What Is The Importance Of Early African American Education

African American history is important to me because I learned how strong and courageous blacks were. African American history gives us knowledge and recognitions of black achievements. African American history is a huge part of our nation's history. It is important to study our history so we can learn about the black accomplishment. In school, they teach us about Rosa Parks and George Washington Carver. It was a great African American artist name Horace Pippin his painting told stories. I never heard of this man until studying African American history. Another young black horse trainer named James Jimmy Winkfield was never mentioned. He was nineteen years old when he won the Kentucky Derby. He was the youngest of seventeen

During slavery, most black slaves were denied proper education and many laws were passed in the South prohibiting slave literacy. Even free blacks in the century before and after the Civil War were limited in their access to quality education and career training.

After conducting the interviews and analyzing the data I have to come to the conclusion that it takes every stakeholder, parents, teachers, and administrators, to be involved for African American students to be successful. We can no longer point the blame at one party. Teachers can not blame parents and parents can not blame teachers, we all have to work together. There has to be an open line of communication between home and school. We have to all remember it is about the student, the child, and we have to do whatever is necessary to ensure they are successful.

In his autobiographical essay “Learning to Read”, Frederick Douglass illustrates the critical and empowering aspects of his life that contributed to his success and shaped his attitude towards learning. Douglass was a former slave who became emancipated and fought for the freedom and rights of enslaved Africans that experienced harsh and brutal treatment. During his early years, Douglass was illegally taught how to read and understand the alphabet by his master’s wife. However, he was later abandoned by his mistress and was forced to learn on his own. Throughout this troubling moment of his life, Douglass turned to a book titled “The Columbian Orator” which allowed him to acknowledge the brutalities of slavery and use his knowledge to help other former slaves. Douglass’s narrative depicts the remorseful attitude which he expressed towards his education and literacy. However, his knowledge later allowed him to escape the brutalities of slavery and contribute his efforts to fighting against it. Similarly to Douglass, I have experienced many positive and negative aspects of learning that have altered and shaped my attitude towards school.

The education reform movement was the most important and successful reform that took place in Reconstruction. In 1869, an African American from Mississippi stated, “If I nebber does do nothing more while I live, I shall give my children a chance to go to school, for I considers education the next best thing to liberty” (McPherson, 624) African Americans valued education and believed that it allowed them to access freedom. Why did African Americans believe that education was synonymous to liberty? Throughout slavery, white Americans strictly prohibited educating African Americans because they feared that slaves would revolt against their masters. Eager African Americans wanted to learn because they saw it as their opportunity to get back to

Being resourceful by saving bread to use as incentive for children to share their knowledge was an ingenious plan to further Mr. Douglass’ education. The children felt rewarded and good about knowing more than adult, and Mr. Douglas gained knowledge that he was not able to acquire through any other traditional means. He was able to conduct himself as a slave and an unsuspecting student all at the same time (Learning to Read and Write, Fredrick

The African American males access to higher learning is detrimental to the United States economy. The social conditions that plague African American males in their quest for college degrees are very obvious. For more than 40 years, the African American male has been missing in action from higher learning institutions by a margin of 50:1. In this paper, I will explore the problems and the critical actions needed for correction.

The struggle for education for the african americans was like a crime. Not only weren't african americans allowed to go to school with the whites but they didn't have many school utilities like the whites did. The whites had many textbooks that were up to date and they had clean rooms and enough seats while schools for the african american were like prisons. They didn't have enough seats or books and sometimes they only had enough teachers to teach since white folk didn't want anything to do with african americans. Before the end of the civil war the education was a real struggle for the african americans. Even though there was effort to make schools for the african americans only a few could go to school since there was no money and they simply

Education is an important aspect in the lives of many individuals. Education is often seen as a means to better oneself. With education, a whole new world can be opened up to individuals. For African Americans education is key to achieving a variety of things in life. During the days of slavery, African Americans were not allowed to be educated. It was frowned upon and strictly discouraged because slave masters knew that they could not dominate an educated person. Any slave caught trying to read or write was punished. There are many individuals whose main purpose is to fight for the rights and equality of African Americans and fighting for the right to be educated was one of these goals. African Americans alike wanted to be educated because they know it would lead to progress and a better overall situation. Now in today’s society we see that even though many before us has fought for the right to be educated some do not see it as a privilege. In this paper, the views of Malcolm X, W.E.B. DuBois and Oliver Cromwell Cox will be examined in regards to their thoughts on education.

Education in America is a continually changing process that develops through centuries of history, social standards of the present, and goals for the future. The purposeful separation and inferior quality of education for African Americans maintained the idea of white supremacy. The enduring struggle for equal African American education in this country developed under a large oak tree in Hampton Virginia (History, 2010). Mary Peake risked her freedom to direct an unlawful class for refugees to aid in their first educational experience. This sparked a revolution in education for recently free African American slaves.

When ex-slaves demanded a formal public schooling, they were really asking the South to develop and embrace a relatively new philosophy of education. Effectively, they were having white southerners pay for the education of people they once “owned” as property, and had the right to receive what most whites in the region hadn’t had available previously.

Education has always been valued in the African American community. During slavery freed slaves and those held captive, organized to educate themselves. After emancipation the value of education became even more important to ex-slaves, as it was their emblem of freedom and a means to full participation in American Society (Newby & Tyack, 1971). During this time many schools for African Americans were both founded and maintained by African Americans. African Americans continued to provide education throughout their own communities well into the 1930’s (Green, McIntosh, Cook-Morales, & Robinson-Zanartu, 2005). The atmosphere of these schools resembled a family. The

I am a young African American female who is exploring my choices after high school . I have came across many colleges and universities that I find appealing to the eye. However , attending these schools have various expenses. Tuition , room and board, and books can be quite expensive. Having an education plays an important role in assisting someone with financial expenses for school.

It is well known that teaching a slave to read or write was a crime, but most slaves did not understand why. However, Douglass pushed and pushed for reading and writing because he knew the truth, and the truth is that knowledge is power. This intellectual inferiority that the slave owners talked about only existed because they deprived the slaves of the knowledge that they were so hungry for. Douglass not only uses his narrative as an expository on the truth about slavery, but it is also a testimony against the belief that black people are intellectually inferior. It is seen in the book that the slaves are capable of learning and in fact do want to learn. Douglass, although he is supposedly intellectually inferior, states, “Though conscious of the difficulty of learning without a teacher, I set out with high hope, and a fixed purpose, at whatever cost of trouble, to learn how to read.” -(Page 47). If the nation deems Douglass and his “kind” intellectually inferior, then there should be no way that Douglass will continue to learn to read and write, but he does continue on with his education. This is because Douglass is not intellectually inferior, he is just as capable as any other man along with the other slaves. This is just one example of Douglass’s testimony against the belief of slave owners and their wrong opinion of slaves intellectual capability. Douglass is not the only

Though the text Douglass makes it clear to his readers that education were essential to his liberation. Slave masters saw any attempt by the slaves to glean any understanding of themselves or of the world around them as dangerous and "deemed all such inquiries on the part of a slave improper and impertinent, and evidence of a restless spirit" (Douglass 107). Slave owners felt that worst quality a slave could have was impertinence, because by having an inkling or the fact that one could question their master or question their reality meant that they were discontent with the order of their world as they knew it. Moreover, any concept of discontentment provided a landscape for a slave to wish for more in life, which naturally contrasted with the mindless acceptance that the slave owners sought to enforce. The general consensus of slaveholder was that "if you teach that nigger how to read there 'll be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a