African American Education Essay

Today's education is often viewed as failing in its goal of educating students, especially those students characterized as minorities, including African American, Hispanic, and Appalachian students (Quiroz, 1999). Among the minority groups mentioned, African American males are affected most adversely. Research has shown that when Black male students are compared to other students by gender and race they consistently rank lowest in academic achievement (Ogbu, 2003), have the worst attendance record (Voelkle, 1999), are suspended and expelled the most often (Raffaele Mendez, 2003; Staples, 1982), are most likely to drop out of school, and most often fail to graduate from high school or to earn a GED (Pinkney, 2000; Roderick, 2003).

Growing up as an African American in a white world in the late 1800’s was incredibly ruthless. Even after slavery, blacks had a hard time trying to get work, education or civil rights. Education was a major topic in debate for blacks and whites. Education, the most important thing in life, acts as the key to a person 's future. Education leads to knowledge, and knowledge leads to power. It teaches humans how to prosper and make good decisions. With a good education, people hold the ability to achieve all types of goals, and more doors will open for them. African-Americans held every right to obtain this basic human right. White and blacks took on many different paths with education and W.E.B. Du Bois tell a short story about it all.

Much of America’s past is a controversial subject that many Americans would like to remain an untold history. Americans like to believe that damaging events like slavery and state-sponsored oppression took place lifetimes ago, and that we have proudly moved on together as a nation. However, the belief that these events are exclusively in the past and that we are a new, more open-minded society is seeing history through a white racial lens. It is easy for a white in the United States to say that the past should be left in the past. Yet, for minority racial groups, specifically African Americans, the past still has staggering effects on their people today. One formal system where white Americans greatly exceed African Americans is in the quality of education. Both in the past and now, whites have enjoyed a much higher education standard than African Americans. Whites seem to have greater funding, more dedicated teachers, higher qualities of materials, better infrastructure, and much more. This issue must be better addressed. With the current system, the United States is losing the potential opportunity for its African American citizens to excel. My hope is that you will discover through the information I provide that our education system still is unequal. Mrs. DeVos, you can use your power to help African Americans through funding, fighting discrimination, and collecting unbiased, truthful data.

As Watkins (2001) addressed this issue in his book, he indicated that there were no provisions for educating the newly freed Black people or any preparations for them living in society as a freed person. Black people were uneducated, living in impoverished conditions, and were trained only in agriculture skills. Vocational training was introduced across the southern plain as a means to this problem. It would provide cheap labor in a profitable market. The Hampton Institute was founded to address the societal issues resulting from the abolishment of slavery. Another prominent school established a short while later was the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama that was headed by an appointed Black Principal, Booker T. Washington, in 1881. Washington was a product of training at the Hampton Institute and was recommended

Historically black colleges and universities, otherwise known as HBCUs, have played an integral role in advancing the education of underprivileged black teenagers since their inception after the American Civil War. They have had students extremely well known in their fields today, such as billionaire entertainer Oprah Winfrey, the first African American Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, and civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr. Though their graduation rates tend to be around 1 in 3, they have produced a majority of successful African American professionals. For the continued advancement of African Americans, HBCUs are necessary for offering educational opportunities that their students had been historically denied and presently out of financial reach, while promoting strong family values and equality that may be lacking at traditional schools and displaying positive African American role models in their alumni and staff.

Booker T. Washington was freed from slavery as a child. After accomplishing his education, he was preordained to lead a new teacher's institution for African Americans in Alabama that became known as Tuskegee University. Washington assisted slaves to gain new trades. At his Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, students of all ages learned to make and grow the things they needed. Washington believed that African Americans would receive equals treatment in time if they were educated and learned useful skills.

Being an African American woman in a Caucasian male dominated society, I have experienced my share of racial and sexual inequalities. Nonetheless, for the purpose of assignment only racial inequality will be discussed. As stated in last week’s assignment. For centuries, inhabitants of the earth have had an innate superiority complex, countries with greater weapons, numbers, technology and economic resources, created systems of inequality through domination of inferior-minority-groups, maintained and perpetuated through social forces.

“I don’t mind if I have to sit on the floor at school. All I want is an education,” said Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani activist for female education. In today's society, many people don’t realize how grateful they should be for the education they receive. Even the slightest education is much more than people were receiving just three centuries ago, and even more than people in countries besides the United States of America. In specifics, women and African Americans were once unable to pursue any form of education in the United States, along with many other ethnicities.

Washington, was a famous black educator in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. During the progressive era, the African Americans faced a lot of challenges while seeking reform because of the racial issues at that time. The view of Washington on issues at that time was however accepted by the people as he motivated them to strive for “self-improvement rather than long-range social change” (Brinkely, 502). This agrees with his philosophy of getting and education to make one relevant and improve one’s living standard. Washington established the Tuskegee Institute for education of African Americans. This institution was created to teach industrialization and would empower people to become business owners and be responsible for themselves. In return they could also earn the respect of the majority group which are the

Owning a business as an african american is an outstanding accomplishment. Independent success in the african american community proves what can be done with no interference from any external factors. A study was conducted showing that employers are less likely to respond to inquiries on jobs and resumes with a stereotypical “black name” on it. This study proves that many fail to give African Americans a chance to prove themselves and are willing to do anything to keep african americans down. A primary example of this is the destruction of Black Wall Street. The blacks living in that area were doing well for themselves, having ownership of every business in that neighborhood including movie theaters, hotels, cafes, banks, and etc. This all

These circumstances paved the way for new leaders to step up and take action. Washington, one of the dominant leaders in the black community at the time was a prominent educator and orator. Born into slavery in 1856 Virginia, where education was barely accessible he felt that a formalized education was the best way to improve his living standards. Washington was able to obtain a primary education, and subsequently entered Hampton Institute in the fall of 1872. Because of his experiences at Hampton, Washington went on to become an educator as well as an a strong supporter of industrial education. He ultimately founded the Tuskegee Normal and Agricultural Institute in Alabama, a teacher’s school for blacks with emphasis on agricultural and industrial

My name is Michelle Williams-Agwagu and my ethnicity group is African American. African Americans came here by forced immigration. They were not invited here to America, and they certainly did not come here by choice. They were forced and taken on ships that brought them to America just to become slaves to the white people.

During Reconstruction and the years to follow, the dynamic between blacks and whites evolved. , the dynamic between blacks and southern whNewly free blacks began to seek opportunities forout education, employment, and other endeavors – opportunities that they could not access while enslaved. Meanwhile, southern whites struggled to come to terms with thea major alterationchange in the way that their homes, businesses, and lives were runoperated. With the roles of whites and blacks alteredreoriented, the ways in which the two groups interacted changed as well – the South was truly “reconstructed”. Booker T. Washington lived through this time, becoming famousrenowned for his conservative navigation of the evolving racial climate and hisremembered for his historic and became famous for a number of achievements. Among Washington’s enduring most known accomplishments illustrious timeless were his writing, his strong belief in a good work ethic, and perhaps most importantly, his founding of Tuskegee Institute, now called Tuskegee University. Tuskegee Institute, a school for newly free blacks, was different than other black schools blacks because Washington implemented a technical curriculum, as opposed to a classic or liberal arts education. This alternative education was a deliberate choice by Washington, who believed that a technical education would serve blacks better than a liberal arts education. Booker T. Washington 's establishment of a school for technical education was

Being born a slave, he understood hunger, hardship, grueling physical labor and prejudice. Washington was blessed with a gift of wisdom. He fulfilled a childhood dream of making the world a better place. Mr. Washington was born between 1858 and 1859 on a plantation in Franklin County, Virginia. And lived in a dirt floor one-room cabin with his mother and two siblings John and Amanda. His childhood was not your normal childhood, after all he was born a slave, and labored early in the day into the night like everyone else on the plantation. There was no frolicking for him, or happy fond memories of breakfast or dinners around the table, meals were often eaten straight out of the pot much like a trough for the animals. Schooling for him was not part of his life or any slave, to be able to attend school would have been a beautiful dream much like how he imagined heaven would be. After the war the family moved to Malden W. Virginia with their stepfather, whom they hardly knew, their new home was a step down from shanty cabin they lived on the plantation. Here in Malden is where his education started, he soon learned to recognize the number 18, that was assigned to his stepfathers in the salt mine. Likewise his mother by a miracle secured his first book, Webster’s “ blue-black speller”, he also was able to attend night -school after his shift in the salt-mine. He would imagine what it must have been like to be white, with no limits, stopping you from becoming whoever or whatever you want in life. Mr. Washington learned success is not the title or position you hold, it is the difficulties you have come through on your road to

When asked why is there a need for African American studies? One must understand the Eurocentric and political game the American school system imposes on young children African American students are bombarded with negative stereotypes throughout primary school and sometimes even college. The American school curriculum has a conservative effort in glorifying everything European from European art, history and music, while African American history is crammed in the month of February. During this month African American history starts with the slave trade and ends with Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream speech.” They refuse to enlighten students on the great African empires or the great African American inventors. Instead they are educated about slavery and how they were savages before the intervention of Europeans. Therefore, leaves lots of African American students ashamed of their history and creates this negative perspective of not wanting to be black. This leads to the question Malcom X stated in his speech, “who taught you to hate yourself?”