# data[].attributes.headline
1776-1848 Average lifetime school attendance

# data[].attributes.subject
1776-1848 Average lifetime school attendance

# data[].attributes.body
The average lifetime school attendance went from 82 days in 1776 to 7 months in 1848. This is an important fact because it makes me think about what we consider normal for students to attend school. I know there is a debate going on about year-long or summers off today. So seeing how the number of days have changed through the history of education in the US is important.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
To print the story please do so via the link in the story toolbar.

When the United States was in its infancy, it was gifted an opportunity to revolutionize the traditional schooling methods and lessons that were originally brought over from England. As the country was still developing an identity, many issues were met with conflict on the road to establishing a free, non-sectarian education for America's youth.

Colonial America

Only large towns in New England were required to build schools.

Everywhere else in the states, school was not free or public.

If there was a school, it was only because people in the community pooled together to hire a teacher to teach in exchange for crops and livestock.

Some parents payed to send their children to Dame School (essentially a daycare where they learned letters and discipline).

Most schools were founded on the Protestant Bible.

New England Primer- most commonly used textbook, contained vowels, the alphabet, religious excerpts, and reading instruction for beginners.

In 1850, Bishop John Hughes was named Archbishop of New York in 1850 and used his power to create Catholic Schools, a major alternative school system in the U.S.

The Common School 1770-1890 [Video file]. (2000). United States: Films Media Group. Retrieved May 15, 2019, from https://www.films.com/id/1539.

http://www.merrycoz.org/books/spelling/SPELLING.xhtml

https://s3.amazonaws.com/rapgenius/1364306222_horace-mann-2.jpghttp://www.hampton.lib.nh.us/hampton/history/schools/district/memorialgreendistrictschoolhouse.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hughes_(archbishop_of_New_York)

https://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/2-battleground/detail/almanac.html

http://quoteparrot.com/quotes/catharine-beecher/30104-the-great-want-of

http://carlisleindian.dickinson.edu/sites/all/files/styles/display_images/public/image-photo/DKC_PC200804_f23.jpg?itok=bqafqWA6

Colonial America

Only large towns in New England were required to build schools.

Everywhere else in the states, school was not free or public.

If there was a school, it was only because people in the community pooled together to hire a teacher to teach in exchange for crops and livestock.

Some parents payed to send their children to Dame School (essentially a daycare where they learned letters and discipline).

Most schools were founded on the Protestant Bible.

New England Primer- most commonly used textbook, contained vowels, the alphabet, religious excerpts, and reading instruction for beginners.

District School House, a type in common use in New Hampshire Towns 1830-1860

In 1850, Bishop John Hughes was named Archbishop of New York in 1850 and used his power to create Catholic Schools, a major alternative school system in the U.S.

The Common School 1770-1890 [Video file]. (2000). United States: Films Media Group. Retrieved May 15, 2019, from https://www.films.com/id/1539.

http://www.merrycoz.org/books/spelling/SPELLING.xhtml

https://s3.amazonaws.com/rapgenius/1364306222_horace-mann-2.jpghttp://www.hampton.lib.nh.us/hampton/history/schools/district/memorialgreendistrictschoolhouse.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hughes_(archbishop_of_New_York)

https://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/2-battleground/detail/almanac.html

http://quoteparrot.com/quotes/catharine-beecher/30104-the-great-want-of

http://carlisleindian.dickinson.edu/sites/all/files/styles/display_images/public/image-photo/DKC_PC200804_f23.jpg?itok=bqafqWA6

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
When the United States was in its infancy, it was gifted an opportunity to revolutionize the traditional schooling methods and lessons that were originally brought over from England. As the country was still developing an identity, many issues were met with conflict on the road to establishing a free, non-sectarian education for America's youth.

# data[].attributes.headline
1779 Jefferson's Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom.

# data[].attributes.subject
1779 Jefferson's Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom.

# data[].attributes.body
Before Jefferson's bill, education was under the hands of parochial leaders, they believed the curriculum should be focused on the Bible, church theology, Latin, and Greek. In his 1779 Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom argues that "civil rights have no dependent on our religions opinions". I think this is very important because it separates religion, making sure that students have the right to an education regardless of their religious beliefs. It also has a positive impact on the quality of education because they are free to teach all subjects, cultures, and religions from around the world.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Principles of Belief

When Jefferson was born, on April 13, 1743, the Church of England was the established church in colonial Virginia, and Jefferson's early religious upbringing was relatively conventional. He was baptized, married, and buried in the Anglican or Episcopal Church. Anglican ministers provided his early education, and, as was common for a member of the gentry, he was elected as a young man to an Anglican vestry, both a civil and religious post in pre-revolutionary Virginia.

While attending the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg (1760-1762), Jefferson began to question traditional religion. Studying under William Small, a Scottish Enlightenment professor and the only member of the faculty who was not an Anglican minister, Jefferson developed an affinity for John Locke, Viscount Bolingbroke, and other Enlightenment thinkers who did not profess standard religious doctrine.

Over time, Jefferson's religion became increasingly unconventional. He rejected many precepts important to Christian belief, including the divinity of Jesus of Nazareth and the concept of the Trinity, in which God exists simultaneously and co-equally as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He denied the possibility of biblical miracles, including the claim that Mary conceived Jesus while remaining a virgin and that Jesus was resurrected after death. He also rejected atonement, or the idea that Christ's death allowed for the forgiveness of sin. The doctrine of original sin, which holds that all men and women are born sharing in the sin of Adam and Eve, was ridiculous to Jefferson: he believed that a rational, loving God would not punish one person for the sins of another. Jefferson was equally dismissive of Calvinism and predestination, or the belief that all men and women are fated from birth to be saved or damned. He also actively objected to the idea of salvation through faith, insisting that humans must be judged based on their actions.

Jefferson began to urge friends and relations to pursue his own rationalistic religion, telling one nephew that he should "[q]uestion with boldness even the existence of a god; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear." Yet Jefferson maintained a firm belief in a benevolent creator God. He is often, somewhat imprecisely, referred to as a deist, or someone who believes that God can be found through reason alone, without the rituals of organized religion, and that the creator does not intervene in the world. For his part, Jefferson believed in God's continuing intervention in the universe, although, having rejected biblical miracles, he seems not to have believed in the efficacy of prayer to obtain miraculous intervention. While there is doubt among some historians, he also apparently had some belief in an afterlife; he certainly saw belief in a future state of rewards and punishment as a useful social device.

Religion and Politics

Jefferson's religious beliefs provided a crucial foundation for his political views. Jefferson believed not only that God created man, and gave humans certain rights, but that the right to think freely for oneself-free from the restraints of ministers, dogma, and government-was central to people's humanity. He argued that neither religion nor free government could flourish if members could not think for themselves. Forced belief was an oxymoron for Jefferson. For these reasons, freedom of thought, including the separation of church and state, was essential both for a true religion and for a functioning republic. This is why it was so essential to Jefferson that what he referred to as "freedom of opinion" be guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

As a result of both his religious views and his understanding of the essential role of free opinion in a republic, Jefferson became a strong advocate for religious freedom and the separation of church and state. During the American Revolution (1775-1783), with the assistance of James Madison and evangelicals who dissented from the established church, he helped lead the fight in Virginia for disestablishment of the Anglican Church-which he referred to in his autobiography as "the severest contests in which I have ever been engaged." His Notes on the State ofVirginia , first printed in France in 1784, also urges a clear distinction between government and church responsibilities. Insisting that religious opinion was a private matter, exempt from government supervision, he wrote that "it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg"-an assertion that came back to haunt him politically. Jefferson also drafted the Virginia Statute for Establishing Religious Freedom, enacted in 1786, which he saw as one of his crowning achievements, asking that the Declaration of Independence, the University of Virginia, and the statute be the only things remembered on his memorial. When the United States Constitution was drafted, Jefferson was among the most vocal in insisting that a Bill of Rights, particularly protection for religious freedom, was needed.

This interest in religious freedom was fed by the vicious presidential campaign between Jefferson and John Adams, of Massachusetts, in 1800. During that campaign, a violent press battle labeled Jefferson an "arch-infidel," and New Englanders were warned to hide their Bibles if Jefferson was elected. Jefferson did not respond publicly, but he took pains to promote religious freedom. It was in part in response to such attacks and what he viewed as dangerous religious divisions in the new nation that he wrote a letter to the Danbury Baptist Association assuring them that the First Amendment to the United States Constitution protected their religious freedom from federal abuse, creating "a wall of separation between Church & State." His own deeply felt religious beliefs supported that view, and it is a mistake to see the letter or his position on religious freedom as a political ploy.

As president, rejecting the precedent of both George Washington and John Adams, Jefferson refused repeated requests that he issue a proclamation for prayer or thanksgiving, insisting that such an official proclamation was outside the powers of the president and inconsistent with the First Amendment. At the same time, he openly prayed for the assistance of divine providence in both of his inaugural addresses, distinguishing private religious declarations, even when made in public, from the official declarations that he saw as unconstitutional.

Jefferson Bible

Jefferson's concern for religion seemed to grow over time, and it was a common topic in his private correspondence after he was elected president. Having read and reread Joseph Priestley's An History of the Corruptions of Christianity (1782), Jefferson became convinced by the turn of the nineteenth century that, as he told Priestley, Jesus's "morality was the most benevolent and sublime probably that has been ever taught." It was in this period that he began, again, to identify himself as Christian, by which he meant that he was a devotee of Jesus's ethical teachings. Jefferson was particularly taken by the fact that while various religious sects disagreed violently on dogma, and such disagreements had played an important role in bloody religious conflicts throughout history, all religions and sects tended to agree on what he saw as more fundamental moral standards. In retirement, he wrote to John Adams, with whom he had renewed a close friendship, that these "moral precepts, innate in man, and made a part of his physical constitution," should guide the growth of a rational American religion free of the control of dogmatic ministers.

His growing devotion to Jesus's ethics only served to increase his antipathy for what he viewed as the corruptions of Jesus's moral teachings by "priestcraft," ministers determined to use religion, and the support of government, for their own ends. It was particularly significant, then, that Jefferson saw Jesus's crucifixion as the result of an alliance between church and state, the effort of priests to maintain their positions of power.

As a result of this newfound dedication to Jesus's philosophy, Jefferson spent many hours excerpting from the Bible what he believed were Jesus's true statements, ignoring those that he thought had been corrupted by subsequent reporters-"as easily distinguishable as diamonds in a dunghill," he wrote to Adams. Initially, Jefferson compiled a small pamphlet of quotations from Jesus that he entitled The Philosophy of Jesus. This short work was later replaced by the much more detailed The Life and Morals of Jesus, for which Jefferson painstakingly excerpted the Gospels from two copies in each of four different languages (English, French, Greek, and Latin) to produce what he considered a more accurate, demystified history of Jesus and his teaching, excluding miracles and ending with Jesus being placed in the tomb. Jefferson often read from this collection before retiring for the evening. This collection-the so-called Jefferson Bible -was not published commercially until early in the twentieth century, although its existence was known during Jefferson's lifetime.

University of Virginia

Jefferson's religious beliefs also took a central role in the formation of the University of Virginia in 1819. In spite of substantial pressure, he refused to hire a minister to teach religion at the new university, arguing that the school was state-owned and therefore could not constitutionally promote or endorse any particular religion. Jefferson argued that religion should instead be taught as part of philosophy and ethics. Under pressure he accepted the notion that religious services might occur in a public building on the university's grounds, but insisted that such services be unofficial and access to buildings be pursuant to "impartial regulation," or open to all religious services and other public speakers.

The United States Supreme Court has repeatedly referred to Jefferson as a progenitor and leading advocate of American religious freedom and, in particular, the separation of church and state. His Danbury Baptist letter and the Virginia Statute for Establishing Religious Freedom have been understood to define the scope of the First Amendment's prohibition on laws "respecting an establishment of religion."

In 1961, for example, the Supreme Court ruled that Maryland laws prohibiting certain kinds of retail activity on Sundays were constitutional, but the laws could not be used to support religion. In his opinion for the Court, Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote that the "Court has considered the happenings surrounding the Virginia General Assembly's enactment of 'An act for establishing religious freedom,' ... written by Thomas Jefferson and sponsored by James Madison, as best reflecting the long and intensive struggle for religious freedom in America, as particularly relevant in the search for First Amendment meaning." While Jefferson's role in that regard has been questioned more recently by several jurists, it continues to hold powerful sway both in the courts and among the public.

Thomas Jefferson drafts a bill "for establishing religious freedom" as part of an effort to revise Virginia's colonial laws in order to remove vestiges of monarchy and align them more closely with the state's republican principles and its new, independent status.

"An Act for establishing religious Freedom" is signed into law in Virginia.

In a letter to the Danbury Baptist Association, Thomas Jefferson argues for "a wall of separation between Church & State.""

The cornerstone is laid for the University of Virginia. The school's founder, Thomas Jefferson, insists that, as a state university, there should be no official minister nor should special access be given to religious ministers or programs.

Thomas Jefferson completes his version of The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, commonly referred to as The Jefferson Bible.

Adams, Dickinson W., ed. Jefferson's Extracts from the Gospels: "The Philosophy of Jesus" and "The Life and Morals of Jesus." Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1986.

Conkin, Paul K. "The Religious Pilgrimage of Thomas Jefferson." In Jeffersonian Legacies. Peter S. Onuf, ed., 19-49. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1993.

Gaustad, Edwin S. Sworn on the Altar of God: A Religious Biography of Thomas Jefferson. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, Co., 1996.

Neem, Johann N. "Beyond the Wall: Reinterpreting Jefferson's Danbury Address." Journal of the Early Republic 27 (Spring 2007): 139-154.

Onuf, Peter S. "Thomas Jefferson's Christian Nation." In Religion, State, and Society: Jefferson's Wall of Separation in Comparative Perspective. Robert Fatton Jr. and R. K. Ramazani, eds., 17-36. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

Peterson, Merrill D., and Robert C. Vaughan, eds. The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom: Its Evolution and Consequences in American History. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

Ragosta, John. The Virginia Experience and Religious Freedom: Jefferson's Legacy, Our Heritage. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, forthcoming.

Sheridan, Eugene R. Jefferson and Religion. Charlottesville, Virginia: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, 1998.

Waldman, Steven. Founding Faith: Providence, Politics, and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America. New York: Random House, 2008.

APA Citation:

Ragosta, John. Jefferson, Thomas and Religion. (2020, December 07). In Encyclopedia Virginia. https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/jefferson-thomas-and-religion.

MLA Citation:

Ragosta, John. "Jefferson, Thomas and Religion" Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, (07 Dec. 2020). Web. 28 Aug. 2023

Last updated: 2020, December 07

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Jefferson, Thomas and Religion - Encyclopedia Virginia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Principles of Belief Thomas Jefferson When Jefferson was born, on April 13, 1743, the Church of England was the established church in colonial Virginia, and Jefferson's early religious upbringing was relatively conventional. He was baptized, married, and buried in the Anglican or Episcopal Church.

# data[].attributes.body
Noah Webster fought to take books from England out of the US schools, he then created the Blue Back Speller. The book was designed to teach grammar with nationalistic ideas. I didn’t know about this and I consider it to be very important because it has marked the books that are allowed in school. Considering the current issue with ban books and how the first book was to teach about nationalism I find it very interesting how we are going back to that.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Description

This edition of Noah Webster's The American Spelling Book was published by Holbrook and Fessenden of Brattleborough (now Brattleboro), Vermont in 1821. Webster's The American Spelling Book was commonly known as the "blue backed speller" due to its blue cover, and was one of the most popular spelling books since its first publication in 1783. The speller was followed by a book on grammar in 1784 and a reader in 1785. Webster's goal was to divorce the American educational system from its British roots, and accordingly his speller substituted many British spellings for American variants, dropping extra letters like "u" and "e" to simplify the language.

The Copp Collection contains about 150 books of early American imprint and shows a wide range of reading matter typical of a New England Puritan family living in a port town. Literacy was expected of many New Englanders, as Puritan doctrine required everyone to read the Bible. The abundance of multiple Bibles, psalms, hymnodies, sermons, and morality tales reflects the Copp's religious beliefs. Other highlights of the library include the works of Shakespeare, almanacs, historical and political texts, and travel narratives.

The Copp Collection contains a variety of household objects that the Copp family of Connecticut used from around 1700 until the mid-1800s. Part of the Puritan Great Migration from England to Boston, the family eventually made their home in New London County, Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, books, bibles, and letters provide a vivid picture of daily life. More of the collection from the Division of Home and Community Life can be viewed by searching accession number 28810.

Location

Currently not on view

Measurements

overall: 4 3/8 in x 6 3/4 in x 3/4 in; 11.1125 cm x 17.145 cm x 1.905 cm

Credit Line

Gift of John Brenton Copp

subject

Education Tools- Language Arts

See more items in

Home and Community Life: Domestic Life

Cultures & Communities

Copp Collection

Data Source

National Museum of American History

Our collection database is a work in progress. We may update this record based on further research and review. Learn more about our approach to sharing our collection online.

If you would like to know how you can use content on this page, see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use. If you need to request an image for publication or other use, please visit Rights and Reproductions.

Note: Comment submission is temporarily unavailable while we make improvements to the site. We apologize for the interruption. If you have a question relating to the museum's collections, please first check our Collections FAQ. If you require a personal response, please use our Contact page.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This edition of Noah Webster's The American Spelling Book was published by Holbrook and Fessenden of Brattleborough (now Brattleboro), Vermont in 1821. Webster's The American Spelling Book was commonly known as the "blue backed speller" due to its blue cover, and was one of the most popular spelling books since its first publication in 1783.

# data[].attributes.body
Better known as the Mush Hole, the Mohawk Institute was one of the oldest and longest running residential schools in Brantford, Ontario.
This is an important fact because it was a very big boarding school, with around 15,000 students from 20 first nation communities. The students were abducted from their homes and abused at the school.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The survivor-led group overseeing the search for potential unmarked graves at the former Mohawk Institute Residential School in Brantford, Ont., says they've been waiting over half a year for the Trudeau government to provide the next $2.4 million instalment of a promised $10.2 million.

"I work for a group of survivors who are all seniors and they're invisible again because suddenly we're not getting answers ... when you're 80 and 90-years-old should you still be fighting like this?," Laura Arndt, the lead of the Survivors' Secretariat, told CBC Hamilton late last week.

"If this was your family member who was in their 80s, had been as traumatized as they were and then finally found their legs to say 'I need this to be addressed,' and then nothing happens. It does re-traumatize."

The secretariat secured $10.2 million from the federal government over three years in January and $1.3 million from the provincial government in May - both amounts are far below what the secretariat requested.

The money has gone into the ground search and researching archives, among other things.

The former Mohawk Institute opened in 1828 and closed in 1970, making it one of the oldest and longest-running residential schools in Canada.

Some 15,000 students from 20 First Nation communities were at the school. Many of them were abducted from their homes and abused there.

The secretariat says documents it has obtained so far show at least 97 students died and Arndt said the number of communities impacted by the residential school has grown from 22 to 49.

Arndt said the secretariat's goal is to search a total of 0.8 hectares (two acres) by the end of the year. The site is roughly 243 hectares.

Delayed funding slowing down search efforts

Arndt said the secretariat got the first instalment of $2.5 million but is waiting on the next instalment, which is only half of the approved funding for the fiscal period of 2021 to 2022.

She also said the secretariat is waiting on the government to send along an official agreement for the funding.

"We did everything we were asked to do," she said.

"I can't proceed with the next wave of flowing funding around document search, data and work associated with allowances because if I were to pay them, I'd have nothing left in the secretariat's coffers ... I won't be able to make payroll," she said.

"We're three quarters into this year and we're still penny pinching ... I'm making operational decisions based on a promise."

Arndt added as a result, she's had to slow down on spending, which she said can work against the secretariat because it could seem the group doesn't need all that money.

Government says secretariat wasn't incorporated

Jennifer Cooper, a spokesperson for Crown Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, told CBC Hamilton the secretariat wasn't incorporated during the initial funding agreement and had the funding flow through a prior arrangement between the Woodland Cultural Centre (the new name for the former Mohawk Institute) and Indigenous Services Canada.

Cooper said the secretariat has since become incorporated and requested the funding to go directly to them, which meant the ministry had to add the secretariat as a new recipient in the department's internal systems.

"These internal processes and the transition of funds has caused delays in delivering the funding in an expedited manner," she said.

"However, this process is coming to a close and it is expected that the funding will be flowed to the Survivors' Secretariat in the near future."

'I feel like we're still playing games'

Arndt said on Tuesday the ministry sent an official agreement Friday evening, after CBC Hamilton's request to the ministry for comment.

"I just started laughing," she said. "I feel like we're still playing games, despite all the promises."

Arndt said the secretariat's incorporation wasn't finalized recently, but by the end of 2021.

She added the government did a test deposit in April, which she said should've showed the secretariat was ready to receive funds.
WATCH: House of Commons gives unanimous consent to recognizing residential schools as genocide

Asked if the ministry would eventually give the secretariat more money, getting closer to the original $24 million request, Cooper said the ministry would be "responsive to the needs of Indigenous applicants and current recipients, to ensure they have adequate funding for the current and future fiscal years in support of their residential school initiative."

Arndt said the response is dismissive.

"This isn't an initiative. This is holding Canada accountable," she said. "Canada needs to commit to a 10-year strategy ... it has to be an ongoing funding envelope.

The dilemma in all this for me is for the survivors to get their answers - it's a horrific thing to say - this work will continue beyond many of their lives, so when the survivors want answers, that includes their children, their grandchildren and the legacy."

All this comes as members of Parliament gave unanimous consent last week in favour of a motion calling on the federal government to recognize Canada's residential schools as genocide.

"Survivors want answers into the genocide they survived ... they want justice for the children who didn't," she said.
Support is available for anyone affected by their experience at residential schools and those who are triggered by these reports. A national Indian Residential School Crisis Line has been set up to provide support for residential school survivors and others affected. People can access emotional and crisis referral services by calling the 24-hour national crisis line: 1-866-925-4419.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Mohawk Institute Residential School survivors have been waiting 6 months for money due from Ottawa | CBC News

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The survivor-led group overseeing the search for potential unmarked graves at the former Mohawk Institute Residential School in Brantford, Ont., says they've been waiting over half a year for the Trudeau government to provide the next $2.4 million instalment of a promised $10.2 million.

# data[].attributes.headline
1830 Horace Mann proposal of common schools.

# data[].attributes.subject
1830 Horace Mann proposal of common schools.

# data[].attributes.body
Horace Mann institutionalize equal education for all creating common-schools with funds supplemented with local taxes. He argued for the renovation and expansion of the curriculum, the rejection of corporal punishment and advocated for teacher's preparation and fair payment. He also supported slave children to have access to education as he believed that such schools must serve as societal equalizers to help reduce class and racial conflicts.
This is very important because it helped to lay the foundation for the modern public school system in the country. It also helped to improve the quality of education by establishing uniform standards and curriculums and supported that education should be accessible to all children, regardless of their social class or background.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Horace Mann, often called the Father of the Common School, began his career as a lawyer and legislator. When he was elected to act as Secretary of the newly-created Massachusetts Board of Education in 1837, he used his position to enact major educational reform. He spearheaded the Common School Movement, ensuring that every child could receive a basic education funded by local taxes. His influence soon spread beyond Massachusetts as more states took up the idea of universal schooling. Henry Adams Horace Mann (1796-1859)
Catharine Beecher

Mann's commitment to the Common School sprang from his belief that political stability and social harmony depended on education: a basic level of literacy and the inculcation of common public ideals. He declared, "Without undervaluing any other human agency, it may be safely affirmed that the Common School...may become the most effective and benignant of all forces of civilization." Mann believed that public schooling was central to good citizenship, democratic participation and societal well-being. He observed, "A republican form of government, without intelligence in the people, must be, on a vast scale, what a mad-house, without superintendent or keepers, would be on a small one." The democratic and republican principals that propelled Mann's vision of the Common School have colored our assumptions about public schooling ever since.

Mann was influential in the development of teacher training schools and the earliest attempts to professionalize teaching. He was not the first to propose state-sponsored teacher training institutes (James Carter had recommended them in the 1820s), but, in 1838, he was crucial to the actual establishment of the first Normal Schools in Massachusetts. Mann knew that the quality of rural schools had to be raised, and that teaching was the key to that improvement. He also recognized that the corps of teachers for the new Common Schools were most likely to be women, and he argued forcefully (if, by contemporary standards, sometimes insultingly) for the recruitment of women into the ranks of teachers, often through the Normal Schools. These developments were all part of Mann's driving determination to create a system of effective, secular, universal education in the United States.

Further Reading

Mann, Horace.

Annual Reports on Education, 1872
Massachusetts System of Common Schools, 1849
Messerli, Jonathan. Horace Mann, A Biography, 1972

John Dewey
Elaine Goodale Eastman
Charlotte Forten
Margeret Haley
Horace Mann
Julia Richman
Laura Towne

About the Series | Timeline | Pioneers | Closeup | Show & Tell | Teachers Today
Screensaver | Online Resources | Professional Development
Purchase Video | Feedback | Credits

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
PBS Online: Only A Teacher: Schoolhouse Pioneers

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Horace Mann, often called the Father of the Common School, began his career as a lawyer and legislator. When he was elected to act as Secretary of the newly-created Massachusetts Board of Education in 1837, he used his position to enact major educational reform.

# data[].attributes.body
In 1874 the state earned $14,000. In 1883, convict leasing accounted for about 10% of the state’s total revenue. In 1898, it accounted for 73% of the state’s total revenue.

I think this is a significant event because it explains the government's greed and why they kept doing this for so long. It doesn’t justify it of course. I can see all the negative things that came up from this.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
After the Civil War, slavery persisted in the form of convict leasing, a system in which Southern states leased prisoners to private railways, mines, and large plantations. While states profited, prisoners earned no pay and faced inhumane, dangerous, and often deadly work conditions. Thousands of Black people were forced into what authors have termed "slavery by another name" until the 1930s.

The Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1865, prohibited slavery and involuntary servitude, but explicitly exempted those convicted of crime. In response, Southern state legislatures quickly passed "Black Codes" - new laws that explicitly applied only to Black people and subjected them to criminal prosecution for "offenses" such as loitering, breaking curfew, vagrancy, having weapons, and not carrying proof of employment. Crafted to ensnare Black people and return them to chains, these laws were effective; for the first time in U.S. history, many state penal systems held more Black prisoners than white - all of whom could be leased for profit.

Industrialization, economic shifts, and political pressure ended widespread convict leasing by World War II, but the Thirteenth Amendment's dangerous loophole still permits the enslavement of prisoners who continue to work without pay in various public and private industries. As recently as 2010, a federal court held that "prisoners have no enforceable right to be paid for their work under the Constitution."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
After the Civil War, slavery persisted in the form of convict leasing, a system in which Southern states leased prisoners to private railways, mines, and large plantations. While states profited, prisoners earned no pay and faced inhumane, dangerous, and often deadly work conditions.

# data[].attributes.headline
1848-1855 Benjamin Roberts fought to desegregate schools in MA

# data[].attributes.subject
1848-1855 Benjamin Roberts fought to desegregate schools in MA

# data[].attributes.body
In 1848 Benjamin Roberts filed the first school desegregation suit after his daughter Sarah was not allowed to attend a school near her house based on her race. In 1855, Roberts brought the issue to the state legislature and the commonwealth of MA banned segregated schools in the state. This was the first law prohibiting segregated schools in the US. I added this fact because it is so important to see not only how many years the battle for desegregation has been going on, but also how it took only one dad who didn’t agree with it to start the movement.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
On Feb. 15, 1848, Benjamin Roberts filed the first school desegregation suit after his daughter Sarah was barred from a public school based on her race in Boston.

The plaintiff's attorneys were Robert Morris, one of the country's first African-American lawyers, and Charles Sumner.

This was the first trial case about school segregation and indirectly related to the 1855 ban of segregated schools in all of the state of Massachusetts and the 1954 ban on segregated schools nationally.

Read about this historic case in Sarah's Long Walk: The Free Blacks of Boston and How Their Struggle for Equality Changed America from Beacon Press and find related resources below.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Feb. 15, 1848: Benjamin Roberts Filed the First School Desegregation Suit - Zinn Education Project

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Benjamin Roberts, African American, filed the first school desegregation suit after his daughter Sarah was barred from a public school because of her race in Boston, Massachusetts.

# data[].attributes.body
During the reconstruction period following the Civil War, the constitution added the 14th and 15th Amendments granting citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the US, including slaves, and allowing African American men to vote. This seemed like a huge step going forward, however, education was segregated until the civil rights movement. I chose this event because we all know how damaging this was, and still is now, and how, unfortunately, we still see segregation today when we deal with residential segregation, funding inequalities, or offering schools of choice. The impact is still too big now with differences in academic achievements, and dropout rates to name only a couple.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The U.S. student body is more diverse than ever before. Nevertheless, public schools remain highly segregated along racial, ethnic and socioeconomic lines.

That's according to a report released Thursday by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). More than a third of students (about 18.5 million of them) attended a predominantly same-race/ethnicity school during the 2020-21 school year, the report finds. And 14% of students attended schools where almost all of the student body was of a single race/ethnicity.

The report is a follow up to a 2016 GAO investigation on racial disparity in K-12 schools. That initial report painted a slightly worse picture, but findings from the new report are still concerning, says Jackie Nowicki, the director of K-12 education at the GAO and lead author of the report.

"There is clearly still racial division in schools," says Nowicki. She adds that schools with large proportions of Hispanic, Black and American Indian/Alaska Native students - minority groups with higher rates of poverty than white and Asian American students - are also increasing. "What that means is you have large portions of minority children not only attending essentially segregated schools, but schools that have less resources available to them."

Loading...

"There are layers of factors here," she says. "They paint a rather dire picture of the state of schooling for a segment of the school-age population that federal laws were designed to protect."

School segregation happens across the country

Segregation has historically been associated with the Jim Crow laws of the South. But the report finds that, in the 2020-21 school year, the highest percentage of schools serving a predominantly single-race/ethnicity student population - whether mostly white, mostly Hispanic or mostly Black etc. - were in the Northeast and the Midwest.

School segregation has "always been a whole-country issue," says U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., who heads the House education and labor committee. He commissioned both the 2016 and 2022 reports. "The details of the strategies may be different, but during the '60s and '70s, when the desegregation cases were at their height, cases were all over the country."

The GAO analysis also found school segregation across all school types, including traditional public schools, charter schools and magnet schools. Across all charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately run, more than a third were predominantly same-race/ethnicity, serving mostly Black and Hispanic students.

There's history behind the report's findings

Nowicki and her team at the GAO say they were not surprised by any of the report's findings. They point to historical practices, like redlining, that created racially segregated neighborhoods.

And because 70% of U.S. students attend their neighborhood public schools, Nowicki says, racially segregated neighborhoods have historically made for racially segregated schools.

"There are historical reasons why neighborhoods look the way they look," she explains. "And some portion of that is because of the way our country chose to encourage or limit where people could live."

Though the 1968 Fair Housing Act outlawed housing discrimination on the basis of race, the GAO says that in some states, current legislation reinforces racially isolated communities.

"Our analysis showed that predominantly same-race/ethnicity schools of different races/ethnicities exist in close proximity to one another within districts, but most commonly exist among neighboring districts," the report says.

School district secessions have made segregation worse

One cause for the lack of significant improvement, according to the GAO, is a practice known as district secession, where schools break away from an existing district - often citing a need for more local control - and form their own new district. The result, the report finds, is that segregation deepens.

"In the 10 years that we looked at district secessions, we found that, overwhelmingly, those new districts were generally whiter, wealthier than the remaining districts," Nowicki says.

Loading...

Six of the 36 district secessions identified in the report happened in Memphis, Tenn., which experienced a historic district merger several years ago. Memphis City Schools, which served a majority non-white student body, dissolved in 2011 due to financial instability. It then merged with the neighboring district, Shelby County Schools, which served a wealthier, majority white population.

Joris Ray was a Memphis City Schools administrator at the time of the merger. He recalls that residents of Shelby County were not satisfied with the new consolidated district. They successfully splintered off into six separate districts.

As a result, the GAO report says, racial and socioeconomic segregation has grown in and around Memphis. All of the newly formed districts are whiter and wealthier than the one they left, which is now called Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

"This brings negative implications for our students overall," says Ray, who has led Memphis-Shelby County Schools since 2019. "Research has shown that students in more diverse schools have lower levels of prejudice and stereotypes and are more prepared for top employers to hire an increasingly diverse workforce."

The GAO report finds that this pattern - of municipalities removing themselves from a larger district to form their own, smaller school district - almost always creates more racial and socioeconomic segregation. Overall, new districts tend to have larger shares of white and Asian American students, and lower shares of Black and Hispanic students, the report finds. New districts also have significantly fewer students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a common measure of poverty.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The U.S. student population is more diverse, but schools are still highly segregated

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office finds that public schools remain highly segregated along racial, ethnic and socioeconomic lines. One reason: school district secession.

# data[].attributes.body
Peonage developed in the South after the American Civil War. Peonage is a system where an employer forces a worker to pay off a debt with work. Peonage was practiced as an illegal form of slavery until the 1950s.

The importance of this is that while slavery was supposed to be done, this was another type of slavery. Also, there was a Peonage Abolition Act that was totally ignored. The repercussions of this are so big that are felt today.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Bonded labor, also known as debt bondage and peonage, happens when people give themselves into slavery as security against a loan or when they inherit a debt from a relative. It can be made to look like an employment agreement but one where the worker starts with a debt to repay - usually in brutal conditions - only to find that repayment of the loan is impossible. Then, their enslavement becomes permanent.

Bonded labor is designed to exploit workers. The cyclical process begins with a debt, whether acquired or inherited, that cannot be paid immediately. Then, while the worker labors to repay the debt, the employer continues to add on additional expenses. For instance, a laborer may begin with an initial debt of $200. While working and unable to leave, this worker needs a shelter, food and water. The employer tacks on $25 per day to the debt to cover those expenses. Consequently, the employee only grows his debt while continuing to labor for his debtor, and repayment is impossible.

Oftentimes this debt is passed down from generation to generation, making it eerily similar to chattel slavery in the 18th and 19th centuries. It's seen throughout the world when employers force the children of employees to labor in the same situation as their parents in order to help pay off their parents' debt or when parents or family members pass away and employers require another body to fill the lost role - all under the pretense of a debt owed.

Bonded labor is used across a variety of industries in order to produce products for consumption around the world.

Migrant laborers are particularly vulnerable to this form of enslavement. In their home countries, migrant laborers contract with labor agencies and employers for a destination country, looking for an economic opportunity. These situations are ripe for exploitation because agencies and employers hold a debt or a bond over these employees. Instead of honoring a genuine term of employment, some recruiters or employers unlawfully exploit the initial debt by adding immigration, housing and other fees that are designed to keep the migrant workers from ever being capable of repayment. In some scenarios, these recruiters and employers confiscate legal immigration documents, making legal employees entirely dependent on them, or require the temporary work in order to maintain their legal status. In other instances, recruiters falsify documents or ignore them altogether, once again making migrant workers vulnerable and dependent. In these situations, workers often fear seeking redress.

Bonded Labor throughout the World

The international Palermo Protocol requires the criminalization of bonded labor as a form of trafficking. Still, this particular system of slavery is deeply entrenched around the world. It's most common in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. In fact, the majority of the world's slaves live and work in India in a form of bonded labor.

Bonded Labor in the United States

U.S. law prohibits the use of a debt or similar threat of financial harm as a form of coercion for forced labor. The earliest U.S. legislation outlawed bonded labor under its Spanish name, peonage, which surged following the legal emancipation of U.S. slaves in 1865. Following the Civil War, former slaveholders and white Americans needed labor for their workforce, so they found new ways to force African Americans to work. Whites arrested and charged African Americans and then fined them for their various crimes. Former slaves had little money to afford such fines, so white businessmen forced the emancipated slaves to take on debts in exchange for paying them. These former slaves then had a bond over them, and employers exploited the situation so that the debt could never be repaid.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Bonded Labor | Debt Bondage or Peonage - End Slavery Now

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Bonded labor is an employment agreement where the worker starts with a debt to repay only to find that repayment of the loan is impossible.

# data[].attributes.body
Between 1879 and 1905, 25 off-reservation schools were created with the idea to control American Indians' beliefs, and behaviors and to apply a process of deculturalization. Carlisle Indian School was the first one created in Carlisle Pennsylvania. The schools were overcrowded where children were isolated from their tribes, exposed to illnesses, and forced to perform hard labor. I consider this event very important because it still impacts American education today with a legacy of trauma, a lack of cultural awareness, and also with disparity of educational outcomes.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
On a hot afternoon last summer, Riverside Indian School drew a crowd from all over Oklahoma. Elders and family members drove hours to pile into the residential school's gymnasium. They filled the space with rows of chairs and stuffed the bleachers up to the rafters, but when the meeting was called to order, everyone was silent.

Facing the busloads of tribal citizens were U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and Assistant Secretary Bryan Newland. They traveled from Washington to listen for as long as people wanted to speak. The subject at hand? The very place they were sitting.

The gym now shines with new equipment and has a wall dedicated to the "Tribes of Riverside." A symbol of the new Riverside, one with a majority Native staff and an emphasis on cultural practices. But for many of the people here, Riverside Indian School was once a waking nightmare.

One of the first to speak was an 85-year-old man with short salt-and-pepper hair who used a walker to steady himself. Donald Neconie attended this school more than 60 years ago.

"It was 12 years of hell," he told the officials. He recounted for Haaland and Newland how, when he first arrived at the school, the staff treated him like a prisoner.

"The moment I landed there, they took me downstairs, took all my clothes off, and threw a bunch of green stuff all over me," Neconie said.

He described his time here as an experience marked by abuse - both emotional and physical - and said that certain teachers would routinely beat students for acting up or just for speaking their own language.

The experiences were so awful that when one of the buildings at Riverside, known as Kiowa lodge, burned down, he stood by and cheered: "I laughed when they tore it down."

History of Riverside

Riverside sits perched along a hill overlooking the Washita River in Anadarko, the very heart of Indian Country in southwest Oklahoma. This is Caddo, Delaware and Wichita land. The school opened its doors in 1871 and is one of four off-reservation boarding schools still operating in the U.S. today.

Oklahoma at one time had the highest number of federal Indian boarding schools, more than 80, according to the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition. That's one of the reasons why it was chosen as the first stop on Interior Secretary Haaland's "Road to Healing" tour: a months-long effort to hear from boarding school survivors about their experiences.

In recent months, there's been a renewed spotlight on these boarding schools, after the Department of Interior, for the first time ever, admitted its role in creating the system in 1819 and enabling the physical and emotional abuse Native children were forced to endure while attending them.

A report issued by the department last year described how these schools were part of a long-running federal effort to erase Native languages and cultures and to force Native people to give up their land and adopt white culture.

Haaland's own grandparents were taken away and forced to attend boarding schools: "I want you all to know that I am with you on this journey, and I am here to listen," she told the crowd.

While many in the gym are survivors of the boarding school era, others came to learn and to listen. The history of these schools touched more than just the students who attended; their impact spans generations.

"I will listen with you, I will grieve with you, I will weep and I will feel your pain as we mourn what we have lost. Please know that we still have so much to gain. The healing that can help our communities will not be done overnight, but it will be done," Haaland said, while holding back tears.

In the mid-20th century, many of these schools shut down due to reports of neglect and abuse, while those that remained made enormous changes. Four are still open today.

Since Neconie and others attended, thousands of Native students have walked through the school's halls and dorms. And now, unlike during Neconie's time, students actually choose to attend Riverside. But why?

Riverside today

In many ways, Riverside looks a lot like any other school at 8 o'clock in the morning. The daily morning announcements blare over the PA system, and one or two stragglers hurry to class a few minutes late.

The sprawling campus is a mix of new and renovated buildings alongside older, run-down ones - some dating back to the school's inception. There are a few portable classrooms, an old red barn and a brand new basketball court, all overseen by Amber Wilson, the school's principal.

"Our staff works hard to make the students feel like they're at home," she says.

And for the students, Riverside is home. It's still a residential school, so there are dorms and recreational facilities that can make it feel more like a junior college than a high school or middle school.

"I always try to filter like, 'If it's good enough for my kid, it's good for anybody's kid,' " Wilson says. "That's how I've always run the school."

While Wilson and officials here wouldn't allow us to attend classes or interview students, she tours us around, commanding attention wherever she goes and saying hello to just about everyone.

Her cheery and unflappable demeanor translates into the decor of the school. The dorm common rooms are dressed up with patterned blankets and artwork on the walls. In the bathroom, even the shower curtains have bright pops of color.

She says they spent a lot of time decorating during the pandemic - Riverside was closed to students for 2020 and 2021. Her big project was turning one of the school's trailers into a beauty parlor for the students to pick out shoes, dresses and jewelry for prom.

That space is an explosion of pink and black velvet with lots of sequins. "We got our jewelry over there. We've got a little bit of candy for them," Wilson says. "This is a full prom experience."

Much of the school's decor is bright and exuberant, but also full of pride. From murals on the walls to newspaper clippings on the bulletin boards, everything shows American Indian students proud to be Indian.

Things that Donald Neconie never would have seen in his time here.

This new approach filters into the curriculum, too. Wilson says the cultural activities include drum-making, flute-making, dress and ribbon skirt-making, moccasin-making - even little things like dream catchers. The culture is integrated into as many classes as possible, especially Benjamin Blackstar's art class.

Blackstar attended Riverside as a student, then returned a few years ago to be the school's art teacher. He says a lot has changed since he attended, mainly newer buildings and more of a focus on cultural preservation.

Another big difference? Some of the students have taken to wearing traditional clothing - like ribbon skirts and moccasins - to feel connected to their culture.

"It's such an amazing sight to see," Blackstar says.

He felt a strong pull to come back to Riverside: His siblings also attended, and his parents met at a boarding school. Many students come to Riverside because their parents or their older siblings also attended the school.

Despite some of its older history, in recent generations students see it as a way to get a better education away from their hometowns. It comes with its own challenges, but Blackstar feels uniquely positioned to help the students.

"We all have that goal, we all have that target, to educate these kids," he says. "That way they can go back to their reservations, to their communities and spread that."

Blackstar's grandmother went to Riverside, too - 75 years ago. He says she died before they could talk about her experience at Riverside, but he still sees her often - her school portrait hangs in the hallway outside his classroom.

She's surrounded by portraits of the class of 1948; almost all of the students are smiling wide. Blackstar hopes his grandmother had a good experience here, when so many did not.

Dealing with the painful memories that the school holds is something that most of the teachers and administrators have trouble articulating.

Justifiably so, as these conversations are not a simple history lesson. For many teachers and administrators, the school's past is tied up in intergenerational trauma.

Wilson says the history of the school is not officially taught in the classroom. She says she believes the best way to heal from it is to move past it.

"All I can do is just go forward from where we are now and not dwell on the past. I'm not a person that looks in the rearview mirror all the time," she says. "I don't let things like that distract from the work that we're doing now and what we want to do."

And what they are doing now would have been mind-boggling to the students of decades ago.

But does the future at Riverside mean never looking back?

For some of the survivors of the boarding school system, the answer is no.

It takes a community

Lorenda Long, a citizen of the Navajo Nation, wants to make sure that Indian boarding schools still operating today are the best places for young Native students who want to attend.

She was in the gym at the summer event at Riverside and told Haaland and Assistant Secretary Bryan Newland about her experience at a federal Indian boarding school in Arizona: Lower Greasewood, near where she grew up on the Navajo Nation reservation.

She says she left after another student assaulted her when she was 9.

"I had never, ever been hit before," Long said about an older student. "I was in shock and I started crying, you know, and he just said some curse words to me."

Her mother pulled her out, but quickly sent her to another boarding school because she couldn't afford to care for Lorenda and her siblings.

At the Road to Healing event at Riverside, she spoke directly to some tribal leaders who were in the audience, telling them they needed to help their young tribal citizens get a better education.

"It's us that has to do something for our young people," she said. "We can't just expect Ms. Haaland to do it all by herself."

Long is already pitching in.

Since she moved to Anadarko more than a decade ago, Long has taken it upon herself to care for younger Navajo students who move to Oklahoma to attend Riverside - those who might feel a little homesick. She did so at the urging of a friend who was a counselor there.

She says she's like the students' grandmother. "I want to encourage you to have an education," she tells the students. "I want you to know, I'm here - if y'all ever need me, you know, just call on me."

A couple of times a year, she invites all the Navajo students at Riverside to a special gathering where she cooks traditional foods like mutton stew and fry bread.

She wants the students to know that, despite the difficult legacy, these schools can be good places. While what happened to students like her and Neconie was a long time ago, the memories of those awful times remain.

"Some kids would run away and some kids would die from running away, get harmed from running away," she said. "And there were some kids that were sexually abused." Now, she adds, "I feel it's a whole lot better."

Alumni from recent decades talk about the connections they made with teachers, or school trips they took while they were students here. The school has a Facebook group of more than 3,000 alumni who proudly tout the school's motto: "once a brave, always a brave."

Riverside's future

One alumni active in the Facebook group is Leandra Johnson - she's Diné. She graduated from Riverside in 2007 and now lives in Bloomfield, N.M.

She left the public high school she attended in Huerfano, N.M., to finish at Riverside, where she says she got a better education, and has a relative who works there - her uncle Junior.

"I spent the summer with him and his family out there and I just fell in love with the school," said Johnson.

"And I think, ever since like sixth grade, I was begging my parents, can I go? Can I go? Can I go?"

When she attended Riverside, Johnson said a little bit of the school's troubled history was included in the curriculum. She also learned Native American history that she was never taught at her public school in New Mexico, like the forced removal of thousands of Navajo on the infamous Long Walk of 1863-1866.

She read the government's boarding school report released earlier this year and was sad to see Riverside listed on it. She thinks it's important that the school's history is taught to the students.

Johnson remembers feeling more comfortable at Riverside because she was around other Native students and teachers - including the current principal, Amber Wilson, who Johnson said helped raise her. It felt like a family there.

Now, she has three children of her own, and her oldest, Aydrian, a shy seventh-grader who likes science and video games, wants to go to Riverside.

Aydrian knows about the history of these boarding schools from his own studies: watching videos about it online and some documentaries on TV. He knows children were forced to go and that they lost their language and culture. He thinks it's important for students to learn that history in addition to gaining some of the independence and life lessons at the school.

"My mom told me it was fun and that she made a lot of friends from all over the country," Aydrian said. "I want to go to Riverside. To see how it is for me and compare my experience to my mom's and great grandma's."
Allison Herrera, KOSU

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Federal Indian boarding schools still exist, but what's inside may be surprising

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The schools were tools of the U.S. government's attempts to erase tribal culture. But the few that remain have become places Native families want their children to attend.

# data[].attributes.body
Thomas Jefferson Morgan was the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. He believed that improving education for Native Americans would give them a better chance to succeed in society.
I think this is important because his idea of giving native Americans education was to send them to boarding school so they could be educated. Which meant to separate them from their families and abuse them.

# data[].attributes.headline
1890-1910 The number of black teachers went from 5000 to 60000

# data[].attributes.subject
1890-1910 The number of black teachers went from 5000 to 60000

# data[].attributes.body
However that number went down during desegregation to only 7% of teachers. This data is so important because it makes me think on how black teachers were not given the opportunity to teach in desegregated schools and how much that impacts even today. As a personal note, my school is 33% Hispanic, yet last year there were only 2 Hispanic teachers in the whole school. Representation matters and it is so important.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Most teachers are white. Most students aren’t

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The wide racial gap between teachers and students comes as school districts are seeing heated debates over how U.S. history.

# data[].attributes.body
In a speech delivered during the National Conference of Charities and Correction. Richard Henry Pratt said, "Kill the Indian in him, and save the man".
This fact is so important because it says that Indians weren't people. Thinking he was superior and in charge of a whole set of people.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
“Kill the Indian in him, and save the man”: R. H. Pratt on the Education of Native Americans | Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This resource includes the full text from Captain Richard Henry Pratt’s speech in which he used the now well-known phrase to describe his philosophy of assimilation: “Kill the Indian in him, and save the man.” The speech was delivered in 1892 during the National Conference of Charities and Correctio…

# data[].attributes.body
The Naturalization Act of 1906 required immigrants to learn English in order to become naturalized citizens.
This is important because immigrants were forced to learn a language that wasn't even official in the country in order to be naturalized.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The BASIC NATURALIZATION ACT OF 1906 provides a uniform rule for the naturalization of aliens throughout the United States and the courts are required to use standard naturalization forms. This Act required that all applicants for naturalization be able to speak English.

The Department of Commerce and Labor is split into two separate departments. The Bureau of Immigration and the Bureau of Naturalization are joined into a single entity titled the BUREAU OF IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION in the Department of Labor.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The BASIC NATURALIZATION ACT OF 1906 provides a uniform rule for the naturalization of aliens throughout the United States and the courts are required to use standard naturalization forms. This Act required that all applicants for naturalization be able to speak English.The Department of Commerce and Labor is split into two separate departments.

# data[].attributes.body
Green Cottenham was a black man from Columbiana, AL who was arrested for riding a freight train without a ticket. He was charged with vagrancy and sentenced to hard labor at the Pratt Mines, where he was forced to work without pay until he could come up with the money to pay his fine.

The story of Green Cottenham is important because it is a reminder of the injustices that black people faced in the Jim Crow South and it’s a testament to their strength and resilience in the face of oppression.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Sometimes a new bestseller leads to older books. Reading Michael Eric Dyson's Tears We Cannot Stop led me to browse for his recommended reading, which led me to Douglas A. Blackmon's Slavery By Another Name: the Re-enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II. The book won a Pulitzer in 2009, and PBS made a documentary in 2012. Both challenge any assumption we might make that slavery ended with the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Instead, white Southerners arrested thousands of African Americans on trivial charges such as loitering, vagrancy, or even leaving employment without permission of the employer. Judges levied fines, and when the men couldn't pay, sentenced them to years of hard labor. The 'justice' system of the South was debatable: small-town judges were uneducated and chosen at times merely by the quality of their handwriting. Prisoners were leased to employers, and Blackmon documents that the number of arrests rose and fell according to the demands of local farming and mining. Prisoners endured worse conditions than slaves, because sheriffs regarded them as less of an investment - more men could be arrested as needed. Workers lived inside the mines, in water and filth; details of their beatings, torture, and death would be unbelievable but for the mass unmarked graves located near the mines.

The story of one man, Green Cottenham, is woven through the larger history of forced labor. The eventual end of this system came as a result of legal prosecution of 'peonage,' the beginning of World War II, and the rise of automated machinery. Reading Slavery By Another Name gives background to Ava DuVernay's film 'The 13th' and Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow:
Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. Blackmon, who is Southern and white, acknowledges his own and his ancestors' privilege as he researches the story of forced labor and contacts Green Cottenham's surviving family. Slavery By Another Name is shocking and unforgettable, exposing the injustice that shaped our American economy and history.

On a completely different note, our latest 'filmed in Pittsburgh' movie led me to Maria Semple's Where'd You Go, Bernadette. I was curious about the plot and characters, and I can picture Cate Blanchette as the sarcastic, sophisticated, eccentric Bernadette. Billy Crudup plays her software-genius husband, and Kristin Wiig is their frustrated neighbor. Bernadette's 15-year-old daughter, a bit eccentric herself, longs to visit Antarctica, and as the family prepares for the trip, Bernadette (who had been a celebrated architect) begins to collapse into a nervous breakdown. What her family doesn't know is that Bernadette, unable to cope with finances or responsibility, has hired a virtual assistant from India to manage every detail of her family's life.

The story unfolds in the form of letters, emails, invoices, school memos, etc. from various points of view. My favorite parts were the hilarious rants from Bernadette about corporate branding, progressive schools, parent-teacher organizations, Microsoft office culture, Seattle, TED talks, and glass art installments by Chihuly ('the pigeons of Seattle. They're everywhere...') All the odds and ends culminate in a final explanation from Bernadette about why she suddenly disappeared from a ship in the Antarctic. She promises to return and become 'more of an artist and less of a menace.' I'm looking forward to the movie, and maybe getting a glimpse of Pittsburgh standing in for Seattle, and CMU as the daughter's private school.
by Jan Hardy, Cataloging Specialist

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Sometimes a new bestseller leads to older books. Reading Michael Eric Dyson's Tears We Cannot Stop led me to browse for his recommended reading, which led me to Douglas A. Blackmon's Slavery By Another Name: the Re-enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II.

# data[].attributes.body
The state has the legal authority to provide for the welfare of its children.

This is important because it is the first time in the history of US education that the government makes it a law for all the children to attend school however it had exceptions like children that were restricted from attending whether by physical limitation or economic means.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Hundreds of years ago, most learning happened at home. Parents taught their children or, if their families could afford it, private tutors did the job. The Puritans were the first in this country to point out the need for some kind of public education. They established schools to teach not just the essentials-reading, writing and math- but also to reinforce their core values.

After the American Revolution, Thomas Jefferson argued that the newly independent nation needed an educational system, and he suggested that tax dollars be used to fund it. His pleas were ignored, however, and the idea for a public school system languished for nearly a century.

By the 1840s, a few public schools had popped up around the country in the communities that could afford them. However, that smattering of schools wasn't good enough for education crusaders Horace Mann of Massachusetts and Henry Barnard of Connecticut. They began calling for free, compulsory school for every child in the nation.

Massachusetts passed the first compulsory school laws in 1852. New York followed the next year, and by 1918, all American children were required to attend at least elementary school.

Next came the movement to create equal schooling for all American children, no matter what their race. At the turn of the 20th century, schools in the South, and many in the North, were segregated. The 1896 Supreme Court ruling, Plessy v. Ferguson upheld the legality of segregation. Finally, in 1954, the Supreme Court overturned its ruling with the landmark case, Brown v. Board of Education, and public schools became open to people of all races.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Public schools educate about 50 million students a year. A look at costs, challenges, magnet and charter schools and teacher quality.

# data[].attributes.body
During the 1882-1924 period, with the influx of immigrants, a need from public school leaders to "assimilate" immigrant children surged. Different events occurred, including an English-only legislation. The Immigrant Act of 1924 had a significant impact on the demographics of the student population. I selected this event because I think it has had several consequences for education, like limiting the number of students from certain racial and ethnic groups who are able to attend school, creating a segregated educational system and it has led to the development of different educational standards for different groups of students.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Introduction

The Immigration Act of 1924 limited the number of immigrants allowed entry into the United States through a national origins quota. The quota provided immigration visas to two percent of the total number of people of each nationality in the United States as of the 1890 national census. It completely excluded immigrants from Asia.

Literacy Tests and "Asiatic Barred Zone"

In 1917, the U.S. Congress enacted the first widely restrictive immigration law. The uncertainty generated over national security during World War I made it possible for Congress to pass this legislation, and it included several important provisions that paved the way for the 1924 Act. The 1917 Act implemented a literacy test that required immigrants over 16 years old to demonstrate basic reading comprehension in any language. It also increased the tax paid by new immigrants upon arrival and allowed immigration officials to exercise more discretion in making decisions over whom to exclude. Finally, the Act excluded from entry anyone born in a geographically defined "Asiatic Barred Zone" except for Japanese and Filipinos. In 1907, the Japanese Government had voluntarily limited Japanese immigration to the United States in the Gentlemen's Agreement. The Philippines was a U.S. colony, so its citizens were U.S. nationals and could travel freely to the United States. China was not included in the Barred Zone, but the Chinese were already denied immigration visas under the Chinese Exclusion Act.

Immigration Quotas

The literacy test alone was not enough to prevent most potential immigrants from entering, so members of Congress sought a new way to restrict immigration in the 1920s. Immigration expert and Republican Senator from Vermont William P. Dillingham introduced a measure to create immigration quotas, which he set at three percent of the total population of the foreign-born of each nationality in the United States as recorded in the 1910 census. This put the total number of visas available each year to new immigrants at 350,000. It did not, however, establish quotas of any kind for residents of the Western Hemisphere. President Wilson opposed the restrictive act, preferring a more liberal immigration policy, so he used the pocket veto to prevent its passage. In early 1921, the newly inaugurated President Warren Harding called Congress back to a special session to pass the law. In 1922, the act was renewed for another two years.

Senator William P. Dillingham

When the congressional debate over immigration began in 1924, the quota system was so well-established that no one questioned whether to maintain it, but rather discussed how to adjust it. Though there were advocates for raising quotas and allowing more people to enter, the champions of restriction triumphed. They created a plan that lowered the existing quota from three to two percent of the foreign-born population. They also pushed back the year on which quota calculations were based from 1910 to 1890.

Another change to the quota altered the basis of the quota calculations. The quota had been based on the number of people born outside of the United States, or the number of immigrants in the United States. The new law traced the origins of the whole of the U.S. population, including natural-born citizens. The new quota calculations included large numbers of people of British descent whose families had long resided in the United States. As a result, the percentage of visas available to individuals from the British Isles and Western Europe increased, but newer immigration from other areas like Southern and Eastern Europe was limited.

The 1924 Immigration Act also included a provision excluding from entry any alien who by virtue of race or nationality was ineligible for citizenship. Existing nationality laws dating from 1790 and 1870 excluded people of Asian lineage from naturalizing. As a result, the 1924 Act meant that even Asians not previously prevented from immigrating - the Japanese in particular - would no longer be admitted to the United States. Many in Japan were very offended by the new law, which was a violation of the Gentlemen's Agreement. The Japanese government protested, but the law remained, resulting in an increase in existing tensions between the two nations. Despite the increased tensions, it appeared that the U.S. Congress had decided that preserving the racial composition of the country was more important than promoting good ties with Japan.

The restrictive principles of the Act could have resulted in strained relations with some European countries as well, but these potential problems did not appear for several reasons. The global depression of the 1930s, World War II, and stricter enforcement of U.S. immigration policy served to curtail European emigration. When these crises had passed, emergency provisions for the resettlement of displaced persons in 1948 and 1950 helped the United States avoid conflict over its new immigration laws.

In all of its parts, the most basic purpose of the 1924 Immigration Act was to preserve the ideal of U.S. homogeneity. Congress revised the Act in 1952.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Milestones: 1921-1936 - Office of the Historian

# data[].attributes.headline
1942 - The role of African Americans in Pearl Harbor

# data[].attributes.subject
1942 - The role of African Americans in Pearl Harbor

# data[].attributes.body
In the early 20th century, African Americans were largely excluded from the US Navy, however on the day of the Pearl Harbor attack, there were approximately 3000 African Americans serving at Pearl Harbor. After this, the Navy began to integrate more fully and African Americans began to serve in a wider range of roles.

This is important because even though African Americans played a significant role in the events of Pearl Harbor, their contributions were overlooked or marginalized. While the war had some positive impacts on the community like giving African Americans a new opportunity to join the workforce it also led to an increase in racial violence and numerous lynchings and other acts of violence due to the rise in patriotism and nationalism.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Effects of Pearl Harbor on African Americans

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
University of Georgia history professor John Morrow and University of Maryland American studies professor Robert Chester discussed how the bombing of Pearl Harbor impacted African Americans. This program was part of the 14th annual International Conference on World War II hosted by the National World War II Museum in New Orleans.

# data[].attributes.body
It ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. This is the beginning of desegregation in the US.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Separate But Equal Doctrine

In 1896, the Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that racially segregated public facilities were legal, so long as the facilities for Black people and whites were equal.

The ruling constitutionally sanctioned laws barring African Americans from sharing the same buses, schools and other public facilities as whites-known as "Jim Crow" laws -and established the "separate but equal" doctrine that would stand for the next six decades.

But by the early 1950s, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP) was working hard to challenge segregation laws in public schools, and had filed lawsuits on behalf of plaintiffs in states such as South Carolina, Virginia and Delaware.

In the case that would become most famous, a plaintiff named Oliver Brown filed a class-action suit against the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, in 1951, after his daughter, Linda Brown, was denied entrance to Topeka's all-white elementary schools.

In his lawsuit, Brown claimed that schools for Black children were not equal to the white schools, and that segregation violated the so-called "equal protection clause" of the 14th Amendment, which holds that no state can "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

The case went before the U.S. District Court in Kansas, which agreed that public school segregation had a "detrimental effect upon the colored children" and contributed to "a sense of inferiority," but still upheld the "separate but equal" doctrine.

Brown v. Board of Education Verdict

When Brown's case and four other cases related to school segregation first came before the Supreme Court in 1952, the Court combined them into a single case under the name Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.

Thurgood Marshall, the head of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, served as chief attorney for the plaintiffs. (Thirteen years later, President Lyndon B. Johnson would appoint Marshall as the first Black Supreme Court justice.)

At first, the justices were divided on how to rule on school segregation, with Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson holding the opinion that the Plessy verdict should stand. But in September 1953, before Brown v. Board of Education was to be heard, Vinson died, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower replaced him with Earl Warren, then governor of California.

Displaying considerable political skill and determination, the new chief justice succeeded in engineering a unanimous verdict against school segregation the following year.

In the decision, issued on May 17, 1954, Warren wrote that "in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place," as segregated schools are "inherently unequal." As a result, the Court ruled that the plaintiffs were being "deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the 14th Amendment."

Little Rock Nine

In its verdict, the Supreme Court did not specify how exactly schools should be integrated, but asked for further arguments about it.

In May 1955, the Court issued a second opinion in the case (known as Brown v. Board of Education II), which remanded future desegregation cases to lower federal courts and directed district courts and school boards to proceed with desegregation "with all deliberate speed."

Though well intentioned, the Court's actions effectively opened the door to local judicial and political evasion of desegregation. While Kansas and some other states acted in accordance with the verdict, many school and local officials in the South defied it.

In one major example, Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas called out the state National Guard to prevent Black students from attending high school in Little Rock in 1957. After a tense standoff, President Eisenhower deployed federal troops, and nine students-known as the " Little Rock Nine"- were able to enter Central High School under armed guard.

Impact of Brown v. Board of Education

Though the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board didn't achieve school desegregation on its own, the ruling (and the steadfast resistance to it across the South) fueled the nascent civil rights movement in the United States.

In 1955, a year after the Brown v. Board of Education decision, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus. Her arrest sparked the Montgomery bus boycott and would lead to other boycotts, sit-ins and demonstrations (many of them led by Martin Luther King Jr.), in a movement that would eventually lead to the toppling of Jim Crow laws across the South.

Passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, backed by enforcement by the Justice Department, began the process of desegregation in earnest. This landmark piece of civil rights legislation was followed by the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.

In 1976, the Supreme Court issued another landmark decision in Runyon v. McCrary, ruling that even private, nonsectarian schools that denied admission to students on the basis of race violated federal civil rights laws.

By overturning the "separate but equal" doctrine, the Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education had set the legal precedent that would be used to overturn laws enforcing segregation in other public facilities. But despite its undoubted impact, the historic verdict fell short of achieving its primary mission of integrating the nation's public schools.

Today, more than 60 years after Brown v. Board of Education, the debate continues over how to combat racial inequalities in the nation's school system, largely based on residential patterns and differences in resources between schools in wealthier and economically disadvantaged districts across the country.

HISTORY Vault: Black History

Sources

History - Brown v. Board of Education Re-enactment, United States Courts.
Brown v. Board of Education, The Civil Rights Movement: Volume I (Salem Press).
Cass Sunstein, "Did Brown Matter?" The New Yorker, May 3, 2004.
Brown v. Board of Education, PBS.org.
Richard Rothstein, Brown v. Board at 60, Economic Policy Institute, April 17, 2014.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Brown v. Board of Education: Summary, Ruling & Impact | HISTORY

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was a landmark 1954 Supreme Court case in which the justices ruled unanimously that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional.

# data[].attributes.body
The act provided federal grants to school districts to create educational programs for students with limited English speaking ability.
I think this was very important in acknowledging the need for bilingual education in the country. The beginning of bigger changes.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Bilingual Education Act (BEA), U.S. legislation (January 2, 1968) that provided federal grants to school districts for the purpose of establishing educational programs for children with limited English-speaking ability. It was the first time that the U.S. government officially acknowledged that these students need specialized instruction. The Bilingual Education Act (BEA) was an amendment to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.

Beginning in the late 19th century, millions of immigrants entered the United States, and many could not speak English. Some state governments pushed for assimilation, requiring non-English-speaking adults to take English-language classes. Children went to public schools, where they were totally immersed in the English language and often punished for speaking their native language. California and Texas established segregated public schools to accommodate the increase in Spanish-speaking children from Mexico. These schools concentrated on teaching English, but they had less funding than the schools for white non-Latino children and thus had inferior resources and underqualified teachers. Under these conditions many immigrant children dropped out or received an education that limited job opportunities.

In the ensuing years there were sporadic efforts to end school segregation, and these intensified in 1946 after a federal court ruled in that the segregation of Mexican American students in California schools was unlawful. More lawsuits followed, culminating in the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case, in which the U.S. Supreme Court found that racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional. This decision helped guide future educational policies toward equal opportunity. The civil rights movement and passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964-intending to end discrimination based on race, colour, religion, or national origin-also furthered equality in education.

Despite these developments, language difficulties continued to hamper the education of many Spanish-speaking students. In 1967 U.S. Sen. Ralph Yarborough of Texas introduced a bill to help school districts educate students with limited English-speaking ability. This was a particularly important issue in Texas and other southwestern states, which were experiencing an increase in Mexican immigration. The bill recommended bilingual education-including Spanish and other native languages-and funding was designated for developing programs, training staff, and obtaining educational resources. In 1968 U.S. Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson signed the BEA into law.

Over the years, the BEA underwent various revisions to meet the needs of students, parents, and teachers. For example, when first conceived, the act favoured school districts with high percentages of students from low-income families. Funding was later broadened to include students from a wider range of economic groups. The grants were also expanded to include more options for their use, such as for technical assistance and for the establishment of special training programs.

In January 2002 U.S. Pres. George W. Bush signed into law the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. It sought to improve public primary and secondary schools and, thus, student performance via increased accountability for schools, school districts, and states. For example, states were required to administer yearly tests in reading and mathematics to public school students and to demonstrate adequate progress toward raising the scores of all students. (In 2015 U.S. Pres. Barack Obama signed into law the Every Student Succeeds Act, which modified NCLB.) Under NCLB the BEA became the English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement, and Academic Achievement Act.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Bilingual Education Act | Definition, 1968, Summary, & Facts

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Bilingual Education Act, U.S. legislation (1968) that offered federal grants to school districts for the purpose of creating educational programs for students with limited English-speaking ability. It was the first time that the U.S. government officially acknowledged that such students need specialized instruction.

# data[].attributes.body
The Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children filed a suit against the commonwealth of Pennsylvania because people with disabilities were excluded from their state supported public schools.

This case was the first one to establish that people with intellectual disabilities should have the same access to education as the rest of the population, it required the state to include these students in regular classrooms rather than isolated special classes.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
PARC v. Pennsylvania, 334 F.Supp. 1257 (E.D. PA 1972) United States District Court, E. D. Pennsylvania. PENNSYLVANIA ASSOCIATION FOR RETARDED CHILDREN, Nancy Beth Bowman, et al., Plaintiffs, v. COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA, David H. Kurtzman, et al. Civ. A. No. 71-42. Oct. 8, 1971. Thomas K. Gilhool, Philadelphia, Pa., for plaintiffs.

# data[].attributes.body
The Supreme Court ruled that the San Francisco Unified School District failed to provide language education to students who could not understand English.
This case affirmed that teaching students in a language they did not understand was not appropriate education and it is very important because it removes language barriers to learning.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
LAU ET AL. v. NICHOLS ET AL.
No. 72-6520
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
414 U.S. 563
December 10, 1973, Argued
January 21, 1974, Decided

PRIOR HISTORY:

CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT.

DISPOSITION:

483 F.2d 791, reversed and remanded.

SYLLABUS:

The failure of the San Francisco school system to provide English language instruction to approximately 1,800 students of Chinese ancestry who do not speak English, or to provide them with other adequate instructional procedures, denies them a meaningful opportunity to participate in the public educational program and thus violates ï¿½ 601 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bans discrimination based "on the ground of race, color, or national origin," in "any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance," and the implementing regulations of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Pp. 565-569.

Douglas, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Brennan, Marshall, Powell, and Rehnquist, JJ., joined. Stewart, J., filed an opinion concurring in the result, in which Burger, C. J., and Blackmun, J., joined, post, p. 569. White, J., concurred in the result. Blackmun, J., filed an opinion concurring in the result, in which Burger, C. J., joined, post, p. 571.

Opinions

MR. JUSTICE DOUGLAS delivered the opinion of the Court.

The San Francisco, California, school system was integrated in 1971 as a result of a federal court decree, 339 F.Supp. 1315. See Lee v. Johnson, 404 U.S. 1215. The District Court found that there are 2,856 students of Chinese ancestry in the school system who do not speak English. Of those who have that language deficiency, about 1,000 are given supplemental courses in the English language. n1 About 1,800, however, do not receive that instruction.

note1 A report adopted by the Human Rights Commission of San Francisco and submitted to the Court by respondents after oral argument shows that, as of April 1973, there were 3,457 Chinese students in the school system who spoke little or no English. The document further showed 2,136 students enrolled in Chinese special instruction classes, but at least 429 of the enrollees were not Chinese but were included for ethnic balance. Thus, as of April 1973, no more than 1,707 of the 3,457 Chinese students needing special English instruction were receiving it.

This class suit brought by non-English-speaking Chinese students against officials responsible for the operation of the San Francisco Unified School District seeks relief against the unequal educational opportunities, which are alleged to violate, inter alia, the Fourteenth Amendment. No specific remedy is urged upon us. Teaching English to the students of Chinese ancestry who do not speak the language is one choice. Giving instructions to this group in Chinese is another. There may be others. Petitioners ask only that the Board of Education be directed to apply its expertise to the problem and rectify the situation. The District Court denied relief. The Court of Appeals affirmed, holding that there was no violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment or of ï¿½ 601 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 78 Stat. 252, 42 U. S. C. ï¿½ 2000d, which excludes from participation in federal financial assistance, recipients of aid which discriminate against racial groups, 483 F.2d 791. One judge dissented. A hearing en banc was denied, two judges dissenting. Id., at 805. We granted the petition for certiorari because of the public importance of the question presented, 412 U.S. 938.

The Court of Appeals reasoned that "every student brings to the starting line of his educational career different advantages and disadvantages caused in part by social, economic and cultural background, created and continued completely apart from any contribution by the school system," 483 F.2d, at 797. Yet in our view the case may not be so easily decided. This is a public school system of California and ï¿½ 71 of the California Education Code states that "English shall be the basic language of instruction in all schools." That section permits a school district to determine "when and under what circumstances instruction may be given bilingually." That section also states as "the policy of the state" to insure "the mastery of English by all pupils in the schools." And bilingual instruction is authorized "to the extent that it does not interfere with the systematic, sequential, and regular instruction of all pupils in the English language."

Moreover, ï¿½ 8573 of the Education Code provides that no pupil shall receive a diploma of graduation from grade 12 who has not met the standards of proficiency in "English," as well as other prescribed subjects. Moreover, by ï¿½ 12101 of the Education Code (Supp. 1973) children between the ages of six and 16 years are (with exceptions not material here) "subject to compulsory full-time education."

Under these state-imposed standards there is no equality of treatment merely by providing students with the same facilities, textbooks, teachers, and curriculum; for students who do not understand English are effectively foreclosed from any meaningful education.

Basic English skills are at the very core of what these public schools teach. Imposition of a requirement that, before a child can effectively participate in the educational program, he must already have acquired those basic skills is to make a mockery of public education. We know that those who do not understand English are certain to find their classroom experiences wholly incomprehensible and in no way meaningful. We do not reach the Equal Protection Clause argument which has been advanced but rely solely on ï¿½ 601 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U. S. C. ï¿½ 2000d, to reverse the Court of Appeals.

That section bans discrimination based "on the ground of race, color, or national origin," in "any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance." The school district involved in this litigation receives large amounts of federal financial assistance. The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW), which has authority to promulgate regulations prohibiting discrimination in federally assisted school systems, 42 U. S. C. ï¿½ 2000d-1, in 1968 issued one guideline that "school systems are responsible for assuring that students of a particular race, color, or national origin are not denied the opportunity to obtain the education generally obtained by other students in the system." 33 Fed. Reg. 4956. In 1970 HEW made the guidelines more specific, requiring school districts that were federally funded "to rectify the language deficiency in order to open" the instruction to students who had "linguistic deficiencies," 35 Fed. Reg. 11595.

By ï¿½ 602 of the Act HEW is authorized to issue rules, regulations, and orders n2 to make sure that recipients of federal aid under its jurisdiction conduct any federally financed projects consistently with ï¿½ 601. HEW's regulations, 45 CFR ï¿½ 80.3 (b)(1), specify that the recipients may not

"(ii) Provide any service, financial aid, or other benefit to an individual which is different, or is provided in a different manner, from that provided to others under the program;
. . . .
"(iv) Restrict an individual in any way in the enjoyment of any advantage or privilege enjoyed by others receiving any service, financial aid, or other benefit under the program."

note2 Section 602 provides:
"Each Federal department and agency which is empowered to extend Federal financial assistance to any program or activity, by way of grant, loan, or contract other than a contract of insurance or guaranty, is authorized and directed to effectuate the provisions of section 2000d of this title with respect to such program or activity by issuing rules, regulations, or orders of general applicability which shall be consistent with achievement of the objectives of the statute authorizing the financial assistance in connection with which the action is taken. . . ." 42 U. S. C. ï¿½ 2000d-1.

Discrimination among students on account of race or national origin that is prohibited includes "discrimination . . . in the availability or use of any academic . . . or other facilities of the grantee or other recipient." Id., ï¿½ 80.5 (b).

Discrimination is barred which has that effect even though no purposeful design is present: a recipient "may not . . . utilize criteria or methods of administration which have the effect of subjecting individuals to discrimination" or have "the effect of defeating or substantially impairing accomplishment of the objectives of the program as respect individuals of a particular race, color, or national origin." Id., ï¿½ 80.3 (b)(2).

It seems obvious that the Chinese-speaking minority receive fewer benefits than the English-speaking majority from respondents' school system which denies them a meaningful opportunity to participate in the educational program -- all earmarks of the discrimination banned by the regulations. n3 In 1970 HEW issued clarifying guidelines, 35 Fed. Reg. 11595, which include the following:

note3 And see Report of the Human Rights Commission of San Francisco, Bilingual Education in the San Francisco Public Schools, Aug. 9, 1973.

"Where inability to speak and understand the English language excludes national origin-minority group children from effective participation in the educational program offered by a school district, the district must take affirmative steps to rectify the language deficiency in order to open its instructional program to these students."

"Any ability grouping or tracking system employed by the school system to deal with the special language skill needs of national origin-minority group children must be designed to meet such language skill needs as soon as possible and must not operate as an educational deadend or permanent track." Respondent school district contractually agreed to "comply with title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 . . . and all requirements imposed by or pursuant to the Regulation" of HEW (45 CFR pt. 80) which are "issued pursuant to that title . . ." and also immediately to "take any measures necessary to effectuate this agreement." The Federal Government has power to fix the terms on which its money allotments to the States shall be disbursed. Oklahoma v. CSC, 330 U.S. 127, 142-143. Whatever may be the limits of that power, Steward Machine Co. v. Davis, 301 U.S. 548, 590 et seq., they have not been reached here. Senator Humphrey, during the floor debates on the Civil Rights Act of 1964, said: n4

note4 110 Cong. Rec. 6543 (Sen. Humphrey, quoting from President Kennedy's message to Congress, June 19, 1963).

"Simple justice requires that public funds, to which all taxpayers of all races contribute, not be spent in any fashion which encourages, entrenches, subsidizes, or results in racial discrimination." We accordingly reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals and remand the case for the fashioning of appropriate relief.

Reversed and remanded.

MR. JUSTICE WHITE concurs in the result.

Concurring Opinions

MR. JUSTICE STEWART, with whom THE CHIEF JUSTICE and MR. JUSTICE BLACKMUN join, concurring in the result.

It is uncontested that more than 2,800 schoolchildren of Chinese ancestry attend school in the San Francisco Unified School District system even though they do not speak, understand, read, or write the English language, and that as to some 1,800 of these pupils the respondent school authorities have taken no significant steps to deal with this language deficiency. The petitioners do not contend, however, that the respondents have affirmatively or intentionally contributed to this inadequacy, but only that they have failed to act in the face of changing social and linguistic patterns. Because of this laissez-faire attitude on the part of the school administrators, it is not entirely clear that ï¿½ 601 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U. S. C. ï¿½ 2000d, standing alone, would render illegal the expenditure of federal funds on these schools. For that section provides that "no person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."

On the other hand, the interpretive guidelines published by the Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in 1970, 35 Fed. Reg. 11595, clearly indicate that affirmative efforts to give special training for non-English-speaking pupils are required by Tit. VI as a condition to receipt of federal aid to public schools:

"Where inability to speak and understand the English language excludes national origin-minority group children from effective participation in the educational program offered by a school district, the district must take affirmative steps to rectify the language deficiency in order to open its instructional program to these students." n1

note1 These guidelines were issued in further clarification of the Department's position as stated in its regulations issued to implement Tit. VI, 45 CFR pt. 80. The regulations provide in part that no recipient of federal financial assistance administered by HEW may "Provide any service, financial aid, or other benefit to an individual which is different, or is provided in a different manner, from that provided to others under the program; [or] "Restrict an individual in any way in the enjoyment of any advantage or privilege enjoyed by others receiving any service, financial aid, or other benefit under the program." 45 CFR ï¿½ 80.3 (b)(1)(ii), (iv).

The critical question is, therefore, whether the regulations and guidelines promulgated by HEW go beyond the authority of ï¿½ 601. n2 Last Term, in Mourning v. Family Publications Service, Inc., 411 U.S. 356, 369, we held that the validity of a regulation promulgated under a general authorization provision such as ï¿½ 602 of Tit. VI n3 "will be sustained so long as it is 'reasonably related to the purposes of the enabling legislation.' Thorpe v. Housing Authority of the City of Durham, 393 U.S. 268, 280-281 (1969)." I think the guidelines here fairly meet that test. Moreover, in assessing the purposes of remedial legislation we have found that departmental regulations and "consistent administrative construction" are "entitled to great weight." Trafficante v. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., 409 U.S. 205, 210; Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U.S. 424, 433-434; Udall v. Tallman, 380 U.S. 1. The Department has reasonably and consistently interpreted ï¿½ 601 to require affirmative remedial efforts to give special attention to linguistically deprived children.

note2 The respondents do not contest the standing of the petitioners to sue as beneficiaries of the federal funding contract between the Department of Health, Education,and Welfare and the San Francisco Unified School District.

note3 Section 602, 42 U. S. C. ï¿½ 2000d-1, provides in pertinent part:
"Each Federal department and agency which is empowered to extend Federal financial assistance to any program or activity, by way of grant, loan, or contract other than a contract of insurance or guaranty, is authorized and directed to effectuate the provisions of section 2000d of this title with respect to such program or activity by issuing rules, regulations, or orders of general applicability which shall be consistent with achievement of the objectives of the statute authorizing the financial assistance in connection with which the action is taken. . . ."

The United States as amicus curiae asserts in its brief, and the respondents appear to concede, that the guidelines were issued pursuant to ï¿½ 602.

For these reasons I concur in the result reached by the Court.
MR. JUSTICE BLACKMUN, with whom THE CHIEF JUSTICE joins, concurring in the result.

I join MR. JUSTICE STEWART'S opinion and thus I, too, concur in the result. Against the possibility that the Court's judgment may be interpreted too broadly, I stress the fact that the children with whom we are concerned here number about 1,800. This is a very substantial group that is being deprived of any meaningful schooling because the children cannot understand the language of the classroom. We may only guess as to why they have had no exposure to English in their preschool years. Earlier generations of American ethnic groups have overcome the language barrier by earnest parental endeavor or by the hard fact of being pushed out of the family or community nest and into the realities of broader experience.

I merely wish to make plain that when, in another case, we are concerned with a very few youngsters, or with just a single child who speaks only German or Polish or Spanish or any language other than English, I would not regard today's decision, or the separate concurrence, as conclusive upon the issue whether the statute and the guidelines require the funded school district to provide special instruction. For me, numbers are at the heart of this case and my concurrence is to be understood accordingly.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Overview of Lau v. Nichols decision of the United States Supreme Court.

# data[].attributes.body
The Education for All Handicapped Children Act is a federal law that requires public schools to provide free, appropriate publid education to all children with disabilities between the ages of 3 and 21.

Before this year, there were no formal legal protections in place for children with disabilities to receive free public education. EAHCA has helped to ensure that all children have the opportunity to reach their full potential, regardless of their disability. It also promotes inclusion and acceptance of children with disabilities in schools and communities.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Educational Rights for Children With Disabilities | Kaiser Permanente

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA) of 1975 is a federal law. It is also known as Public Law 94-142. It requires public schools to provide appropriate educational services for all children with disabilities between ages 3 and 21. EAHCA has been strengthened and expanded over the years. It is now…

# data[].attributes.body
The individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Besides the different words to describe it, IDEA expanded the eligibility criteria to include children with a wider range of disabilities and provided more funding for special education services.

It is important because it is a significant expansion of rights and protections for children with disabilities

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The U.S. Department of Education’s Individuals with Disabilities Education Act website brings together department and grantee IDEA information and resources. The IDEA makes available a free appropriate public education to and ensures special education and related services to eligible children with disabilities.

# data[].attributes.headline
2019 - 4 African American girls strip-searched at school

# data[].attributes.subject
2019 - 4 African American girls strip-searched at school

# data[].attributes.body
The girls were subjected to discriminatory, dehumanizing and unlawful strip searches. There was a previous case in 2003 that went to the supreme court in 2009 ruling that strip searches at school were unconstitutional. The incident in 2019 brought the conversation back about student’s rights and how far can the police go. Another thought obviously was the race, one of the people interviewed in the video points out what would have happened in those where 4 white girls with a black principal and a black nurse.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
After Report of 4 Girls Strip-Searched at School, Cuomo Calls for Inquiry (Published 2019)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The parents of the 12-year-olds say they were strip-searched at a middle school in Binghamton, N.Y., but the school district has disputed the account.

# data[].attributes.body
The Education for All Handicapped Children Act is a federal law that requires public schools to provide free, appropriate publid education to all children with disabilities between the ages of 3 and 21.

Before this year, there were no formal legal protections in place for children with disabilities to receive free public education. EAHCA has helped to ensure that all children have the opportunity to reach their full potential, regardless of their disability. It also promotes inclusion and acceptance of children with disabilities in schools and communities.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Educational Rights for Children With Disabilities | Kaiser Permanente

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA) of 1975 is a federal law. It is also known as Public Law 94-142. It requires public schools to provide appropriate educational services for all children with disabilities between ages 3 and 21. EAHCA has been strengthened and expanded over the years. It is now…