NEGRO EDUCATION (C . E. HA.) Prior to the emancipation of Negroes in the United States in 1865 there were isolated instances in both the North and South of the establishment of schools for free Negroes. Negligible effects attended these efforts, however, because of opposition in the North and legislative enactments in the South forbidding the education of Negroes enslaved or free. Despite these barriers, a few Negroes entered northern white academies and universities and some graduated. Any discussion, however, of Negro education in America must begin substantially with the adoption of the reconstruction Constitutions by the former slave States.
Social factors not considered, mixed schools would have been the most economical and effective educational instrument and probably were the only means of insuring equal education for the two races. Several States considered the idea more or less seri ously and for a short period South Carolina adopted it. But cer tain political, social and biological theories concerning the race placed the Negro at the bottom of the social scale, and tended to restrict the amount, quality and kind of education considered assimilable by the Negro and necessary to fit him for the place assigned him in the social structure.
The extreme biological theory assumed the Negro incapable of education ; the extreme social attitude held that education "spoiled" the Negro for useful pursuits; while the liberal attitude is expressed by these words in the doorway of a Negro school in Alabama: "It is the duty of the South to train the descendants of the former slaves to become intelligent, productive, industrial units in the commonwealth." The Negroes bitterly resented these restrictions and their feelings were shared to a consid erable degree by many white people interested in Negro educa tion. Private schools for Negroes sprang up all over the South,
supported largely by northern philanthropy and conducted by northern white educational missionaries, though many were main tained by Negroes. These schools supplied most of their secon dary education and practically all of their collegiate training.
About 1905 a general educational revival began in the South with a new emphasis on education for both races. The Negro had proved his capacity for education. Increasing industrial pros perity in the South and the lessening of isolation effected a general willingness to provide more liberally out of public taxation for Negro education. Since 1915 this tendency has grown steadily. The National Association of Teachers in Colored Schools organ ized in 1903 and the State associations of Negro teachers have done much to stimulate more liberal public sentiment. Negro col lege attendance has increased 15o% in 1923-28, showing how Negroes have reacted to increased facilities for education.