Pioneering in Negro Education

Abstract

South of that somewhat vague boundary known as the Mason-Dixon line, public education has, for many years, been facing the social, political and economic problems involved in seeking ways and means whereby two races might live together under difficult conditions. While the task of providing educational facilities for the majority race was difficult, it was more so with reference to the Negro. The persistent and deep-rooted misunderstandings and prejudices about interracial relations forced the South, with its low per capita wealth,' to support two systems of schools. Under the handicap of interracial differences, poverty and ignorance, progress in Negro education has, in most respects, lagged decidedly behind education for whites. Those persons concerned with the progress of Negro education have been faced, not only with the problem of stimulating better educational provisions, but also with the necessity of adapting education to the prevailing aspects of Negro rural life in the South. Twenty-five years ago there were not more than fifty public secondary schools for Negroes in the Southern states, and all were located in urban places. There were no rural high schools for the children of African descent.2 Today there are at least 2,003