History of Education by

1863 - Emancipation Proclamation

esantana6 — 2022-07-23 02:27:13 UTC

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

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

esantana6 — 2022-07-23 02:28:16 UTC

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

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

esantana6 — 2022-07-23 02:29:57 UTC

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

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

esantana6 — 2022-07-23 02:55:43 UTC

“Voting rights for Black men in the former Confederate states were rescinded in courts and in state and local laws, and those rights were further restricted by poll taxes, literacy tests, intimidation, grandfather laws and fraud.”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

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

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

esantana6 — 2022-07-23 03:06:17 UTC

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

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

esantana6 — 2022-07-23 03:19:22 UTC

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

1885 – Tape v. Hurley (CA)

esantana6 — 2022-07-23 03:20:41 UTC

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

1896 – Plessy vs. Ferguson

esantana6 — 2022-07-23 03:29:12 UTC

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

Late 1800s - Letter Grading System

esantana6 — 2022-07-30 13:07:27 UTC

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

Representation Matters: Supreme Court Justices Throughout Time

esantana6 — 2022-07-30 13:13:53 UTC

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

1916 - The IQ Test

esantana6 — 2022-07-30 13:15:30 UTC

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

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

esantana6 — 2022-07-30 13:17:48 UTC

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

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

esantana6 — 2022-07-30 13:18:31 UTC

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

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

esantana6 — 2022-07-30 13:21:56 UTC

1947 – Mendez v. Westminster (CA)

esantana6 — 2022-07-30 13:24:22 UTC

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

1950s - 1960s- The American Civil Rights Movement

esantana6 — 2022-07-30 13:25:56 UTC

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

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

esantana6 — 2022-07-30 13:26:59 UTC

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

1954 – Brown v. Board of Education

esantana6 — 2022-07-30 13:31:22 UTC

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

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

esantana6 — 2022-07-30 13:42:00 UTC

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

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

esantana6 — 2022-07-30 13:47:24 UTC

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

1974 - Women's Educational Equity Act (WEEA)

esantana6 — 2022-07-30 13:49:22 UTC

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

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

esantana6 — 2022-07-30 13:52:46 UTC

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

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

esantana6 — 2022-07-30 13:56:38 UTC

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

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

esantana6 — 2022-07-30 14:04:22 UTC

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

1930 The Lemon Grove Incident - San Diego

esantana6 — 2023-08-21 22:40:59 UTC

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

Nallely

2024-09-21 01:16:41 UTC

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

-Nallely

Allen Chu

2024-09-24 21:35:45 UTC

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

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

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