Teachers’ Education

In the South, Black education stemmed from emancipation with the goal of betterment. The reality of Black education was a white-controlled structural system. Members of the Black community tried to reform and improve the education system from the ground up. Women, especially, experienced a social responsibility to work towards the betterment of the black community; Black teachers met this responsibility. In 1900, there was one Black teacher for every ninety-three black students. The demand for teachers drew many into the profession, despite the hardships associated with teaching. Want-to-be teachers turned to private normal schools, secondary schools, and colleges for education. Black teachers sometimes only had slightly more education than the students they taught.

For more historical context, see:

• James D. Anderson, The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988).
• Stephanie J. Shaw, What a Woman Ought to Be and to Do: Black Professional Women Workers During the Jim Crow Era, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996).