Freedmen's Bureau Case Analysis

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The Freedmen’s Bureau gained additional support from organizations such as the New England Freedmen’s Aid Society, Boston Educational Commission, The Philadelphia Freedmen’s Relief Association and the American Missionary Society. The impact of agent Pierce’s project in Hilton Head influenced the creation of the New England Freedmen’s Aid Society. The NEFAS later created the Boston Educational Commission. These two groups worked together on issues that dealt with the Sea Islands. Both groups decided to send “a group of 321 teachers and experts in agriculture” for educational purposes in the Sea Islands. By 1868, the NEFAS and BEC accounted for “182 teachers and 79 schools in Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, …show more content…

The fight for equality, specifically, in the field of education became a primary issue amongst the African-American community. Some states would pass laws in favor of giving African-Americans equality in public school systems. For example, in 1849, Ohio passed a law “to establish schools for Black children to be financed as all other public schools were.” The power of the law in 1849 proved it was not enough to sway the people of Ohio equality for African-Americans was best for their state. The passage of that law caused an all-white school board of Cincinnati not to fund the African-American schools within their district for four years. Their actions caused an outrage in the African-American community of Cincinnati. African-American families of Cincinnati families fought the school board by threatening to send their children to the all-white schools rather attend their all-black schools. The school board would be victors in the current battle for segregation but would lose the war when a family actually sent their child to an all-white school. The teacher refused teaching the child because he was “the wrong color for her class,” and she demanded that he be expelled. The school board voted in favor of expelling the child. As a result of their decision, “two member of the White board resigned… the school board responded by establishing four schools for Black children.” Ultimately, the African-American families of Cincinnati proved African-Americans were breaking their submissive nature and fighting for the matter of equality. Not all states believed in segregation of public schools such as Iowa. In 1857, Iowa passed a law “eliminating restrictions to educational facilities because of skin