Essay On The Importance Of African American Education

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As William Edward Burghardt DuBois states in the book, “The Common Three”, All Negroes were ignorant; All Negroes were lazy, dishonest, and extravagant; Negroes were responsible for the bad government during reconstruction.” You can easily see why African Americans wanted the Stereotypes to stop; why they became so involved in education and did whatever they could to partake in educational activities. African Americans wanted to be more than that ignorant Negro. Education was important to the black communities in the South because African Americans wanted to prove the people wrong. For most African Americans in the south, obtaining an education proved critical for defeating slavery. Learning how to read, understand mathematical concepts, and increase their vocabulary beyond slave vernacular was considered a revolutionary act. Reconstruction: The Second civil war also states: now slaves once ignorant of written words and numbers could see the benefit of their new-found, though secret, knowledge. African Americans now have the necessary skills and tools to defeat racism bestowed upon them. Local churches and citizens started schools in the south. In these times Agricultural Economy dictated …show more content…

The congress created this to help former slave and poor whites after the civil war. Even though, as many as, 4 million slaves gained their freedom, many communities and plantation in the south were destroyed because of lack of care. The Freedman Bureau tried to help the poor whites and freed slaves as much as possible. They provided food, housing and medical aid. The Freedman’s Bureau also established schools and offered legal assistance to those that needed it. However this Bureau could not do what it was fully attended to do. There was a shortage of funds and personnel and the congress ended up shutting the Freedman’s Bureau down in