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1852 Massachusetts was the first state to pass a law requiring all children* to attend free, public elementary school called the common school. 

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1852 Massachusetts was the first state to pass a law requiring all children* to attend free, public elementary school called the common school. 

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Although the public school system in Massachusetts was coed, the goal of education for girls was to provide them with literary, domestic and moral teachings. (encyclopedia.com) *It is important to understand that enslaved kids were not allowed to have an education.

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The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." (National Archives)

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History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives, “The First Colored Senator and Representatives, In the 41st and 42nd Congress of the United States”  

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Passed by Congress in 1869, and ratified in 1870, the 15th Amendment granted African American men the right to vote.

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Passed by Congress in 1869, and ratified in 1870, the 15th Amendment granted African American men the right to vote.

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Many African Americans won several seats in Congress. Hiram Revels and Blanche Bruce, for example, became the first African Americans to be elected to the U.S. Senate, representing the state of Mississippi.

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1869 - 1978 (?) Indian Boarding Schools were established. 

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1869 - 1978 (?) Indian Boarding Schools were established. 

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“Between 1869 and the 1960s, hundreds of thousands of Native American children were removed from their homes and families and placed in boarding schools operated by the federal government and the churches. Though we don't know how many children were taken in total, by 1900 there were 20,000 children in Indian boarding schools, and by 1925 that number had more than tripled. The U.S. Native children that were voluntarily or forcibly removed from their homes, families, and communities during this time were taken to schools far away where they were punished for speaking their native language, banned from acting in any way that might be seen to represent traditional or cultural practices, stripped of traditional clothing, hair and personal belongings and behaviors reflective of their native culture. They suffered physical, sexual, cultural and spiritual abuse and neglect, and experienced treatment that in many cases constituted torture for speaking their Native languages. Many children never returned home and their fates have yet to be accounted for by the U.S. government.” (https://boardingschoolhealing.org/education/us-indian-boarding-school-history/)

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Play Narration Your browser does not support the audio element.

Indian boarding schools were founded to eliminate traditional American Indian ways of life and replace them with mainstream American culture. The first boarding schools were set up starting in the mid-nineteenth century either by the government or Christian missionaries. Initially, the government forced many Indian families to send their children to boarding schools. Later, Indian families chose to send their children to boarding schools because there were no other schools available.

At boarding schools, Indian children were separated from their families and cultural ways for long periods, sometimes four or more years. The children were forced to cut their hair and give up their traditional clothing. They had to give up their meaningful Native names and take English ones. They were not only taught to speak English but were punished for speaking their own languages. Their own traditional religious practices were forcibly replaced with Christianity. They were taught that their cultures were inferior. Some teachers ridiculed and made fun of the students' traditions. These lessons humiliated the students and taught them to be ashamed of being American Indian. The boarding schools had a bad effect on the self-esteem of Indian students and on the wellbeing of Native languages and cultures.

However, not all boarding school experiences were negative. Many of the Indian students had some good memories of their school days and made friends for life. They also acquired knowledge and learned useful skills that helped them later in life.

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Chapter 3: Boarding Schools | Native Words, Native Warriors

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Beginning in the late nineteenth century, many American Indian children attended government- or church-operated boarding schools.

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1877 –  1965 The voting rights of Black men were severely restricted. 

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1877 –  1965 The voting rights of Black men were severely restricted. 

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“Voting rights for Black men in the former Confederate states were rescinded in courts and in state and local laws, and those rights were further restricted by poll taxes, literacy tests, intimidation, grandfather laws and fraud.” After their terms in office the next Black person elected to the Senate was Edward Brooke of Massachusetts, nearly a century later in 1967, after the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed into law.

(https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/vote)

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1877 – 1950 (1954?) Jim Crow Era- Separate but Equal Segregation Laws  

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1877 – 1950 (1954?) Jim Crow Era- Separate but Equal Segregation Laws  

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After the Emancipation Proclamation, a series of laws were passed in the South that made segregation legal. The use of public spaces, such as schools, buses, restaurants, parks, beaches, and so forth were separated by those who could be used by Whites and those for colored people. These laws have come to be known as the Separate but Equal laws of segregation.

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At AST we're committed to ensuring equal access for all users. To guide us in this effort, we use the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, version 2.0 (also known as WCAG 2.0). We've chosen Level AA as the target for our products and services. Users, please first contact your IT system administrator to report a problem.

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Historical records indicate the current letter grading system was born around 1886 to 1897, when professors from different universities started using the letter grade system, which seems to have started with A to E, and then the E was dropped and F was then adopted.  https://www.pbs.org/video/why-do-we-get-grades-in-school-vfjen8/

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Origin of Everything
Season 1 Episode 9 | 7m 45s

Will you get a B+, C, an A-, a D+ or the dreaded F? We've all had that moment of sheer panic while waiting for your report card. But when you step back, it's worth asking why do we get letter grades at all? And whatever happened to E? Find out in this week's episode!

Aired: 12/05/17

Rating: NR

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Why Do We Get Grades in School? | Season 1 Episode 9 | Origin of Everything

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Origin of Everything Season 1 Episode 9 | 7m 45s Will you get a B+, C, an A-, a D+ or the dreaded F? We've all had that moment of sheer panic while waiting for your report card. But when you step back, it's worth asking why do we get letter grades at all?

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1885 – Tape v. Hurley (CA) “In the fall of 1884, the Tapes attempted to enroll their eldest daughter, Mamie, in the Spring Valley Primary School, which was in their neighborhood. Principal Jennie Hurley refused to admit her, citing existing school board policy against admitting a child of Chinese descent.  Although a law passed by the California State Legislature in 1880 (California Code 1662) entitled all children in the state admission to public schools, social custom and local school board policy in San Francisco at the time had excluded Chinese children from attending white public schools. The Tapes sued the San Francisco Board of Education and Principal Hurley, taking the issue to the California Supreme Court. They argued that the school’s decision to keep Mamie from attending Spring Valley Primary School violated the state school law. On January 9, 1885, Superior Court Judge McGuire decided in favor of Mamie, writing “To deny a child, born of Chinese parents in this State, entrance to the public schools would be a violation of the law of the State and the Constitution of the United States.”

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This lesson will cover the story of the Tape family, Chinese immigrants and their American-born children residing in San Francisco, California. Joseph and Mary Tape attempted to enroll their daughter, Mamie, at Spring Valley Primary, an all-white school, and were denied based on their race. Students will learn about the Tape family, Joseph and Mary's California Supreme Court case, Tape v. Hurley (1885), and the greater connections their story lent itself to anti-Asian sentiment in the United States at that time and fight for school desegregation.

Students will learn about the effects of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 on Chinese people living in the United States and the history of school segregation in San Francisco.

Students will analyze the broader history of anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States as a result of the Chinese Exclusion Act and also connect interracial injustices within the scope of school segregation.

Following the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which prohibited Chinese laborers from immigrating to the U.S., Chinese Americans were racially excluded in other ways. In California, the Tape family legally challenged the San Francisco Board of Education because their daughter was denied access to public education. This led to the 1885 landmark California Supreme Court case, Tape v. Hurley, one of the earliest civil rights decisions against racist policies that segregated students on the basis of race. This occurred 69 years before the U.S. Supreme Court deemed school segregation unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education (1954).

Joseph and Mary Tape were Chinese immigrants who came to California in the 1860s. When Mary was an orphan, the Ladies' Protection and Relief Society provided her with housing and taught her English. Joseph worked as a houseboy and a dairyman in his early years, and became a successful broker. They considered themselves as American as the native-born Americans they lived amongst in San Francisco and believed their American-born daughter, Mamie should be allowed to attend Spring Valley Primary, an all-white school. The principal Jenny Hurley denied Mamie enrollment into Spring Valley because of her race. In response to this discrimination, the Tapes sued Hurley, and took it to the California Supreme Court.

School officials argued that the California Constitution stated that the Chinese were "dangerous to the well-being of the state," and thus anyone of Chinese descent should not be admitted to San Francisco public schools. The California Supreme Court ruled in its decision that the 14th Amendment protected the rights of citizens and Mamie, a U.S. citizen, could not be denied the opportunity to attend school. They did however strongly hint that segregated schools were not against the law, which led the San Francisco Board of Education to do just that - build separate schools for Chinese students. Later that year, the Tapes had no choice but to enroll their children at the Chinese Primary School, even though they continued to fight for Mamie's right to attend an integrated school.

Tape v. Hurley ultimately did not win Mamie Tape the ability to attend Spring Valley Primary School or create an integrated school system that allowed all students to equitably access education regardless of race. Nevertheless, this is an important civil rights decision. Many years later, federal court case Mendez v. Westminster (1947), and U.S. Supreme Court case Brown v.Board of Education (1954), expanded on the Tape v. Hurley decision that all students should have access to schooling by ruling school segregation on the basis of race as unconstitutional.

VOCABULARY

Segregation: legally separating people by race or ethnicity in an established community within various services and public spaces depending on the law

Civil Rights: A set of fundamental rights for everyone, including equal treatment under the law, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, or other personal characteristics

Xenophobia: fear and hatred towards a person or group of people from a foreign country

1. Why was Mamie Tape unable to enroll at a San Francisco public school?

2. How were racist policies a factor in the education of Chinese American students? Explain any parallels between Mamie Tape and students of color today.

3. Why do you think Mary Tape was dissatisfied with the San Francisco Board of Education's decision to create a Chinese Primary School for Mamie to attend?

ACTIVITY 1: Analyzing a Primary Source - Mary Tape's Letter to the San Francisco Board of Education

Read the following excerpt of Mary Tape's letter with students (excerpted from the "Fight Against School Segregation" film clip. Citation: Mary Tape, An Outspoken Woman, OAH Magazine of History, Volume 15, Issue 2, Winter 2001, Pages 17-19, https://doi.org/10.1093/maghis/15.2.17. Inform them that grammar and writing standards were different in the 1800s and to look for the meaning behind her words when analyzing Tape's letter.

"To the Board of Education - Dear Sirs: I see that you are going to make all sorts of excuses to keep my child out of the Public schools. Dear sirs, Will you please to tell me! Is it a disgrace to be Born a Chinese! Didn't God make us all!!! What right have you to bar my children out of the school because she is a chinese Descend...I will let the world see Sir What justice there is When it is govern by the Race prejudice men! just because she is of the Chinese descend, not because she doesn't dress like you because she does. just because she is descended of Chinese parents I guess she is more of a American than a good many of you that is going to prevent her being Educated." - Mrs. M. Tape, April 16, 1885

Tell students to annotate the letter using a chosen strategy by the teacher.

Pair student up and have them answer the following questions:

How does Mary Tape's letter reveal the anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States during the 1880s? Cite evidence from her letter.

How does Mary Tape's letter show Mary Tape's courage and steadfastness and represent resistance and activism? Cite evidence from her letter.

Have students share what they discussed and continue the discussion as an entire class.

ACTIVITY 2: Research School Desegregation Cases

Tell students that they will analyze how other legal cases against school segregation relate to Tape v. Hurley . They will conduct research on the following legal cases:

Other legal cases on school segregation that students can also research are: Massachusetts Supreme Court case Roberts v. City of Boston (1849) and U.S. Supreme Court case Lum v. Rice.

Have a class discussion on the following:

What are the similarities and differences between Tape v. Hurley (1885), Mendez v. Westminster (1947), Brown v. Board of Education (1954), and any other legal cases researched?

Explain what role each of the three cases ( Tape v. Hurley, Mendez v. Westminster, and Brown v. Board of Education ) play in desegregating schools? How were these cases demanding equality and social justice for all Americans?

What are some current issues in regards to education equity in the United States?

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Episode 1, Lesson 4: The Fight For School Desegregation by Asian Americans

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Episode 1, Lesson 4 The Fight For School Desegregation by Asian Americans

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It challenged the  Louisiana’s Separate Car Act of 1890, which required that all railroads operating in the state of Louisiana provide “equal but separate accommodations for White and African American passengers and prohibited passengers from entering accommodations other than those to which they had been assigned on the basis of their race.”  The supreme court decided by a 6 to 1 (one justice did not participate) to validate the concept and practice of  separate but equal.

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Representation Matters: Supreme Court Justices Throughout Time

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Representation Matters: Supreme Court Justices Throughout Time

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The QR code below will take you to a page of the Supreme Court official website. Check the photos of all the justices per era from 1867 to present. Note who is seating on the benches by age, skin color, race/ethnicity, or any other element of their identity. What identity group is in power?

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All Together for the Camera:
A History of the Supreme Court's Group Photograph

Few visual cues say "Supreme Court" as well as its group photograph. While this custom probably began at the urging of Washington photographers interested in print sales, it ended up becoming one of the Court's most popular and enduring traditions.

For 75 years after the first group photograph in 1867, the Justices gathered occasionally for a succession of several talented photographers who had just as many approaches for portraying the Justices. The Court eventually settled on some ground rules-for example, posing together only after a new Justice arrived, and in an arrangement based on seniority. Since 1941, the group photograph has been taken in the Supreme Court Building, which helped standardize it even further. All of the visual elements familiar today fell into place when the first officially approved group photograph was taken, in color, in 1965.

In the 19th century, a group photograph was typically seen in person-prints were purchased by tourists as collectible mementos, by autograph collectors who sought to add the Justices' signatures, and by law firms which would hang framed copies on office walls. By the turn of the 20th century, they were seen by a much wider audience due to an explosion of published images in books, magazines and newspapers. In the 21st century, the group photograph straddles both worlds: over a century of print and digital media have made the image an instantly recognizable icon, while the 19th century ritual of Justices individually autographing a small number of original prints also remains an enduring tradition.

The graphic above includes Justices from 1886 to 2016.
Seated, from left: Justice Horace Gray (photographed in 1886), Justice John Marshall Harlan (in 1899), Chief Justice William Howard Taft (in 1923), Justice Tom C. Clark (in 1965) and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (in 2010); standing, from left: Justice William B. Woods (in 1886), Justice George Shiras (in 1899), Justice Thurgood Marshall (in 1970) and Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (in 1981)

Unless otherwise noted, all photographs in this online exhibit are from the Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States

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All Together for the Camera: 150 Years of Group Photographs

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All Together for the Camera: A History of the Supreme Court's Group Photograph Few visual cues say "Supreme Court" as well as its group photograph. While this custom probably began at the urging of Washington photographers interested in print sales, it ended up becoming one of the Court's most popular and enduring traditions.

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1916 – Stanford University Professor, Lewis M. Terman (1877-1956), eugenicist and the father of the intelligence movement in America and creator of The American measure of intelligence (IQ test) published a guide for the clinical use of the Standard-Binet test, which is still largely used today. On page 91-96 of his book, he states that “It is interesting to note that M.P. and C.P. [two Portuguese boys whose intelligence he had tested], represent the level of intelligence which is very, very common among Spanish-Indian and Mexican families of the Southwest and also among Negroes. Their dullness seems to be racial, or at least inherent in the family stocks from which they come… Children of this group should be segregated in special classes and be given instruction which is concrete and practical. They cannot master abstractions, but they can often be made efficient workers, able to look out for themselves.” (In Valencia, 2010, p. 15)

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1917 - Jeannette Rankin became the first woman elected to Congress.

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1917 - Jeannette Rankin became the first woman elected to Congress.

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“Rankin was sworn in as a representative for Montana on April 2, 1917. She served a second term in the House of Representatives in 1941. Both of Representative Rankin’s congressional terms coincided with the country’s entry into a World War. A lifelong pacifist, Rankin has the distinction of being the only member of Congress to vote against U.S. involvement in both World War I and World War II. During her time in Congress, Rankin also made significant efforts to secure woman suffrage and pass social reforms that improved working conditions and protected women and children. Upon learning of her election in 1916, Rankin foretold, “I may be the first woman member of Congress, but I won’t be the last.” As of 2021, 387 women have served in the U.S. Congress.” https://museum.archives.gov

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1918 – The last state of the union to establish that “all student must attend elementary education.” Now, a mandatory, public elementary school system is available in all states of the United States.

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1918 – The last state of the union to establish that “all student must attend elementary education.” Now, a mandatory, public elementary school system is available in all states of the United States.

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“The Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education made a case for the creation of a two track system: one track steered students, primarily males, toward college preparatory coursework, and the other track provided vocational training. For White, Black, and other minority girls, the vocational track was encouraged. Even girls with strong academic records were required to take domestic science or home economics (Tyack & Hansot, 1990). Despite the expansion of women’s role in society, through the mid 1960s girls were channeled into occupational choices that were limited to four categories: secretarial, nursing, teaching, or motherhood (Sadker & Sadker, 1995).” http://girlsschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/The-Education-of-Girls-and-Women-in-the-United-States-A-Historical-Perspective.pdf

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1919-1920 – The 19th Amendment granted women the right to vote.

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1919-1920 – The 19th Amendment granted women the right to vote.

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1930  The Lemon Grove Incident - San Diego

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1930  The Lemon Grove Incident - San Diego

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"On January 5, 1931, Jerome T. Green, principal of the Lemon Grove Grammar School, acting under instructions from the school trustees, stood at the door and admitted all pupils except the Mexican students. Principal Green announced that the Mexican children did not belong at the school, could not enter, and instructed them to attend a two room building constructed to house Mexican children. " The Zinn Education Project

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Lemon Grove mural preserves nearly-lost history of 'José Crow' segregation

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“Sylvia Mendez, who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a 2011 White House ceremony, was a child when she was turned away from a California public school for "whites only." That rejection fueled her father's determined journey through school, civic, and legal channels. Gonzalo Mendez, represented by a civil rights attorney, took four Los Angeles-area school districts to court and won a class action lawsuit at the trial and appellate levels of the federal court system.”

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1950s - 1960s- The American Civil Rights Movement 

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1950s - 1960s- The American Civil Rights Movement 

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...was a mass protest against the separate but equal  racial segregation laws of the south. It came to national prominence during the mid-1950s and 60s. It fought against the discrimination of former enslaved people who, although formally emancipated as a result of the American Civil War and with constitutional rights guaranteed through the passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments to the U.S. Constitution, struggled to secure federal protection of these rights. The civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s “achieved the most important breakthrough in equal-rights legislation for African Americans since the Reconstruction period (1865–77).”

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American civil rights movement, mass protest movement against racial segregation and discrimination in the southern United States that came to national prominence during the mid-1950s. This movement had its roots in the centuries-long efforts of enslaved Africans and their descendants to resist racial oppression and abolish the institution of slavery. Although enslaved people were emancipated as a result of the American Civil War and were then granted basic civil rights through the passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments to the U.S. Constitution, struggles to secure federal protection of these rights continued during the next century. Through nonviolent protest, the civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s broke the pattern of public facilities' being segregated by "race" in the South and achieved the most important breakthrough in equal-rights legislation for African Americans since the Reconstruction period (1865-77). Although the passage in 1964 and 1965 of major civil rights legislation was victorious for the movement, by then militant Black activists had begun to see their struggle as a freedom or liberation movement not just seeking civil rights reforms but instead confronting the enduring economic, political, and cultural consequences of past racial oppression.
(Read Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s Britannica essay on "Monuments of Hope.")

Abolitionism to Jim Crow

American history has been marked by persistent and determined efforts to expand the scope and inclusiveness of civil rights. Although equal rights for all were affirmed in the founding documents of the United States, many of the new country's inhabitants were denied essential rights. Enslaved Africans and indentured servants did not have the inalienable right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" that British colonists asserted to justify their Declaration of Independence. Nor were they included among the "People of the United States" who established the Constitution in order to "promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity." Instead, the Constitution protected slavery by allowing the importation of enslaved persons until 1808 and providing for the return of enslaved people who had escaped to other states.

As the United States expanded its boundaries, Native American peoples resisted conquest and absorption. Individual states, which determined most of the rights of American citizens, generally limited voting rights to white property-owning males, and other rights-such as the right to own land or serve on juries-were often denied on the basis of racial or gender distinctions. A small proportion of Black Americans lived outside the slave system, but those so-called "free Blacks" endured racial discrimination and enforced segregation. Although some enslaved persons violently rebelled against their enslavement ( see slave rebellions), African Americans and other subordinated groups mainly used nonviolent means-protests, legal challenges, pleas and petitions addressed to government officials, as well as sustained and massive civil rights movements-to achieve gradual improvements in their status.

During the first half of the 19th century, movements to extend voting rights to non-property-owning white male labourers resulted in the elimination of most property qualifications for voting, but this expansion of suffrage was accompanied by brutal suppression of American Indians and increasing restrictions on free Blacks. Owners of enslaved people in the South reacted to the 1831 Nat Turner slave revolt in Virginia by passing laws to discourage antislavery activism and prevent the teaching of enslaved people to read and write. Despite this repression, a growing number of Black Americans freed themselves from slavery by escaping or negotiating agreements to purchase their freedom through wage labour. By the 1830s, free Black communities in the Northern states had become sufficiently large and organized to hold regular national conventions, where Black leaders gathered to discuss alternative strategies of racial advancement. In 1833 a small minority of whites joined with Black antislavery activists to form the American Anti-Slavery Society under the leadership of William Lloyd Garrison.

Frederick Douglass became the most famous of the formerly enslaved persons who joined the abolition movement. His autobiography-one of many slave narratives-and his stirring orations heightened public awareness of the horrors of slavery. Although Black leaders became increasingly militant in their attacks against slavery and other forms of racial oppression, their efforts to secure equal rights received a major setback in 1857, when the U.S. Supreme Court rejected African American citizenship claims. The Dred Scott decision stated that the country's founders had viewed Blacks as so inferior that they had "no rights which the white man was bound to respect." This ruling-by declaring unconstitutional the Missouri Compromise (1820), through which Congress had limited the expansion of slavery into western territories-ironically strengthened the antislavery movement, because it angered many whites who did not hold enslaved people. The inability of the country's political leaders to resolve that dispute fueled the successful presidential campaign of Abraham Lincoln, the candidate of the antislavery Republican Party. Lincoln's victory in turn prompted the Southern slave states to secede and form the Confederate States of America in 1860-61.

Although Lincoln did not initially seek to abolish slavery, his determination to punish the rebellious states and his increasing reliance on Black soldiers in the Union army prompted him to issue the Emancipation Proclamation (1863) to deprive the Confederacy of its enslaved property. After the American Civil War ended, Republican leaders cemented the Union victory by gaining the ratification of constitutional amendments to abolish slavery ( Thirteenth Amendment) and to protect the legal equality of formerly enslaved persons ( Fourteenth Amendment) and the voting rights of male ex-slaves ( Fifteenth Amendment). Despite those constitutional guarantees of rights, almost a century of civil rights agitation and litigation would be required to bring about consistent federal enforcement of those rights in the former Confederate states. Moreover, after federal military forces were removed from the South at the end of Reconstruction, white leaders in the region enacted new laws to strengthen the " Jim Crow" system of racial segregation and discrimination. In its Plessy v. Ferguson decision (1896), the Supreme Court ruled that " separate but equal" facilities for African Americans did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment, ignoring evidence that the facilities for Blacks were inferior to those intended for whites.

The Southern system of white supremacy was accompanied by the expansion of European and American imperial control over nonwhite people in Africa and Asia as well as in island countries of the Pacific and Caribbean regions. Like African Americans, most nonwhite people throughout the world were colonized or economically exploited and denied basic rights, such as the right to vote. With few exceptions, women of all races everywhere were also denied suffrage rights ( see woman suffrage).

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American civil rights movement | Definition, Protests, Activists, & Facts

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American civil rights movement, mass protest against racial segregation and discrimination in the southern U.S. that came to national prominence during the mid-1950s. Its roots were in the centuries-long efforts of enslaved Africans and their descendants to abolish slavery and resist racial oppression.

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1970s - The Civil Rights Movement was a catalyst for many minority groups to seek equal opportunities.

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1970s - The Civil Rights Movement was a catalyst for many minority groups to seek equal opportunities.

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Among them, disability rights activists, who organized a national movement and demanded changes to address the physical and social barriers and the biases that the disability community faced  that produced exclusionary practices and which produced the ADA- American with Disabilities Act- and more. Women also fought for their rights, whose outcome was the enactment of the Women's Educational Equity Act- WEEA. All these victories took place in the 1970s.

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The Supreme Court Case to reverse Plessy v. Ferguson and thus to consider the practice of Separate but Equal in schools unconstitutional.

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EnlargeDownload Link Citation: Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Opinion; May 17, 1954; Records of the Supreme Court of the United States; Record Group 267; National Archives. View All Pages in the National Archives Catalog View Transcript In this milestone decision, the Supreme Court ruled that separating children in public schools on the basis of race was unconstitutional. It signaled the end of legalized racial segregation in the schools of the United States, overruling the “separate but equal” principle set forth in the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case. On May 17, 1954, U.S.

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President Lyndon B. Johnson Signs the Voting Rights Act as Martin Luther King Jr. and Other Civil Rights Leaders Look on, President's Room, U.S. Capitol, Washin

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1964 (Fight against the vote suppression state laws in the books since 1877 )– The Voting Rights Act prohibited the unequal treatment of applications of voting laws. 

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1964 (Fight against the vote suppression state laws in the books since 1877 )– The Voting Rights Act prohibited the unequal treatment of applications of voting laws. 

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Collection LBJ-WHPO: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/1153
White House Photo Office Collection, 11/22/1963 - 1/20/1969

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1967 – Edward Brooke of Massachusetts becomes the first Black Senator in almost 100 years since the state suppression laws in place from 1877 until the Voting Act of 1965.  

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1967 – Edward Brooke of Massachusetts becomes the first Black Senator in almost 100 years since the state suppression laws in place from 1877 until the Voting Act of 1965.  

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According to https://www.senate.gov, he “served two full terms, from 1967 to 1979. Born in Washington, D.C., in 1919, Brooke graduated from Howard University before serving in the United States Army during World War II. After the war, he received a law degree from Boston University and became the first African American elected as a state's attorney general. During his Senate career he championed the causes of low-income housing and an increased minimum wage and promoted commuter rail and mass transit systems. Senator Brooke worked tirelessly to promote racial equality in the South. He also integrated the Senate barbershop when he had his first haircut there after becoming a senator. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in a White House ceremony on June 23, 2004, and was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 2008.”

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Edward W. Brooke's election to the U.S. Senate in 1966 ended an 85-year absence of African-American Senators. ¹ Brooke was the first popularly elected Senator and the first black politician from Massachusetts to serve in Congress. While he professed loyalty to the Republican Party, he was an independent thinker who acted according to his conscience. Throughout his political career, Brooke demonstrated resiliency and defined himself as a representative of his entire constituency rather than as an African-American Senator seeking solely to advance black interests.

Edward William Brooke III, was born in Washington, DC, on October 26, 1919. Named for his grandfather, father, and deceased sister Edwina, he lived with his father, Edward Brooke, Jr., a graduate of Howard University Law School and a longtime lawyer with the Veterans Administration; his mother, Helen Seldon; and his older sister, Helene. ² After graduating from Dunbar High School in Washington, DC, in 1936, Ed Brooke enrolled in Howard University. Originally intending to pursue a career in medicine, he decided to major in sociology, earning a bachelor of science degree in 1941. Shortly after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Brooke entered the U.S. Army as a second lieutenant. Before serving overseas in World War II, Brooke was stationed with the segregated 366th Infantry Regiment at Fort Devens in Ayer, Massachusetts. Like many black Members of the era, Brooke felt keenly the irony of fighting for democracy abroad while facing racial discrimination in the armed forces. The Massachusetts base implemented a whites-only policy for all clubs, as well as the swimming pool, the tennis courts, and the general store. "In every regard, we were treated as second-class soldiers, if not worse, and we were angry," Brooke recalled. "I felt a personal frustration and bitterness I had not known before in my life." ³ While stateside, Brooke defended black enlisted men in military court. Despite a lack of legal training, he earned a reputation as a competent public defender and a "soldier's lawyer." ⁴ His experience on the Massachusetts military base inspired him to earn an LL.B. in 1948 and an LL.M. in 1949 from Boston University. ⁵

Brooke spent 195 days with his unit in Italy. His fluent Italian and his light skin enabled him to cross enemy lines to communicate with Italian partisans. By the war's end, Brooke had earned the rank of captain, a Bronze Star, and a Distinguished Service Award. During his tour in Europe, he also met Italian-born Remigia Ferrari-Scacco. After a two-year long-distance relationship, they married on June 7, 1947, in Roxbury, Massachusetts. ⁶ The couple had two daughters: Edwina and Remi. Brooke divorced in 1978 and married Anne Fleming in 1979. Brooke and his second wife had a son, Edward W. Brooke IV.

Brooke declined offers to join established law firms, choosing instead to start his own practice in the predominantly African-American community of Roxbury. At the urging of friends from his former army unit, Brooke interrupted his law career to run for the Massachusetts house of representatives in 1950. Lacking party affiliation, Brooke took advantage of a state law allowing candidates to cross-file. Despite his nonexistent political experience, he received the endorsement of the Republican Party for the house seat representing Roxbury. Unsuccessful in the general election, Brooke entered the race two years later, winning the Republican nomination but losing to his Democratic opponent. ⁷

In 1966 Brooke authored The Challenge of Change: Crisis in Our Two-Party System, outlining many of his political principles, including his beliefs about civil rights. The "issue [civil rights] is pressing on the nation, and cries out for a solution," Brooke wrote, arguing that in addition to legislation, African Americans needed access to a quality education to compete with whites. ¹⁴ While he promoted change, Brooke steadily maintained that militancy undermined the civil rights movement.

After two terms as attorney general (1962-1966), Brooke announced his candidacy in 1965 for the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the retirement of Leverett Saltonstall. During the campaign against Democrat Endicott Peabody, formerly the governor of Massachusetts (he was unopposed in the Republican primary), Brooke vowed to work for "the establishment of peace, the preservation of freedom for all who desire it, and a better life for people at home and abroad." ¹⁵ Labeling himself a "creative Republican," Brooke successfully courted voters from both parties by emphasizing his moderate viewpoints. ¹⁶His criticism of militant civil rights activists resonated with many voters in Massachusetts. Despite the enthusiastic backing of popular Massachusetts Senator Edward (Ted) Kennedy, Peabody could not best Brooke on Election Day. On November 8, 1966, Brooke earned a seat in the 90th Congress (1967-1969), winning 62 percent of the vote. ¹⁷ His victory met with considerable fanfare, both in Massachusetts and the nation; Brooke was the first African American elected to the Senate since the Reconstruction Era. Asked to comment on his victory, Brooke praised the people of Massachusetts for their ability to "judge you on your merit and your worth alone." He promised to use his position to "unite men who have not been united before," reiterating his pledge to represent his constituents equally regardless of race. ¹⁸

Initially assigned to the Aeronautical and Space Sciences, Banking and Currency, and Government Operations committees, Brooke also served on the Armed Services and the Joint Committee on Bicentennial Arrangements committees for one Congress. ²² During the 92nd to the 95th Congresses (1971-1979), Brooke was on the Appropriations, Special Aging, and Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs committees. Brooke also sat on the Select Equal Education Opportunity Committee, the Joint Committee on Defense Production, and the Select Standards and Conduct Committee. His ability to secure assignments on prominent committees such as Banking and Currency and Armed Services while a junior Member was due in large measure to the "Johnson rule," instituted by Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas during his tenure as Senate Democratic Minority Leader in the early 1950s; senior Democrats believed giving junior Members at least one important committee assignment benefited the entire caucus. Johnson made sure the junior Members knew that it was he who conferred the plum assignments and considered the practice a means to ensure their fealty. He continued this system as Majority Leader, and senior Senate Republican leaders, such as Everett Dirksen of Illinois (who was Minority Leader when Brooke was first elected), adopted it as well. ²³

President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Brooke to the President's Commission on Civil Disorders shortly after he was elected to the Senate. Governor Otto Kerner of Illinois led the group, also known as the Kerner Commission. Charged with outlining the causes of the urban riots of 1967, the Kerner Commission also proposed solutions for the epidemic of racial unrest in American cities. The commission reported that American society was sharply divided along racial lines. The 11-member commission, including Brooke, suggested the government fund a series of programs to increase educational, housing, and employment opportunities for minorities living in urban areas. Although President Johnson was dedicated to bettering the circumstances of minorities, his preoccupation with the Vietnam War and his decision not to seek re-election rendered the commission's recommendations ineffective. ²⁴

Working with Democratic Senator Walter Mondale of Minnesota, Brooke succeeded in attaching an anti-discrimination amendment to the groundbreaking Civil Rights Act of 1968. Title VIII of the legislation included provisions to combat racial discrimination in housing. "Fair housing does not promise an end to the ghetto," Brooke cautioned. "It promises only to demonstrate that the ghetto is not an immutable institution in America." ²⁵ The African-American Senator cited his difficulties finding a home after he returned from service in World War II to illustrate the prejudice in the American housing market. ²⁶ Brooke proposed that to combat the "unconscionable bitterness between white and Black Americans, it is encumbent [ sic]upon our Government to act, and to act now." ²⁷ In 1975, Brooke vehemently defended the need to extend the 1965 Voting Rights Act. When a proposed Senate amendment threatened to dilute the historic voting rights legislation, Brooke joined the debate. "I just cannot believe that here in 1975 on the floor of the Senate we are ready to say to the American people, black or white, red or brown, 'You just cannot even be assured the basic right to vote in this country.'" ²⁸ Brooke's eloquent and impassioned plea to his colleagues helped extend the landmark measure seven years. ²⁹

Although Brooke supported the Republican Party, his stances were often contrary to the official party line. He typically adopted a liberal agenda with regard to social issues. During his two terms in the Senate, Brooke backed affirmative action, minority business development, and public housing legislation. He also favored extending minimum wage standards to unprotected jobs held by unskilled workers, providing tax incentives to companies with management training programs, and increasing operating subsidies for commuter rail services and mass transit systems. ³³ At times Brooke even broke party ranks to work with Democrats in the Senate and the House. For example, Brooke and House Majority Leader Thomas (Tip) O'Neill of Massachusetts recommended a swift increase in Social Security benefits in 1972. ³⁴

Concerned primarily with issues that would affect the residents of his state, Brooke also demonstrated interest in foreign affairs, especially the Vietnam War. During his run for the Senate in 1966, Brooke called for increased negotiations with the North Vietnamese rather than an escalation of the fighting. ³⁸ Determined to become an expert, he participated in a fact-finding mission in Southeast Asia in 1967. The Massachusetts Senator reported on his three-week trip during his first formal speech on the Senate Floor. Interpreted as a reversal of his position on Vietnam, his speech made national headlines. Brooke commented that his trip had convinced him "that the enemy is not disposed to participate in any meaningful negotiations," which led him to believe that Johnson's "patient" approach to Vietnam did in fact have merit. ³⁹ Brooke was praised by those who found his willingness to publicly change his position courageous, and criticized by many civil rights activists who believed the Vietnam War siphoned valuable funding away from vital domestic programs. ⁴⁰ Years later, Brooke maintained that his speech had been misinterpreted by the press because his continued support of a reduction of American involvement in the region was overlooked. ⁴¹ As a moderate Republican, Brooke grew impatient with the Nixon administration's aggressive Southeast Asian policies, which escalated the conflict with few signs of success. In 1970, he and 15 members of his party voted for the Cooper-Church Amendment, which originated in response to Nixon's decision to invade Cambodia and prohibited the use of American troops outside Vietnam. Brooke further challenged the President's war effort by voting for legislation that established a time limit for the withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam. ⁴²

In November 1972, Brooke easily defeated Democrat John J. Droney, the Middlesex County district attorney, earning 64 percent of the vote to win a second term in the Senate. ⁴³ After his re-election, Brooke continued his active role in domestic politics. In November 1975 he and seven colleagues on the Banking Committee rejected President Ford's nomination of former Georgia Representative Benjamin B. Blackburn to the Federal Home Loan Bank Board because of Blackburn's opposition to the 1968 Fair Housing Act. During the James Earl (Jimmy) Carter administration, Brooke reaffirmed his support of appropriations for low-income rental housing programs, construction of public housing, and the purchase and refurbishment of existing units. He successfully fought a 1977 amendment to a Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) bill that would have prevented the department from enforcing quotas to meet affirmative action goals, but he failed to block an anti-busing clause from a HEW funding measure.

After leaving office, the former Senator resumed the practice of law in Washington, DC. In 1984 he became chairman of the Boston Bank of Commerce, and one year later he was named to the board of directors of Grumman. Upon being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2002, Brooke returned to the public spotlight to increase awareness of breast cancer in men. Asked to comment about his public advocacy, Brooke responded, "You never know in life what you're going to be called upon to do." ⁴⁷ In 2004 President George W. Bush awarded Brooke the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. ⁴⁸ In 2007, Brooke published his autobiography, Bridging the Divide: My Life. ⁴⁹ He died at his home in Coral Gables, Florida, on January 3, 2015.

View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress

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BROOKE, Edward William, III | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives

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Edward W. Brooke's election to the U.S. Senate in 1966 ended an 85-year absence of African-American Senators.1 Brooke was the first popularly elected Senator and the first black politician from Massachusetts to serve in Congress. While he professed loyalty to the Republican Party, he was an independent thinker who acted according to his conscience.

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1974 - Women's Educational Equity Act (WEEA)

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1974 - Women's Educational Equity Act (WEEA)

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“The Women's Educational Equity Act, known as WEEA, was first enacted by Congress in 1974 and amended and extended several times since. The purpose of the law is to make education more equitable for girls and women by providing incentives and assistance to educational institutions and community groups." https://www2.edc.org/WomensEquity

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1975 – The HEA, Education for All Handicapped Children Act , (Public Law 94-142)

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1975 – The HEA, Education for All Handicapped Children Act , (Public Law 94-142)

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"In 1990, the law’s name changed to IDEA, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, when reauthorized. Its last authorization happened in 2004, with periodically issued new or revised regulations to address its implementation and interpretation. “Before EHA, many children were denied access to education and opportunities to learn. In 1970, U.S. schools educated only one in five children with disabilities, and many states had laws excluding certain students, including children who were deaf, blind, emotionally disturbed, or had an intellectual disability.”
Source https://sites.ed.gov/idea/IDEA-History

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1978 –  Indian Child Welfare Act (Connected to 1869 Indian Boarding Schools)

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1978 –  Indian Child Welfare Act (Connected to 1869 Indian Boarding Schools)

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Indigenous parents gained the right to deny their children’s placement in off reservation schools. (nativepartnership.org) Use the QR code below to read more about the history of boarding schools for Indigenous children.

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The boarding school experience for Indian children began in 1860 when the Bureau of Indian Affairs established the first Indian boarding school on the Yakima Indian Reservation in the state of Washington. These schools were part of a plan devised by well-intentioned, eastern reformers Herbert Welsh and Henry Pancoast, who also helped establish organizations such as the Board of Indian Commissioners, the Boston Indian Citizenship Association and the Women's National Indian Association.

The goal of these reformers was to use education as a tool to "assimilate" Indian tribes into the mainstream of the "American way of life," a Protestant ideology of the mid-19th century. Indian people would be taught the importance of private property, material wealth and monogamous nuclear families. The reformers assumed that it was necessary to "civilize" Indian people, make them accept white men's beliefs and value systems.

Boarding schools were the ideal instrument for absorbing people and ideologies that stood in the way of manifest destiny. Schools would quickly be able to assimilate Indian youth. The first priority of the boarding schools would be to provide the rudiments of academic education: reading, writing and speaking of the English language. Arithmetic, science, history and the arts would be added to open the possibility of discovering the "self-directing power of thought." Indian youth would be individualized. Religious training in Christianity would be taught. The principles of democratic society, institutions and the political structure would give the students citizenship training. The end goal was to eradicate all vestiges of Indian culture.

By the 1880s, the U.S. operated 60 schools for 6,200 Indian students, including reservation day schools and reservation boarding schools. The reservation day school had the advantage of being relatively inexpensive and caused the least opposition from parents. The reservation boarding school spent half a day teaching English and academics and half a day on industrial training. Regimentation was the order of the day and students spent endless hours marching to and from classes, meals and dormitories. Order, discipline and self-restraint were all prized values of white society.

The boarding schools hoped to produce students that were economically self-sufficient by teaching work skills and instilling values and beliefs of possessive individualism, meaning you care about yourself and what you as a person own. This opposed the basic Indian belief of communal ownership, which held that the land was for all people.
"Kill the Indian, Save the Man"
At this juncture, it was felt that reservation schools were not sufficiently removed from the influences of tribal life. In the eyes of assimilationists, off-reservation boarding schools would be the best hope of changing Indian children into members of the white society. For Col. Richard Henry Pratt, the goal was complete assimilation. In 1879, he established the most well known of the off-reservation boarding schools, the Carlisle Indian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. As Headmaster of the school for 25 years, he was the single most impacting figure in Indian education during his time.

Pratt's motto was, " Kill the Indian, save the man." Pratt believed that off-reservation schools established in white communities could accomplish this task. By immersing Indians into the mainstream of American life, the "outing" system created by Pratt had students living among white families during the summer. He hoped Indian youths would not return to the reservations but rather become part of the white community. Carlisle was the only off-reservation boarding school built in the East; all others were built in the West.

Carlisle and other off-reservation boarding schools instituted their assault on Native cultural identity by first doing away with all outward signs of tribal life that the children brought with them. The long braids worn by Indian boys were cut off. The children were made to wear standard uniforms. The children were given new "white" names, including surnames, as it was felt this would help when they inherited property. Traditional Native foods were abandoned, forcing students to acquire the food rites of white society, including the use of knives, forks, spoons, napkins and tablecloths. In addition, students were forbidden to speak their Native languages, even to each other. The Carlisle school rewarded those who refrained from speaking their own language; most other boarding schools relied on punishment to achieve this aim.

At the better boarding schools, students could attain a reasonable degree of English literacy in a relatively short period. At other schools, the method of teaching - an object card such as CAT shown to students, then written, pronounced and traced - failed to produce a comprehension of those words that had no equivalent in their Native tongue.

The Indian boarding schools taught history with a definite white bias. Columbus Day was heralded as a banner day in history and a beneficent development in their own race's fortune, as only after discovery did Indians enter the stream of history. Thanksgiving was a holiday to celebrate "good" Indians having aided the brave Pilgrim Fathers. New Year's was a reminder of how white people kept track of time and George Washington's birthday served as a reminder of the Great White Father. On Memorial Day, some students at off-reservation schools were made to decorate the graves of soldiers sent to kill their fathers.

Half of each school day was spent on industrial training. Girls learned to cook, clean, sew, care for poultry and do laundry for the entire institution. Boys learned industrial skills such as blacksmithing, shoemaking or performed manual labor such as farming. Since the schools were required to be as self-sufficient as possible, students did the majority of the work. By 1900, economic practicality became the goal and school curriculum slanted even further toward industrial training while academics languished.

The Carlisle school developed a " placing out system," placing Indian students in the mainstream community for summer or a year at a time where they could learn skills other than farming. While monitored carefully at Carlisle, other outing programs were often exploitive. At the Phoenix Indian School, girls became the major source of domestic labor for white families, boys were placed in seasonal harvest or other jobs unwanted by white or immigrant laborers and the students were unsupervised, learning very little from their outing experiences.

The Carlisle and Phoenix schools also had football teams, and Phoenix had a band that performed at summer parades and festivals. These activities were meant to support the idea that Indian people were capable of competing with whites.

Conversion to Christianity was also deemed essential to the cause. Indian boarding schools were expected to develop a curriculum of religious instruction, placing emphasis on the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes and Psalms. Implanting ideas of sin and a sense of guilt were part of Sunday schools. Christianity governed gender relations at the schools and most schools invested their energy in keeping the sexes apart, in some cases endangering the lives of the students by locking girls in their dormitories at night - meaning they could not get out, even in the case of fire. There were, however, ritualized social activities such as dances and promenades.

Discipline within the Indian boarding schools was severe and generally consisted of confinement, deprivation of privileges, threat of corporal punishment or restriction of diet. In addition to coping with the severe discipline, Indian students were ravaged by disease at boarding schools. Tuberculosis and trachoma ("sore eyes") were the greatest threats. In December of 1899, measles broke out at the Phoenix Indian School, reaching epidemic proportions by January. In its wake, 325 cases of measles, 60 cases of pneumonia, and 9 deaths were recorded in a 10-day period.

Naturally, Indian people resisted the schools in various ways. Sometimes entire villages refused to enroll their children in white men's schools. Indian agents on the reservations normally resorted to withholding rations or sending in agency police to enforce the school policy. In some cases, police were sent onto the reservations to seize children from their parents, whether willing or not. The police would continue to take children until the school was filled, so sometimes orphans were offered up or families would negotiate a family quota. Navajo police officers avoided taking "prime" children and would take children assumed to be less intelligent, those not well cared for or those physically impaired.

Indian parents also banded together to withdraw their children en masse, encouraging runaways and undermining the schools' influence during summer and school breaks. An 1893 court ruling increased pressure to keep Indian children in Boarding schools. It was not until 1978 with the passing of the Indian Child Welfare Act that Native American parents gained the legal right to deny their children's placement in off-reservation schools.

Some Native American parents saw boarding school education for what it was intended to be - the total destruction of Indian culture. Others objected to specific aspects of the education system, the manner of discipline and the drilling. Still others were concerned for their children's health and associated the schools with death. Resentment of the boarding schools was most severe because the schools broke the most sacred and fundamental of all human ties, the parent-child bond.

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Native American History and Culture: Boarding Schools - American Indian Relief Council is now Northern Plains Reservation Aid

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The boarding school experience for Indian children began in 1860 when the Bureau of Indian Affairs established the first boarding school on the Yakima Indian Reservation in the state of Washington. These schools were part of a plan devised by...

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2022 – NPR announces the U.S. report by the Interior Department of Defense titled: WATCH: "Report finds 500 Native American boarding school deaths in ‘terrible system,’ Haaland says"

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2022 – NPR announces the U.S. report by the Interior Department of Defense titled: WATCH: "Report finds 500 Native American boarding school deaths in ‘terrible system,’ Haaland says"

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Canada imported the boarding/residential school model from the United States.

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FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) - A first-of-its-kind federal study of Native American boarding schools that for over a century sought to assimilate Indigenous children into white society has identified more than 500 student deaths at the institutions so far, but officials say that figure could grow exponentially as research continues.
Watch Haaland's remarks in the player above.
The Interior Department report released Wednesday expands to more than 400 the number of schools that were known to have operated across the U.S. for 150 years, starting in the early 19th century and coinciding with the removal of many tribes from their ancestral lands. It identified the deaths in records for about 20 of them.
READ MORE: Researchers unearth the painful history of a Native boarding school in Missouri
The dark history of the boarding schools - where children were forced from their families, prohibited from speaking their Native American languages and often abused - has been felt deeply across Indian Country and through generations.

Many children never returned home, and the Interior Department said that with further investigation the number of known student deaths could climb to the thousands or even tens of thousands. Officials say causes included illness, accidental injuries and abuse.

"Each of those children is a missing family member, a person who was not able to live our their purpose on this earth because they lost their lives as part of this terrible system," said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, whose paternal grandparents were sent to boarding school for several years as kids.

The agency - with the help of many Indigenous people who had to work through their own trauma and pain - has poured through tens of thousands of boxes containing millions of pages of records. But accounting for the number of deaths has been difficult because records weren't always kept.

A second volume of the report will cover burial sites as well as the federal government's financial investment in the schools and the impacts of the boarding schools on Indigenous communities, the Interior Department said. It has so far identified at least 53 burial sites at or near boarding schools.

The boarding school era perpetuated poverty in Indigenous communities, loss of wealth, mental health disorders, substance abuse and premature deaths, Haaland said at a news conference Wednesday, choking back tears.

"Recognizing the impacts of the federal Indian boarding school system cannot just be a historical reckoning," she said. "We must also chart a path forward to deal with these legacy issues."

Haaland, who is Laguna, announced an initiative last June to investigate the troubled legacy of boarding schools and uncover the truth about the government's role in them. The 408 schools her agency identified operated in 37 states or territories, many of them in Oklahoma, Arizona and New Mexico.

The Interior Department acknowledged the number of schools identified could change as more data is gathered. The coronavirus pandemic and budget restrictions hindered some of the research over the last year, said Bryan Newland, the Interior Department's assistant secretary for Indian Affairs.

The U.S. government directly ran some of the boarding schools. Catholic, Protestant and other churches operated others with federal funding, backed by U.S. laws and policies to "civilize" Native Americans.

The Interior Department report was prompted by the discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves at former residential school sites in Canada that brought back painful memories for Indigenous communities.

Haaland also announced Wednesday a yearlong tour for Interior Department officials that will allow former boarding school students from Native American tribes, Alaska Native villages and Native Hawaiian communities to share their stories as part of a permanent oral history collection.

"It is my priority to not only give voice to the survivors and descendants of federal Indian boarding school policies, but also to address the lasting legacies of these policies so Indigenous Peoples can continue to grow and heal," she said.

Boarding school conditions varied across the U.S. and Canada. While some former students have reported positive experiences, children at the schools often were subjected to military-style discipline and had their long hair cut.

Early curricula focused heavily on outdated vocational skills, including homemaking for girls.

Tribal leaders have pressed the agency to ensure that any children's remains that are found are properly cared for and delivered back to their tribes, if desired. The burial sites' locations will not be released publicly to prevent them from being disturbed, Newland said.

Accounting for the whereabouts of children who died has been difficult because records weren't always kept. Ground penetrating radar has been used in some places to search for remains.

The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, which created an early inventory of the schools, has said Interior's work will be an important step for the U.S. in reckoning with its role in the schools but noted that the agency's authority is limited.

Later this week, a U.S. House subcommittee will hear testimony on a bill to create a truth and healing commission modeled after one in Canada. Several church groups are backing the legislation.

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WATCH: Report finds 500 Native American boarding school deaths in 'terrible system,' Haaland says

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FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) - A first-of-its-kind federal study of Native American boarding schools that for over a century sought to assimilate Indigenous children into white society has identified more than 500 student deaths at the institutions so far, but officials say that figure could grow exponentially as research continues.

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Boarding schools, legalizing segregation, the implementation of letter grades, denying admission to public school based on parent origins, the list goes on... were among the harmful policies that hindered students' abilities to learn effectively. They were being punished for demonstrating any ties to their culture whether directly or indirectly. Access to decent resources was based on race (White) and gender (male). The invisible were Black, Brown, Asian, and Indigenous students. :(

-Nallely

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The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 93–112, 87 Stat. 355, enacted September 26, 1973) is a United States federal law, codified at 29 U.S.C. § 701 et seq. The principal sponsor of the bill was Rep. John Brademas (D-IN-3). The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 replaces preexisting laws (collectively referred to as the Vocational Rehabilitation Act) to extend and revise the authorization of grants to States for vocational rehabilitation services, with special emphasis on services to those with the most severe disabilities, to expand special Federal responsibilities and research and training programs with respect to individuals with disabilities, to establish special responsibilities in the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare for coordination of all programs with respect to individuals with disabilities within the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and for other purposes. It created the Rehabilitation Services Administration.

The Rehabilitation Act requires affirmative action in employment by the federal government and by government contractors and prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in programs conducted by federal agencies, in programs receiving federal financial assistance, in federal employment, and in the employment practices of federal contractors. The standards for determining employment discrimination under the Rehabilitation Act are the same as those used in title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act.[1]

President Richard Nixon signed H.R. 8070 into law on September 26, 1973 after he had vetoed two previous versions.[2]