Public Education, Discrimination, and Segregation in American at the Turn of the 20 th Century Essential Questions: Analyze the ways in which the education system centered around the economy and social structure of the late 1800s and early 1900s. What was the significance of segregation and discrimination in American during the turn of the century to people of all races, and how has it impacted life today in the US?

Food For Thought What does education mean to you? Do you think students in your generation take education for granted? If yes, why do you think they do? Do you think the system is helping you, or failing you? If you could, how would change education? When you have children, what will you want them to gain from an education?

Public Education in the late 1800s and Early 1900s Goals: – To assimilate foreign born immigrants – To teach technical skills ensuring a larger work force in America – To teach democracy – Above all – to properly prepare students for full participation in community life

LEFT: Excerpt from The New England Primer of 1690, the most popular American textbook of the 18th century

Schools for Children From , states passed laws requiring weeks annually of school attendance by students between the ages of 8 and 14. – The curriculum emphasized reading, writing, and arithmetic Of course, things were different for black children – In 1880, about 62% of white children attended elementary school, while only 34% of black students did – It wouldn’t be until the 1940s that blacks would get the right to a public education in the south

The Growth of High Schools In the industrial age, the economy demanded advanced technical and managerial skills People like Andrew Carnegie wanted an emphasis on capitalism in the curriculum “to provide ladders upon which the aspiring can rise” By 1900, more than half a million students attended high school – The curriculum expanded to include science, civics, social studies, and vocational courses

Review of Sources Read through the following speeches and analyze the speaker’s response to segregation and the significance of the speech: – Booker T. Washington’s Atlanta Compromise speech – W.E.B Du Bois’ Niagara Movement speech – Sojourner Truth’s Ain’t I a Woman speech

Racial Discrimination In 1890, fewer than 1% of black teenagers attended high school – More than 2/3 of these students went to private schools, which received no gov’t funding By 1910, about 3% of black students between the ages of 15 and 19 attended high school – but a majority of these students still attended private schools

Education for Immigrants Immigrants, on the other hand, were encouraged to get an education Immigrants had fled their countries due to religious persecution, crop problems (potato famine), and political/social unrest Thus, they dove head first into education to “Americanize” them – Some resented the suppression of their native language – Catholics did not like the idea of their children being taught from the King James Bible, so they set up their own schools with Catholic-focused curriculum

Adult Education Thousands of adults attended night school to also learn skills that would ensure them jobs – Adult immigrants attended to also learn English and to qualify for American citizenship Employers even got in on the action by providing classes during the day for their workers – Henry Ford established a “Sociology Department” at his Model T plant in Highland Park – Why? Because “men of many nations must be taught American ways, the English language, and the right to live”

Expanding Higher Education Changes in Universities: – Between college enrollment quadrupled – Due to industrialization, the focus of higher ed was on research and discovery – Professional schools in law and medicine emerged – Private schools required entrance exams, while colleges accepted high school diplomas

Higher Education for African Americans Despite early segregation, African Americans founded Howard, Atlanta, and Fisk Universities, however funding did not allow that many to attend – By 1990, only 3,880 attended colleges and universities out of about 9 million

Two Educational Perspectives Booker T. Washington Prominent AA Educator Born enslaved, and graduated from VA’s Hampton Institute Believed that racism would end if blacks acquired useful labor skills and proved their economic value to society – he was a realist in this respect In 1881, headed the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute – Curriculum focus on agricultural, domestic and mechanical work W.E.B Du Bois First AA to receive a doctorate degree from Harvard In 1905, founded the Niagara Movement – insisted that blacks should seek a liberal arts education so that AA communities would have well educated leaders

Two Quotes Define the Individual: Who said it? No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. Booker T. Washington We are Americans, not only by birth and by citizenship, but by our political ideals... And the greatest of those ideals is that ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL. W.E.B. Du Bois

Top: Tuskegee campus, Left: Booker T’s home on campus, Right: History class inside one of the classrooms on campus

Life for Blacks After Reconstruction Despite the fact that Blacks won political and social rights during Reconstruction, they faced hostile and violent environments, namely in the south By the turn of the 20 th century, Southern states had adopted a broad system of legal policies of racial discrimination and devised methods to weaken African-American political power

Segregation and Discrimination Segregation and discrimination did not only exist in the educational world for African American Americans, it existed in every aspect of life On March 9, 1892, three African American businessmen were lynched, illegally executed with out a trial in Memphis, TN Between 1882 and 1892, more than 1,400 blacks were shot, burned, or hanged without trial in the South Ida B. Wells, a friend of theirs and a local Memphis reporter saw lynching for what it truly was:

The Truth Behind Lynching Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell, and Lee Stewart had been lynched in Memphis... where no lynching had taken place before... This is what opened my eyes to what lynching really was. An excuse to get rid of Negroes who were acquiring wealth and property and thus keep the race terrorized.” – Ida B. Wells

Voting Restrictions Southern states imposed laws restricting equality to blacks in voting – Some limited the vote to people who could read, and required registration officials to administer a literacy test – Blacks though were asked more challenging questions, or given a test in a foreign language – Officials could pass or fail applicants as they wished

Other Restrictions on Voting Poll Tax – annual tax to ensure voting – Blacks and white sharecroppers were often too poor to pay the tax So, what if a poor sharecropping white man did not pass the literacy test and could not pay the Poll Tax? – No Problem – after the Grandfather Clause was enacted, any white man whose father or grandfather had been eligible to vote, they could too

Jim Crow Laws These were put into effect in schools, hospitals, parks, and transportation systems There goal? – Read through some of the laws and determine that for yourself In one word, what was the goal of the Jim Crow Laws? SEGREGATION

Plessy v. Ferguson In 1890, the State of Louisiana passed a law that required separate accommodations for blacks and whites on railroads, including separate railway cars. Free People of Color in New Orleans formed the Committee of Citizens -- a group dedicated to the repeal of that law.

Homer Plessy - Plaintiff They eventually persuaded Homer Plessy to test it. – Plessy was born a free man and was an "octoroon" (someone of seven-eighths Caucasian descent and one- eighth African descent). – However, under Louisiana law, he was classified as black, and thus required to sit in the "colored" car.

The Railroad Test June 7, 1892 – Plessy boarded a car of the East Louisiana Railroad in New Orleans that was designated for use by white patrons only, as mandated by state law. – The informed railroad company asked him to vacate it and sit instead in the blacks-only car. – Plessy refused and was arrested immediately. – He was convicted and sentenced to pay a $25 fine

Homer Adolph Plessy v. The State of Louisiana – Plessy argued that the state law which required East Louisiana Railroad to segregate trains had denied him his rights under the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution. 13 th - Slavery prohibition 14 th - Guarantees the same rights to all citizens of the United States, and the equal protection of those rights, against the deprivation of life, liberty, or property without due process of law (14 th ) – However, the judge presiding over his case, John Howard Ferguson, ruled that Louisiana had the right to regulate railroad companies as long as they operated within state boundaries.

Outcome In a 7 to 1 decision handed down on May 18, 1896,the Court rejected Plessy’s case seeing no way in which the Louisiana statute violated either of those Amendments The case helped cement the legal foundation for the doctrine of separate but equal, the idea that segregation based on classifications was legal as long as facilities were of equal quality

Discrimination in the North Many blacks migrated north in hopes of fining better jobs and more racial equality However, every discrimination they had faced in the south, existed in the north Labor unions in the north discouraged black membership

Discrimination in the West Mexican Workers: – In the late 1800s, RRs hired more Mexican workers than any other ethnicity – And just like today, they worked longer hours for less money – Debt peonage – a system than bound laborers into slavery in order to work off a debt Excluding the Chinese: – By 1880, more than 100,000 Chinese lived in the US – Fear of job competition pushed the Chinese into segregated schools and neighborhoods

Public Education, Discrimination, and Segregation in American at the Turn of the 20 th Century Answer the Essential Questions: Analyze the ways in which the education system centered around the economy and social structure of the late 1800s and early 1900s. What was the significance of segregation and discrimination in American during the turn of the century to people of all races, and how has it impacted life today in the US?