5 held that racial covenants could not be enforced in the courts, effectively nullifying them. By 1954, almost all Northern states had removed explicit language from legislation mandating separate schools by race. Despite legal changes, many Northern states and localities within them maintained racial segregation by gerrymandering school districts making schools primarily White or Black, or by using administrative tactics to evade school desegregation. Residential segregation aided by real estate practices, manipulation of mortgage availability, White flight to the suburbs, and threats of violence played roles in establishing and maintaining segregated neighborhoods and thus largely segregated schools.
Unequal Funding Black schools, both North and South, typically continued to have lower funding, overcrowded conditions, and inad-
5
Shelley v. Kraemer, No. 334, U.S. 1 (1948).
the community
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equate facilities compared to White counterparts. In the post-Civil War South, Northern religious leaders and philanthropists continued or increased their antebellum financial
state legislatures to this day have not provided all the funds necessary to equalize schools. This practice has always been unfair, considering the greater needs of poorer children.
Blacks, disenfranchised through coercion, violence, and legal disqualification, could not effectively respond at the ballot box, so the definition of ‘equal’ was left in the hands of White school officials support of private schools for Blacks. Some funds came as well from the Black community in the form of tuition payments and from its church organizations. Early on, the levels of public funding proposed for separate Black and White schools had not differed greatly. However, many people, especially the well-todo, objected to paying for the education of other people’s children. When the burden of taxation for education seemed too great, Southern states avoided tax increases by giving local school authorities the power to distribute school funds to Black and White schools. Blacks, effectively disenfranchised through coercion, violence, and legal disqualification, could not effectively respond at the ballot box, so the definition of “equal” was left in the hands of White school officials. Segregation by school districts in both the South and North promoted unequal funding. Public school funding is based on local real estate taxes and appropriations from state legislatures. Legislatures tend to be more responsive to their affluent constituencies and frequently underfund city schools. In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court held there is no federal constitutional right to education, and thus no financial liability for the federal government to support schools.6 Many lawsuits to equalize funding were brought under state constitutions which did promise to educate all their children. Even though many lawsuits were successful, 6 San Antonia School District v. Rodriguez, No. 411 U.S. 1 (1973).
Educational Progress and the Attainment Gap In this section, we will present quantitative evidence that a linear increase of educational attainment over time held for both Blacks and Whites. It is impressive that Blacks and Whites showed parallel progress, despite educational vicissitudes. An attainment gap between the two groups has remained from the time that education statistics were first recorded, which should give pause to seekers of quick solutions to the gap. On the assumption that you can’t learn if you don’t go to school, enrollment, length of school year, and attendance are crucial. The education census figures show that for each of these benchmarks, Blacks lagged behind Whites from the 1870s until the late 20th century, although the gaps were diminishing.
Enrollment In 1870 about 10% of Black children and 54% of White children were enrolled in school; by 1991, 93% of each race was enrolled.
Length of School Year The school year in 1870 averaged 132 days nationally. But in 1909 –10, in the 12 Southern states where 85% of Blacks then lived, the average school year for White children was 128 days; for Black children, 101 days. By 1928 –1929, the school year for White children was 164 days; for Black children, 144 days. By 452
Questions for Self-Assessment
1. In what ways did the education of free Blacks in the early 1800s create a backlash against education of slaves? 2. Identify factors that contributed to the success of Dunbar High School, a segregated school for Blacks that opened in Washington, DC in 1870. 3. As Blacks moved north in the early 1900s to escape racial restrictions in the South, what Jim Crow practices in the North served to thwart their efforts to seek better lives for themselves and their families? 4. What do the Levines propose as the most effective route to educational reform and why?
1980, the school year nationally was 178 days and is now 180 days or more for all.
Attendance Not only was the school year shorter for Black students in the South, but on average, they attended for a smaller percentage (76%) of the shorter school year than Whites attended (86%) for a longer school year. The Black attendance rates were correlated with the rate of tenant farming in the different states and with the amount of cotton produced in each county. [The] system of farm tenancy would shorten even more the limited time [of the school year] . . . made available to Negro children. . . . They constituted a large pool of unpaid family workers . . . they were frequently excused from school attendance through the influence of large landowners . . . It was ironic that the Negro child’s chance to learn became limited by an economy whose prosperity he helped to produce.7
Attainment Over 100 years and more, there has been a steady increase in the education 7
BULLOCK, at 177.
the community level of our population. The figures challenge the current mantra that our schools are “broken.”
Suggestions for Further Reading Bullock, H. A. (1967). A history of Negro education in the South, from 1619 to the present. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. A comprehensive and very readable study of its topic. Douglas, D. M. (2005). Jim Crow moves north. The battle over Northern school segregation, 1865–1954. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Well documented and readable on a topic few of us know about. Hanushek, E., & Lindseth, A. A. (2009). Schoolhouses, courthouses and statehouses. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Very good review of legal and empirical issues and litigation about equalization of school funding and an argument for performance-based funding. Kluger, R. (1975, 2004). Simple justice. The history of Brown v Board of Education and black America’s struggle for equality, New York, NY: Vintage Books. A marvelous book. If you have never read it, you should. The 2004 edition contains a new chapter reviewing the effects of Brown v Board on education and the culture in general. Levine, M. (1976). The academic achievement test. Its historical context and social functions. American Psychologist, 31, 228 –238. Political and social issues surrounding the creation of the achievement test and its limitations. Rothstein, R. (2004). Class and schools. Using social, economic, and educational reform to close the black–white achievement gap. Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute. An excellent review of factors related to the achievement gap. Snyder, T. D., & Dillow, S. A. (2013). Digest of Education Statistics, 2012 (NCES 2014 – 015). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2014/2014015.pdf 850 pages or so of detailed statistical tables on just about any subject you can think of. Sowell, T. (2005). Black rednecks and White liberals. San Francisco, CA: Encounter Books. Essays by a distinguished conservative economist and social thinker on the history of the Black underclass culture and its persistence through centuries. Good also on Dunbar High School.
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Illiteracy In 1870, 80% of the Black population was illiterate, as were 11.5% of Whites. With more access to education, illiteracy declined for all groups. By 1940, Black illiteracy was 11.5%, and White illiteracy had declined to under 2%. By 1979, illiteracy for both races was below 2%.
High School Enrollment Nowadays we take for granted that everyone goes to high school. We both remember the pictures our parents proudly displayed in the 1930s of relatives who had managed to attend, or even more, to graduate from high school. In 1870, fewer than 5% of all Americans ages 14 to 17 were enrolled in high school. That percent grew to about 15% by 1910 and then increased sharply each decade thereafter, until it reached its present level of about 90%. White high school enrollment almost doubled between 1955 and 2012, from 7.04 million to 12.6 million. In that post-Brown era, Black enrollment almost tripled in the same years, going
from 926,000 to 2.27 million. The enrollment gap may be maintained by a differential dropout rate; in any given year, about 8% of Blacks, but under 3% of Whites, drop out of high schools.
Table 1. Educational Attainment of U.S. Population 25–29 Years of Age, for Selected Years, by Black and White Race, in Percentages
Years % of 1920 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2009 2012
High school completion⫹
Under 5 years elem.
Bachelor’s ⫹
Bl
W
Bl
W
Bl
W
44.6 27.0 16.1 7.2 2.2 0.6 1.0 — 0.3 —
12.9 3.4 3.3 2.2 0.9 0.3 0.3 0.1 0.1 —
6.3 12.3 23.6 38.6 58.4 76.7 81.7 86.8 88.9 88.5
22.0 41.2 56.3 63.7 77.8 89.2 90.1 94.0 94.6 94.6
1.2 1.6 2.8 5.4 10.0 11.6 13.4 17.8 18.9 23.2
4.5ⴱ 6.4ⴱ 8.2ⴱ 11.8ⴱ 17.3ⴱ 25.0ⴱ 26.4ⴱ 34.0ⴱ 37.0ⴱ 39.8ⴱⴱ
ⴱ
Based on Snyder & Dillow. (2010). Digest of Education Statistics 2009. National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education. Table 8, pp. 24 –25. ⴱⴱ Based on Snyder & Dillow. (2013). Digest of Education Statistics 2012. National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education. Table 9, pp. 30 –31. 453
Educational Attainment for Ages 25–29 Table 1 refers to the population ages 25–29; the same trends are clear in other age groupings. We see there has been a steady increase in educational attainment for both races from 1920 to 2012, the dates for which we have data. The changes in educational attainment are basically linear for both races. Whereas there is still a gap between Black and White attainment, it has been much reduced over the years. In 1920, in the 25–29 age group, 3.5 times as many Whites as Blacks had completed high school; in 2012, only 1.1 times as many Whites as Blacks completed high school. The gap narrowed considerably. The gap in college completion in the 25–29 age group also narrowed. In 1920, 3.75 times as many Whites as Blacks had completed college. By 2012, that ratio was 1.72, half of what it had been about 100 years earlier.
the community
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The changes came slowly. On average, the percent change from decade to decade for Blacks is 6.4% for high school graduation and 2.4% for college graduation. The percent change for Whites from decade to decade is 7.1% for high school and 4.4% for college graduation. The average change per year for either race is less than 1%, perhaps not even detectable when examined in the short run.
Conclusion During the 100 years or more for which we have data on education, there were many changes in our society: wars and their aftermaths, prosperity, economic depressions, education laws, compulsory school attendance enforcement, child labor laws, and many court decisions. Despite the variety of social changes and the history of denial of education for Blacks, the tradition of respect for education continues among Blacks as shown by credible data. Their educational progress in the United States has been steady and upward, as it has been for Whites. An attainment gap remains, but it has narrowed dramatically over time. This gap has deep origins. That is no excuse for not trying to improve, but those who proclaim that schools are at fault, because quick fixes fail to close the Black/White gap rapidly, are short-sighted. Those who impose drastic, untested remedies, making education a competition for high test scores, are on the wrong side of history and culture. One important reason for persisting in school is the occupational and financial advantage associated with more education. In the past, the payoff for persisting was less apparent for Blacks.
The types of jobs available to Blacks even in the 20th century were severely limited. Blacks were more vulnerable to unemployment and received lower pay. The situation improved after the civil rights legislation of the 1960s barring discrimination on the basis of race in employment. The culture changed to provide more models of success for Blacks in every aspect of American society. Black unemployment rates, however, have persisted at more than double the rates for Whites. Even as recently as January 2014, when the White unemployment rate was 5.7%, the Black unemployment rate was 12.1%. In January, 2014, the White teen unemployment rate was 17.5%, while the Black teen unemployment rate was 38%. These facts are behind the images, role models, and resources available to many Black youth as they attend school now. Unemployment is only part of the picture. The relationship between socioeconomic status and educational attainment has always been strong. Today that relationship is stronger even than race. Income inequality has grown considerably in the last five decades. In 1970, the top earning 10% of families had incomes 5 times as great as the lowest 10%. Today that difference is 11 times. The resources available to high-income families, when it comes to their children’s education, is surging compared to lowincome families. There has been a slowdown in recent years in the narrowing of the attainment gap between Black and White children. If we do not find ways to reduce the growing inequality in education outcomes, we are in danger of bequeathing our children a society in
which the American Dream—the promise that one can rise, through education and hard work, to any position in society—is no longer a reality. Our schools cannot be expected to solve this problem on their own, but they must be part of the solution.8
In our view, the most effective route to educational reform is a program designed to reduce unemployment. Parents can support their children’s educations when their own stake in the economy is secure, and children can respond to their parent’s exhortations to do well in school when they know that employment opportunity is in sight. The Dunbar school’s success is a case in point. A factor supporting achievement was the steadiness of federal employment. When families, friends, and neighbors are working, they provide the role models to support attending school. We can only hope for both Blacks and Whites that the shortsighted government policy of shifting payment for higher education from government to middle class parents and saddling students with large debts will not be a further impediment to growth in postsecondary education. In sum, despite critics’ shrill cries, our public education system is not “broken”— or at least not yet. In the long haul, it has served us well and has been the envy of much of the world. If the current reformers prevail, however, it will be broken beyond repair. And that would be a disaster for those who most need it.
8 S. F. REARDON, The widening income achievement gap, EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP (July 10, 2014), http://www.ascd.org/publications/ educational-leadership/may13/vol70/num08/ TheWidening-Income-Achievement-Gap.aspx
Keywords: Black education history; inequality; segregation; illiteracy; school attendance; high school graduation; college graduation
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