Education during migration Charleston to the Mississippi Delta

Education during migration from Charleston, South Carolina to the Mississippi Delta offers a strong insight into racial segregation in American public education.

About

During the time of the migration from Charleston to Mississippi Delta public education was made offered to African Americans. The public education provided African Americans with an industrial education, which gave the students many skills and trades. The industrial education gave African Americans middle/low class jobs where they could be no threat to the whites. They were not taught formal public education which is similar to education today.

White missionaries that were teachers began to educate African American children. Then African American began to replace the white missionaries after receiving education because it was important that African Americans educate themselves. They were taught reading, writing and arithmetic. The study of history was spent very little time on by teacher and the history that was covered was of white Americans. In Charleston freed African American established schools, many sent their children north to get a better education. When the civil war ended there was an expansion of the Charleston’s education facilities. There were publicly financed schools for African Americans in Charleston for the time due to the actions of Freedman’s Bureau, freedman’s aid societies, and African American community leaders.

African Americans also received private school education from Shaw Memorial School and the Avery Institute which was organized in 1865. In the black churches there was public education which taught academic and religious subjects. It was mandatory that all children be in attendance at a public or private school, and colleges had to not discriminate because they were receiving state money. African American and whites felt the same about integration, that it would cause more bad than good, so most blacks went to segregated schools. African Americans then moved to Mississippi because there was a better opportunity for them because jobs paid more.

The schools in Mississippi was insufficient from the very beginning, the teachers received poor training because the school board did not want to employ certified teachers. The teachers were paid less, and the classes for the students were overcrowded.

References

* Alkalimat, Abdul (2004). "The African American Experience in Cyberspace". Pluto Press.
* [http://www.cr.nps.gov/delta/volume1/altc.htm Draft Heritage Study and Environmental Assessment] , National Park Service
* [http://northbysouth.kenyon.edu/2002/Education/Pages/School.htm Public Education]