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The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935
James Anderson critically reinterprets the history of southern black education from Reconstruction to the Great Depression. By placing black schooling within a political, cultural, and economic context, he offers fresh insights into black commitment to education, the peculiar significance of Tuskegee Institute, and the conflicting goals of various philanthropic groups, among other matters.
Initially, ex-slaves attempted to create an educational system that would support and extend their emancipation, but their children were pushed into a system of industrial education that presupposed black political and economic subordination. This conception of education and social order--supported by northern industrial philanthropists, some black educators, and most southern school officials--conflicted with the aspirations of ex-slaves and their descendants, resulting at the turn of the century in a bitter national debate over the purposes of black education. Because blacks lacked economic and political power, white elites were able to control the structure and content of black elementary, secondary, normal, and college education during the first third of the twentieth century. Nonetheless, blacks persisted in their struggle to develop an educational system in accordance with their own needs and desires.
Initially, ex-slaves attempted to create an educational system that would support and extend their emancipation, but their children were pushed into a system of industrial education that presupposed black political and economic subordination. This conception of education and social order--supported by northern industrial philanthropists, some black educators, and most southern school officials--conflicted with the aspirations of ex-slaves and their descendants, resulting at the turn of the century in a bitter national debate over the purposes of black education. Because blacks lacked economic and political power, white elites were able to control the structure and content of black elementary, secondary, normal, and college education during the first third of the twentieth century. Nonetheless, blacks persisted in their struggle to develop an educational system in accordance with their own needs and desires.
384 pages, Paperback
First published November 30, 1986
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848 people want to read
About the author
James D. Anderson
44 books7 followersJames D. Anderson is dean of the College of Education, the Edward William and Jane Marr Gutgsell Professor of Education, and affiliate professor of History, African American Studies, and College of Law at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
His scholarship focuses broadly on the history of U.S. education, with a subfield on the history of African American education. His book, The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935, won the American Educational Research Association outstanding book award in 1990. Anderson was elected to the National Academy of Education in 2008.
In 2012, he was selected as a Fellow for Outstanding Research by the AERA and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. In 2013, he was selected a Center for Advanced Study Professor of Education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. From 2006 to 2016, Anderson served as senior editor of the History of Education Quarterly. He served as an adviser for and participant in the PBS documentaries School: The Story of American Public Education (2001), The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow (2002), Forgotten Genius: The Percy Julian Story (2007) and Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities (2018). In 2016, he was awarded AERA’s Palmer O. Johnson Award for best article. In 2019, he was awarded the IMPACT award from the Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center at the University of Illinois. The AERA awarded him a Presidential Citation in 2020, its highest award. Additionally, Anderson was sworn into the Board of Trustees at Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and inducted into the Stillman College Educator Hall of Fame—both in 2020
His scholarship focuses broadly on the history of U.S. education, with a subfield on the history of African American education. His book, The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935, won the American Educational Research Association outstanding book award in 1990. Anderson was elected to the National Academy of Education in 2008.
In 2012, he was selected as a Fellow for Outstanding Research by the AERA and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. In 2013, he was selected a Center for Advanced Study Professor of Education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. From 2006 to 2016, Anderson served as senior editor of the History of Education Quarterly. He served as an adviser for and participant in the PBS documentaries School: The Story of American Public Education (2001), The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow (2002), Forgotten Genius: The Percy Julian Story (2007) and Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities (2018). In 2016, he was awarded AERA’s Palmer O. Johnson Award for best article. In 2019, he was awarded the IMPACT award from the Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center at the University of Illinois. The AERA awarded him a Presidential Citation in 2020, its highest award. Additionally, Anderson was sworn into the Board of Trustees at Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and inducted into the Stillman College Educator Hall of Fame—both in 2020
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September 23, 2012Having endured a modern public education through a bachelor degree in a state university, I have never come across a poignant reflection of the racial strife existent in the postbellum south which this book clearly expresses through its examination of the education crusade undertaken by blacks in America. I was educated about Jim Crow laws and segregation and knew of the education reform movement of the forties and fifties, but without the knowledge of the experiences blacks played in forming an education system that responded to their desires as individuals and a community, knowledge of these other aspects of black American history is incomplete. This book should be read by all who can read its quality. This book should be interpreted and presented to students of all education levels so we can understand and fully appreciate what education really is. This book is not just about a racial caste society at odds with one another, it is about the enduring will to freedom and the belief that increasing our understanding of the world by educating ourselves will make tomorrow better.
February 21, 2016
Extremely readable. Consider the epilogue required reading if you can't finish for some reason. I do wish there had been room to talk about Howard University and the leading liberal arts private universities. But, this is important reading for any American educator.
This really had an impact on my understanding of Du Bois, Washington, and the debate around the Hampton-Tuskeegee model. It is interesting, but perhaps not surprising, that in my Texas elementary education, we learned (a little) about the Tuskeegee Institute. And nothing about any others.
This really had an impact on my understanding of Du Bois, Washington, and the debate around the Hampton-Tuskeegee model. It is interesting, but perhaps not surprising, that in my Texas elementary education, we learned (a little) about the Tuskeegee Institute. And nothing about any others.
July 21, 2019
Esse livro trata da evolução da educação da população negra americana do fim da Guerra Civil até a década de 1960. Grosso modo, é possível dividir o período estudado em dois subperíodos. O primeiro, entre o fim da guerra e a eleição de 1876, é marcado pela forte mobilização de ex-escravos que teve como objetivo garantir a seus filhos o direito à educação que já era gozado por grande parte da população branca depois do movimento das commom schools iniciado em 1830. O segundo período, entre fins da década de 1870 e 1960, é o período mais importante para criação do sistema educacional para a população negra americana e coincide com os anos de maior opressão e maior limitação de direitos civis dessa população.
É sobre esse último fato que todo o livro foi escrito. O autor tenta responder de que forma foi construído e quais as características de um sistema educacional criado para o benefício de pessoas que estavam alijadas de seus direitos civis mais básicos. No caminho, ele apresenta uma boa discussão sobre a tentativa de brancos controlarem o tipo de educação que era dado à população negra, a resistência negra a esse controle e, sobretudo, o papel desempenhado pelos próprios negros na construção de escolas para suas crianças.
A história é impressionante e acaba contando uma saga de heroísmo que, ao fim, tem um final feliz, apesar de todos os problemas enfrentados. A população negra americana, que já era mais educada que a população branca brasileira no início do século XX passa, já na década de 1940, ao nível de paridade com os brancos americanos em termos de acesso à escola. Em que pese o fato de que as diferenças na qualidade ainda permanecessem elevadas. A figura abaixo (tirado de outro documento) resume essa história:
Eu peguei esse livro para ter uma visão mais geral sobre a educação dos negros americanos. Estava mais interessado em estatísticas de matrículas, frequência e proficiência. Infelizmente, o livro, que tem uma pegada um pouco mais sociológica, oferece poucos dados a esse respeito.
Achei o livro bem organizado, mas creio que ajudaria se os capítulos fossem divididos em seções. Como um todo, senti um pouco falta de meta-texto no texto.
É sobre esse último fato que todo o livro foi escrito. O autor tenta responder de que forma foi construído e quais as características de um sistema educacional criado para o benefício de pessoas que estavam alijadas de seus direitos civis mais básicos. No caminho, ele apresenta uma boa discussão sobre a tentativa de brancos controlarem o tipo de educação que era dado à população negra, a resistência negra a esse controle e, sobretudo, o papel desempenhado pelos próprios negros na construção de escolas para suas crianças.
A história é impressionante e acaba contando uma saga de heroísmo que, ao fim, tem um final feliz, apesar de todos os problemas enfrentados. A população negra americana, que já era mais educada que a população branca brasileira no início do século XX passa, já na década de 1940, ao nível de paridade com os brancos americanos em termos de acesso à escola. Em que pese o fato de que as diferenças na qualidade ainda permanecessem elevadas. A figura abaixo (tirado de outro documento) resume essa história:
Eu peguei esse livro para ter uma visão mais geral sobre a educação dos negros americanos. Estava mais interessado em estatísticas de matrículas, frequência e proficiência. Infelizmente, o livro, que tem uma pegada um pouco mais sociológica, oferece poucos dados a esse respeito.
Achei o livro bem organizado, mas creio que ajudaria se os capítulos fossem divididos em seções. Como um todo, senti um pouco falta de meta-texto no texto.
February 13, 2018
A thorough and insistent analysis of white supremacy's attempts to prevent the education of Blacks in the American South, and the Black population's widespread resistance to and subversion of these efforts. Anderson's account of the insidious and pervasive nature of the Hampton-Tuskegee method, and white efforts to use education as a tool for the indoctrination of Black people, is highly readable and striking.
November 26, 2012
Lots of information but ridiculously boring to read!
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November 19, 2024Read for class
June 23, 2018
Class assignment EFR500. Good info, but very repetitive. Could be much shorter and still as informative.
July 29, 2021
One of the best books I've read this year.
I came to it because it featured a number of subjects I am interested in: education; Reconstruction; the American Baptist Home Mission Society and their work among the Freedmen of the south after the war; Black history; Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois -- this book had it all, and more.
I would call this book a historical and historiographical tour-de-force. Anderson confronts and dismantles a number of historical misconceptions regarding Black history, Black education, southern history, and in particular the features of "industrial education" as modeled by the Hampton Institute and Tuskegee. He demonstrates irrefutably that the Hampton-Tuskegee model was always intended to shape Black teachers, and through them the Black population in the south, into willing acceptance of their subordinate role in society. In particular, white Southern leaders partnered with white Northern philanthropists to push this ideology on as much of the south as they could, and found some willing Black educators willing to go along with it, like Washington. In some cases, they took over schools, pushed out teachers and principals, reorganized the board, and remade the school in their own plans, against the protests of the Black students and teachers who had been running it.
Anyone interested in the Booker T. Washington vs. W.E.B. Du Bois debate over education *must* read this book. I was honestly shocked at some points at how blatantly racialized the Hampton-Tuskegee method was, and understood more than ever why Du Bois (and many others long before him) resisted and critiqued it so vehemently.
Anderson's work is rooted in solid primary sources, letters, census data, educational survey data, and deep dives into the archives. The endnotes are a testament to this. The bibliography stretches to 38 pages and demonstrates the breadth and depth of scholarship in this book. Anderson is also correcting some of the standard interpretations of this subject (the education of Blacks in the South), and by my verdict he does so convincingly and exceptionally well.
Highly recommended, a first-rate work of important history.
I came to it because it featured a number of subjects I am interested in: education; Reconstruction; the American Baptist Home Mission Society and their work among the Freedmen of the south after the war; Black history; Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois -- this book had it all, and more.
I would call this book a historical and historiographical tour-de-force. Anderson confronts and dismantles a number of historical misconceptions regarding Black history, Black education, southern history, and in particular the features of "industrial education" as modeled by the Hampton Institute and Tuskegee. He demonstrates irrefutably that the Hampton-Tuskegee model was always intended to shape Black teachers, and through them the Black population in the south, into willing acceptance of their subordinate role in society. In particular, white Southern leaders partnered with white Northern philanthropists to push this ideology on as much of the south as they could, and found some willing Black educators willing to go along with it, like Washington. In some cases, they took over schools, pushed out teachers and principals, reorganized the board, and remade the school in their own plans, against the protests of the Black students and teachers who had been running it.
Anyone interested in the Booker T. Washington vs. W.E.B. Du Bois debate over education *must* read this book. I was honestly shocked at some points at how blatantly racialized the Hampton-Tuskegee method was, and understood more than ever why Du Bois (and many others long before him) resisted and critiqued it so vehemently.
Anderson's work is rooted in solid primary sources, letters, census data, educational survey data, and deep dives into the archives. The endnotes are a testament to this. The bibliography stretches to 38 pages and demonstrates the breadth and depth of scholarship in this book. Anderson is also correcting some of the standard interpretations of this subject (the education of Blacks in the South), and by my verdict he does so convincingly and exceptionally well.
Highly recommended, a first-rate work of important history.
June 8, 2012
A thorough, engrossing historical view of Black education and the incredible barriers overcome by so many determined and insistent people. How many people would endure double taxation today only to be subjected to substandard education?
March 12, 2019
So, so meaty and an important body of research, but it was extremely boring to read and terribly repetitive.
October 14, 2023
Another unexpected excellent read this year. I picked this book up after it was lightly referenced in two online platforms whose content I watch. 1. Kimberly Nicole Foster, founder of ForHarriet and 2. In Class with Dr. Carr.
I’ll start with general highlights that I liked. It is obvious that Dr. Anderson extensively used primary sources which brought forth so many rich, and unknown heroes and heroines with incredible stories of uplift. Mostly striking to me where the schools that ran secretly during enslavement. Absolutely fascinating stories that are not often heard. I also enjoyed the use of photos. Again these are not images widely circulated.
I found beginning of the book to establish a good grounding of black cultural value of educational attainment and how that was formed and sustained throughout generations. Acknowledging that Black people exited enslavement with a clear vision of what they wanted to achieve via access to education, leading the first universal education campaign in the South.
On the industrial northern philanthropists funding of black education in the south, it was important that Anderson established that North or South, all white people at that time believed in the inferiority of blacks. So their ideology was essentially to train blacks to be the forever subordinate race in access to jobs/wages. The direct links to their interests in shaping black education and their economic interests and interest in keeping a caste system within the labor market are clear. On a personal note, reading about the Booker T Washington and the Hampton - Tuskegee Model was eye opening. I also wondered why so many HBCUs included “Agricultural or Industrial” in their names. It forced me to also go back and look at Booker T Washington’s politic and as myself how I really felt lol.
The evidence of black self determination is inspiring. The book establishes that the Southern states were not interested using tax dollars to establish public school for black children. Anderson provides ample evidence of black communities across the south collective organizing and establishing schools for themselves. As philanthropic orgs traveled the south helping to establish schools they routinely receive little funds from the government. Them citing need of white children first. In tables presented in the book, Anderson outlines black communities funding sizable percentages of the school’s construction and maintenance from cash, labor, property, and materials. Inspiring and also disappointing given the population with the least were “double taxed” to provide some level of education to their children.
Overall this was an excellent read. Keep in mind it is an academic text so it can be dense as Anderson uses multiple examples to prove his findings.
I’ll start with general highlights that I liked. It is obvious that Dr. Anderson extensively used primary sources which brought forth so many rich, and unknown heroes and heroines with incredible stories of uplift. Mostly striking to me where the schools that ran secretly during enslavement. Absolutely fascinating stories that are not often heard. I also enjoyed the use of photos. Again these are not images widely circulated.
I found beginning of the book to establish a good grounding of black cultural value of educational attainment and how that was formed and sustained throughout generations. Acknowledging that Black people exited enslavement with a clear vision of what they wanted to achieve via access to education, leading the first universal education campaign in the South.
On the industrial northern philanthropists funding of black education in the south, it was important that Anderson established that North or South, all white people at that time believed in the inferiority of blacks. So their ideology was essentially to train blacks to be the forever subordinate race in access to jobs/wages. The direct links to their interests in shaping black education and their economic interests and interest in keeping a caste system within the labor market are clear. On a personal note, reading about the Booker T Washington and the Hampton - Tuskegee Model was eye opening. I also wondered why so many HBCUs included “Agricultural or Industrial” in their names. It forced me to also go back and look at Booker T Washington’s politic and as myself how I really felt lol.
The evidence of black self determination is inspiring. The book establishes that the Southern states were not interested using tax dollars to establish public school for black children. Anderson provides ample evidence of black communities across the south collective organizing and establishing schools for themselves. As philanthropic orgs traveled the south helping to establish schools they routinely receive little funds from the government. Them citing need of white children first. In tables presented in the book, Anderson outlines black communities funding sizable percentages of the school’s construction and maintenance from cash, labor, property, and materials. Inspiring and also disappointing given the population with the least were “double taxed” to provide some level of education to their children.
Overall this was an excellent read. Keep in mind it is an academic text so it can be dense as Anderson uses multiple examples to prove his findings.
June 11, 2020
Read with an amazing and diverse book club. Detailed run down of northern and southern White philanthropies and Black religious and other philanthropies in the back-n-forth of providing education for southern Blacks. It was definitely Goliath against David as poor Blacks, in some cases former slaves, gave their last penny toward building schools, toward providing education for their children.
One of the most interesting aspects of this history is found in the apparent duel between former slave, Booker T. Washington’s industrial education model (known as the Hampton-Tuskegee model) and W.E.B. DuBois’ belief in a more traditional liberal arts education. As the history unfolds, both men are found to believe in what is termed “the talented tenth,” the best and the brightest. Further reading produces facts and figures showing Mr. Washington to have put hundreds of schools on the map. Mr. DuBois’ verbal sparring slowed up as Booker T. Washington neared the end of his life, possibly as he surveyed the value of what the man accomplished.
The real value of this story, in my humble opinion, is in the detailing of the essential importance Blacks placed on educational options. They sacrificed everything when required, especially when White leadership double taxed them and worse, to get educational opportunities for their children. The bigotry and outright prejudice they continually faced did not deter them. This history linked for me to the battle for education equality eventually “won” in 1954’s Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education.
A dense history that is needed reading if we expect to understand why school choice matters so much. Won’t be for everyone, but it is informative and well-written. Highly recommended especially for White would-be co-conspirators and allies.
One of the most interesting aspects of this history is found in the apparent duel between former slave, Booker T. Washington’s industrial education model (known as the Hampton-Tuskegee model) and W.E.B. DuBois’ belief in a more traditional liberal arts education. As the history unfolds, both men are found to believe in what is termed “the talented tenth,” the best and the brightest. Further reading produces facts and figures showing Mr. Washington to have put hundreds of schools on the map. Mr. DuBois’ verbal sparring slowed up as Booker T. Washington neared the end of his life, possibly as he surveyed the value of what the man accomplished.
The real value of this story, in my humble opinion, is in the detailing of the essential importance Blacks placed on educational options. They sacrificed everything when required, especially when White leadership double taxed them and worse, to get educational opportunities for their children. The bigotry and outright prejudice they continually faced did not deter them. This history linked for me to the battle for education equality eventually “won” in 1954’s Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education.
A dense history that is needed reading if we expect to understand why school choice matters so much. Won’t be for everyone, but it is informative and well-written. Highly recommended especially for White would-be co-conspirators and allies.
March 20, 2022
How in the heck is this entire narrative missing from the curriculum of many schools of education? This work causes the reader to want to know more about the history and development of the education of Black people in America. So much of the draw to education for Black people is liberation, but when that education is lead by people who fear Blackness (no matter their ethnicity) it becomes a system of control and limitation. Schools of education do educators a disservice when they don’t discuss how a community’s prejudices are often upheld and reinforced by the way schools seek to educate members of minority groups. This book should be a part of the educational conversation.
June 1, 2020
Clear and Insightful!
February 23, 2023
Great for my research project! Very interesting and easy to read!
June 14, 2024
A detailed book about the largely unknown period of post reconstruction black education movement that shaped education today.
July 6, 2024
Dense but informative
February 23, 2024
Content is excellent and the book was very well researched. Anderson’s writing is just very dry and repetitive at times.
May 6, 2008
school book - history of american education
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