Historians of higher education generally agree on a handful of ideas about the early years of the land-grant colleges that grew out of the Morrill Act of 1862. For their first three decades, the land-grant colleges struggled to survive: lacking students, funding, and public favor. Charged, by the Morrill Act, to promote "the liberal and…

Black students were not allowed to enroll in Missouri public schools until 1866. During the fugitive school era (prior to 1863), keeping Black children and youth safe from white terrorists committed not only to disrupting nascent learning but burying Black bodies became priority one for clandestine school leaders (Williamson 2005). Later, when…

Ruth Harris, the first African American female president of the segregated teachers' college, Stowe, implemented the preservice teachers' volunteer program throughout her tenure from 1940 to 1954. The idea was likely the outgrowth from her dissertation study completed at the time of her appointment that supported teachers knowing the neighborhoods…

In January 1932, two white women--Agnes Boeing Ilsley and Mina Buckner--were murdered in Ilsley's home in rural Middleburg, Virginia. Suspicion of who the murderer was settled on George Crawford, an African American man who was sometimes employed by Mrs. Ilsley to do various jobs, including serving as her chauffeur (Virginia Circuit Court 1933,…

In the early twentieth century St. Louis' public schools for Black children enjoyed a robust reputation, perhaps second only to those in the nation's capital. Herman H. Dreer, a "public school man," provided direction for those institutions similarly called to lead various segments and forces within the larger Black community…

Teacher education remains a largely unexplored area within the history of American education. This paper is an example of the types of state-specific stories that are needed as university administrators and policymakers make critical decisions about the content and purpose of teacher ed curriculum. These decisions, in turn, have a direct impact on…

The final decades of the twentieth century were rife with education reform. "A Nation at Risk" (1983) compared American schools to their counterparts in other countries, and found America wanting while E.D. Hirsch and others decried Americans' lack of knowledge of their own institutions and heritage (Hirsch 1987). These alarms caused…

In this article, inspired by Toni Morrison's evocative description of places that are "never going away" and events that "will happen again," the author explores the historical legacies of racism, law enforcement, and educational inequality in Covington, Kentucky. The author argues that these legacies can best be understood by…

Harry S. Broudy (1905-1998) was a vital education philosopher of the second half of the twentieth century as highlighted by numerous authors writing on his life and work. Over a 40-year period, Harry Broudy published over 300 papers and 18 books (Vandenberg 1992b). While numerous ideas are reoccurring among his publications, the content and…

Educational historians have established that progressive education was a multifaceted, diversified approach to education reform, and have recognized that such a variegated phenomenon is difficult, if not impossible, to define. Instead, historians attempt to capture the complexity of progressive education either by articulating its principal…

Because gender remains under-examined in extant school desegregation literature, many questions linger about how it shaped the experiences of desegregating students in K-12 schools around the country. In response, this paper provides an analysis of the literature on southern Black desegregating students' firsthand accounts to identify how whites…

In 1955, the General Convention of the Episcopal Church called for the racial desegregation of Episcopal institutions: parishes, seminaries, and schools. The study of Episcopal school desegregation reveals a fundamental paradox: Episcopal theology promoted desegregation but "white flight" spurred Episcopal school growth. The question of…

This study attempts an analysis from 1944 to 1975 focused on the federal government support in the context of one highly successful program in international education--Fulbright's Amendment to the Surplus Property Act of 1946 (or the Fulbright Program). The choice fell on this flagship international educational exchange program for its explicit…

While recovering from the Civil War in 1860s, Kansas City acquired the site of the first bridge over the Missouri River, the Hannibal Bridge, which was completed in 1869. In doing so, Kansas City beat out competing cities like Leavenworth, Kansas; Atchison, Kansas; and St. Joseph, Missouri. This led to rapid population increases from 4,418 in…

Some writers connected to the Peace Movement, many of whom were Quakers, expressed conflicting views on history's value to society and its ability to prevent unnecessary wars. These writers, mostly opponents to the United States' War with Mexico, argued that history education sometimes contributed to war by romanticizing militaristic government…