Public education in the United States has changed drastically over the years. These changes include good and bad, however, the topic of race has always been a controversial subject. African Americans have especially battled with the education system throughout the years. Unfortunately, the unequal treatment of this race lasted from early colonial times, until the mid 1900’s. The treatment of all races in the public education system has evolved immensely, and it appears time has only made this topic dissolve more and more.
Colonial education differs immensely from our education system today. At the time, only white males would attend, “school”. African Americans had absolutely no chance of getting any sort of education at this time as slavery
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Now that they are recognized as US citizens, they began to fight for equality: education especially. The famous court case, Plessy v. Ferguson, took place in 1896 which ruled that races could continue to be separated as long as the facilities were equal. This included schools. Schools meant for white children were much nicer. They received new textbooks, nicer classrooms, and overall a much better environment for children to learn. Schools meant for african american children were not well kept, in some areas very dispersed, and the students received the old and used textbooks from the white schools. Despite segregation being deemed legal, students were not treated equally what so ever. It was not until 1954 when inequality between the two races in school systems alone was recognized. Brown v. Board of Education was the court case that changed it all. The segregation of schools was deemed unconstitutional, thus began desegregation. African American children could now go to school alongside white children and receive a good quality education. Following desegregation, several school systems, typically in the south, refused to allow african american children to attend school with white