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Example research essay topic: Blacks History In Education Part 1 - 1,984 words

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Blacks History in Education Struggle Today's black professional is sometimes an invisible man. But, as the employment market becomes more and more competitive, it is knowledge and not race that will determine ones success or failure in life. Nevertheless, it is suggested that many black professionals are not anxious to stand out: "I had no idea that we were poor" growing up, says E. Brown, a forty-year-old former ABC television executive, now a business consultant. "As I look back now, it was very tough to concentrate on school. I was encouraged not to succeed. Encouraged to skip school and not study.

The smart students were given a very difficult time. Boys in high school were encouraged to play sports, not get straight As. " In this paper, we will consider the historical reasons for such a situation in a E. Browns life and will examine the current situation as well as future expectations of the education and perspectives for Blacks. (Levering, 1993). Statistics from the U. S. Bureau of Census shows that from 1965 to 1994, the number of white college students increased from 5. 3 million to 12. 2 million.

This steady growth occurred even though the number of White high school graduates has been declining since 1984. It is also reported that from 1965 to 1994, the number of non-white college students increased from 400, 000 to 2. 8 million. Over this period, the number of Hispanics and blacks who graduated from high school also increased, due both to their greater numbers in the population and to a steady decline in their high school dropout rate. Nevertheless, there is not a very optimistic view about the current access for blacks to education. Over the mentioned period, the proportion of whites in the general population decreased from 88 percent to 83 percent. Only whites have made progress, increasing their access to higher education by increasing their participation rate over this period from 32 percent to 42 percent.

These figures give a peculiar twist to the criticism that affirmative action in higher education has involved a lowering of "standards" for minorities and that people of color are "supplanting" more qualified whites. Rather, if one uses outcome as the criterion, the opposite must be true: standards have been lowered and / or opportunities increased in some way for whites, but not for people of color. What we need to acknowledge more publicly is that the greater numbers of minority students enrolled in colleges and universities are the simple result of larger numbers in the population. (Wells, 1994). Some scholars suggest that the complete national story of a 30 -year failure to end segregation in higher education. There are 95 HBCUs among the 3, 412 institutions included in the annual enrollment survey, according to the list provided by The Southern Education Foundation. This handful of institutions accounts for 224, 104 black students, 16 percent of all of the black students enrolled in higher education.

The remaining 3, 317 institutions enroll a total of 1. 16 million black students, out of a total student population of just over 14 million. Thus, while blacks compose 12. 1 percent of the U. S. population, and 15 percent of the 18 - to 24 -year-old age group, they make up only 8 percent of the student population at "non-black" institutions, and 9. 85 percent of all students when HBCUs are included. (Wells, 1994).

It looks like a new agenda for higher education must begin with the question if higher education is to meet the challenges of race and culture. How can white academics explain the fact that thirty years of action have not succeeded in any gains for blacks relative to whites in higher education, while over the same period the gap in high school graduation has been totally erased? The way how equality has been defined and approached has actually perpetuated discrimination - the outcomes of segregation and restricted access. But there are steps of continuous work made for improvement. Historically, black colleges and universities are increasing their competitiveness by teaming up with major corporations and government agencies. For generations of African Americans, historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have been a community staple, providing the only real option for a quality education.

The phenomenal success of these institutions is proof-positive that they have lived up to their mission. According to a 1994 survey, HBCUs account 16 % of the nation's black population, but they produce 30 % of all black graduates. In addition, HBCU undergraduates account for half of all blacks with master's degrees and 45 % of African Americans who hold corporate positions of vice president or higher. "Any institution with the ability to produce those numbers is worth supporting and strengthening, " asserts Gray. While alliances with private sector businesses and the opportunities they offer -- such as student internships and student exchange / study -abroad programs -- have been limited, traditional support for HBCUs has come in the form of charitable donations and scholarship gifts. (Doughterty, Summer 1998: 123 - 41).

To understand how this situation came to be and consider possible ways of resolution, we have to take a profound look into the history of Blacks in struggle for education. Education was a major concern for the newly freed African Americans after the Civil War. Blacks left slavery with a desire to read and write. They were proud of those blacks who learned to read and write. Because few black children or adults had access to either public or private schools, ex-slaves across the South after the Civil War founded church-funded schools, called "Sabbath" schools. Northern assistance played an important role in establishing a broader system of education open to the majority of blacks.

While some observers contend that the South would have established a school system without northern interference, evidence from the post-Civil War South shows that southern whites let alone black children without education. Southern states opposed taxation for education, and in many southern states the education of blacks was even illegal. The major organization from the North that supported black education in the immediate postwar years was the American Missionary Association. It was founded in 1846 by black and white churchman, the AMA helped establish some 500 schools and advocated a public school system. The organization sought teachers who possessed "a missionary spirit, good health, energy, culture and common sense, personal habits, and experience. " These teachers were required to support and promote both racial equality and peace, using the Bible as their guide. "The duty of every government is to provide against crime, pauperism, and wretchedness, and there was no better beginning toward that end than providing for a national school system, " explained Lewis Tappan, a founding member of the AMA.

Another organization that promoted black education was the Freedman's Bureau. But Congress closed the agency in 1870 and consequently the AMA remained the major organization that promoted black education. (Levering, 1993). The curriculum designed for blacks dealt with forgiveness, hard work, and morals. One textbook published by the American Tract Society called The Third Freedmen's Reader made no mention of equality.

Readings explicitly and implicitly reiterated to African American students the importance of accepting their role in life, being content with a lowly station, and adopting moral behavior. Despite these teachings, southern whites feared that education of any kind would eliminate the control whites were looking for to have over blacks. Whites worried that literate blacks would no longer be confused and captured by white labor contracts. More than that, whites feared that northern teachers were teaching the blacks to hate southern whites. In many cases southern whites harassed northern and southern teachers of blacks, and in many instances white violence or the threat of it drove the teachers into exile. James Anderson reinterprets the history of southern black education from Reconstruction to the Great Depression.

By placing black schooling within a political, cultural, and economic context, James suggests new vision into black commitment to education, the peculiar significance of Tuskegee Institute, and the conflicting goals of various philanthropic groups, among other matters. He states that 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. Because blacks lacked economic and political power, white elite was 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. (Anderson, 1997). What kind of education the former slaves should receive became a matter of controversy by the end of the nineteenth century. Many white people, especially Southerners, thinking of their need for an agricultural labor force, thought that a rudimentary knowledge of reading and writing was sufficient and that former slaves should be taught useful, practical skills in farming and the industrial arts.

They believed that so-called vocational schools could best serve the interests of both whites and blacks in the South. An important black leader of the post-Civil War period, Booker T. Washington, agreed in general with this approach. He founded Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, a black vocational school, and united with Northern philanthropists in securing funds for similar schools throughout the South. Washington pleased the white southern community. Booker assured them that African Americans had no desire for social equality with whites, but simply for economic security. (Harlan, 1983).

Upon emancipation, many former slaves were anxious to put themselves beyond the control of their former white masters. They moved away from native plantations to seek work elsewhere; moved out of the white Christian churches to congregate in all-black institutions, and often felt that their children would be best educated in all-black schools taught by African American teachers. The irony of this situation is that when white southerners were again in control of local political institutions at the end of Reconstruction, they enshrined this practice of separate schools in law, but did not fund the black schools to anywhere near the extent of the white schools. Black educational opportunities thus suffered to the extend depending on the local community. African American parents were convinced of the importance of education for enabling their children to have a better life than the life they themselves led. Many poor sharecroppers and farmers in the South cooperated with Northern philanthropists such as Julius Rosenwald to take part in building schools in rural areas: they often supplied the labor while the Rosenwald Fund supplied the materials.

Black teachers enjoyed a significant amount of freedom in speech and action inside the classroom, but black principals faced the double-edged sword of white patronage: whites often supported local black schools, but if a local planter wanted, for example, a place in a certain school for the untrained daughter of one of his domestic workers, it was impossible to refuse. (Ashmore, 1954). Despite the vast efforts made by missionary agencies after the war, black education still suffered into the 1900 's. By 1915 the largest number of public high schools open to blacks in major cities in the South was one! Major southern cities typically had four or more white high schools. This lack of schools contributed to heavy overcrowding in black schools. In the thirteen southern states from 1939 - 1940 the average number of black students per teacher was 37. 7, while the number of white students per teacher was 29. 2.

Black teachers made considerably less than white teachers. White teachers started from $ 75 to $ 200 a month, while black teachers could expect to make $ 25 to $ 75 dollars a month. A U. S.

survey in 1936 also showed how black students suffered from lack of money. White schools spent an average of $ 49. 30 on a...


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Research essay sample on Blacks History In Education Part 1

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