Universal Public Education

When reading “Ex- Slaves and the Rise of Universal Education in the South” I was not surprised how badly African Americans wanted to be literate. What did surprise me was that it was African Americans who were the first prominent figures in the rise of public education. I had always learned that Northern progressive white charities had spearheaded the campaign for universal public education. But in fact, ex- slaves wanted free public education not for themselves, but for their children. They knew that by teaching their children to be literate, they could improve their children’s lives. The movement for universal public schools started with African Americans during reconstruction.

After emancipation, African Americans wanted to educate themselves and their children. When they were slaves, they were not allowed to learn how to read or write so after emancipation, they had a deep passion for learning. Suddenly, they could be literate without getting beaten by their master. So they created their own schools with African American teachers who had already learned how to read and write. These teachers learned literacy either when they were freed or secretly as slaves. Many times these schools were in churches and disguised as a Sunday Bible schools called “Sabbath” schools. Unfortunately, these Sunday schools did not keep attendance but these schools were very influential. They reached a lot of students, children and adults alike. They did not just teach the Bible; they also taught literacy.

There was strong push back from Southern whites about black education. White planters wanted uneducated black hard laborers. When African Americans could read, they could read their labor contracts. Many times, literate whites would write labor or planting contracts that tricked blacks into giving most of their profit or crops to the whites. When black laborers understood the contracts, they were able to better negotiate their wages. White planters also believed that universal public education would cut down on their profits. Whites believed that education spoiled African Americans for hard labor. They also believed that educated African Americans were unreliable and they disobeyed orders. In addition to black adults, white planters also employed child workers at a lower rate than adult workers. So if children were being forced to go to school, white planters would have to employ adults at higher wages and they would lose their child laborers. White planters did not see any reason to support universal education. They could send their own children to private school and they believed that it ruined their black workers. In order to get free public education, African Americans had to fight for it themselves and they succeeded.