The African-American Education System

Throughout time society has handled education through many different methods and had many different goals for education. Unfortunately one of the more common goals for education has been to either oppress or deculturalize others. Up until the late 1900’s whites widened the achievement gap and keeping themselves on top by either banning blacks’ education or providing an insufficient education to everyone but the whites. The whites’ methods of “education” included deculturalizing Native Americans which made them forget more about their culture and way of life than they ever ended up learning from the school systems that they were put into. African-Americans were seeking any form of education and went to great lengths to get an education. African-Americans
The reasoning for some of the whites being so vehemently opposed to blacks receiving an education was because they were afraid that people would see that their slaves were not actually a possession but a person. For people that wanted to refuse education to the African American society, it was a top priority to keep the gap of education and success as wide as possible so they would be able to capture the riches via the African Americans’ labor and lives. “The presence of literate slaves threatened to give lie to the entire system. Reading indicated to the world that this so-called property had a mind, and writing foretold the ability to construct an alternative narrative about bondage itself. Literacy among slaves would expose slavery, and masters knew it.” (p. 7 Williams) Education began as more than just a way of learning but for African Americans is also meant being acknowledged as humans to people that had continuously declared them as inferior. That’s what made education such a big step towards equality it was because it meant some recognition that they were actually people. Luckily some people were determined to help the African Americans receive some form of education. Once African Americans could read they then would have a chance of being able to escape slavery. However, without more education than just literacy there would not be much difference in the equality
It is now possible for every student to get an education, now the question is the quality of education that everyone receives. The effects of Brown V Board were not all that long lasting nor that impactful despite the fact that it was a necessary step. De facto segregation is currently the daunting task that society is faced with and as of now seems to be failing to address. Although the public education system is improved there is a long way to go for everyone to receive the same level of quality