Education played a pivotal role in African-Americans' post-World War II struggle for equality. Many activists believed that victories against racially discriminatory school systems would lead to gains in other critical areas. By examining Howalton Day School, a black private school on Chicago's South Side in operation from 1946-1986, this article…

The purpose of this article has been to set the record straight as to the extent to which education of the mind and hands was prevalent in the United States prior to the 1880s. This effort is necessary since the proponents of the manual training curriculum that surfaced in the United States in the 1880s created a misperception that no prior form…

About 50 miles east of Topeka, Kansas, in what is now the suburban town of Merriam sits South Park Elementary School. Built in 1947 for white children at a cost of $90,000, the school at that time showcased eight modern classrooms, a multi-purpose auditorium, a lunchroom, and playground. Today, the building serves as a monument to a struggle for…

This paper presents an early phase of a research on the history of Alabama State College Laboratory School, 1920 to 1969. The research contributes new, critical history to the current story of segregated schooling and offers a more complete picture as to the richness that the African American culture, community, and dedication to educational…

In 1964, the Freedom Summer Project brought nearly one thousand volunteers to the South, most of which were northern white students, to facilitate Black voter registration. Allowing northern Whites to take part in the Movement created a tension within the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) as "two principal concerns were whether they…

Current educational restructuring movements espouse democratic ideas and reordered relations among teachers and administrators under the guise of improved teaching and learning and touts standards and accountability as the only way to achieve equality in education. Unfortunately, these efforts are unlikely to address enduring historical and…

The integration of America's colleges and universities has often been complicated by institutions that have been committed to integration in words but not in actions. Scholarship is abundant with examples of how institutions have failed at or intentionally evaded the development of racially inclusive environments. One factor in some successful…

Patricia Graham's recent defense of public education in the United States shows that public education has been responsive to society's demands and supports the earlier observation of Charles Burgess and Merle Borrowman that the dominant educational ideology is a function of the nation's need for human resources. When the nation has clear and…

In using the autobiographies of African-Americans as a heuristic, educators are provided with a context to view African-American educational history. The autobiographies of African-Americans tell stories of triumph over adversity as also revealed in Melba Beals' autobiography, "Warriors Don't Cry," a recount of the struggle to integrate Central…