Accredited Negro secondary schools and selective college admissions

Abstract

In a publication,' which in some respects is the most complete analysis of the Negro secondary-school situation since the epochmaking study by Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones of the Phelp-Stokes Fund in 1915, it was revealed that there are at least 2,003 public schools for Negroes in the South offering some secondary educational offerings. Of these schools, 807 were four-year secondary schools and they enrolled 120,419 pupils in the high school grades. Three hundred sixty-seven of the 807 four-year schools have been accredited by the authorities in state departments of education. Thirty-nine of these state-accredited schools have also been placed upon the accredited list of the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools;2 six have been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools; and two are included in the list of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. Of the total number of students enrolled in all public Negro secondary schools, 79,265, or 53.3 per cent, were. found in the 367 accredited four-year high schools. The fact that 224 of these accredited schools are located in urban communities indicates an unfavorable distribution of secondary educational opportunity for rural high-school students. It should be mentioned that wide differences in methods and standards for accrediting exist among the several states. In all but three states, secondary schools for Negroes are accredited on the same basis as schools for white. There is a tendency among the several states to accredit the larger Negro schools, and standards reflect the familiar characteristics of the more privileged urban schools. Some indication of the wide differences in practices and standards employed in accrediting is at least partially reflected in the numbers of such schools listed by states. Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina reported a total for the four states of but sixteen public Negro secondary schools fully accredited for four-year work in 1933. All are located in large urban centers. On the other hand, North Carolina had accredited ninety-nine secondary schools for Negroes, which were almost equally distributed with respect to rural and urban location.