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Part
II -
Sustaining the Infrastructure of Public Education: 1900-1953
Public education
experienced tremendous changes from 1900 to 1953. This
period witnessed the struggle to expand
educational opportunities, facilities, and funding for white and black
schools. Dramatic growth, change, and challenge characterize this
period
as the state moved from the progressive period into the Great
Depression, World
War II and to the brink of the landmark Supreme Court case, Brown
vs.Board
of Education, Topeka, Kansas.
Special emphasis will be given to the efforts of black
families to support
their schools through a combination of charity, philanthropy, and
private
donations from their own resources.
Public
Education during the
Progressive Period – 1900-1929
The
progressive period was a stage in which the government was looked upon
as a
partner in creating social, economic, and political reform in the
nation. Expansion of government services
and
spending, reliance on specialist and experts in given fields, and the
emergence
of women as agents for social and political reform characterize this
period. Progress in education continued to
be hindered by notions of white supremacy which infected many of the
state’s
governors and legislators during this period. Governor
James K. Vardaman was adamant in his opposition
to expanding
educational opportunities and facilities for the black children of the
state. Prior to becoming governor in
1903, while still editor of the Greenwood
Commonwealth,
he wrote this
editorial which reflected the commonly held ideology of his times:
"In educating
the
Negro we implant
in him all manner of aspirations and ambitions which we then refuse to
allow him to gratify. . . . Yet
people talk
about elevating the race by
education! It is not only folly, but it
comes pretty nearly being criminal folly. The
Negro isn’t permitted to
advance and
their education only spoils a
good field hand and
makes a shyster lawyer or a fourth-rate teacher. It is money
thrown away."
– Commonwealth
(Greenwood), 30 June 1899.
In spite of the prevailing
attitudes of many in state government toward free black public schools,
positive reforms were enacted which contributed to the elevation of
standards
for both white and black students. Governor
Vardaman’s State Superintendent of Public Education, Henry L.
Whitfield, who
later served as governor from 1923-1927, identified teacher training as
a major
concern in the state. Although Governor
Vardaman closed the only teacher training college for black teachers in
1904,
Superintendent Whitfield helped to offset the effect by opening teacher
training institutes across the state which were conducted during the
summer
months. This made it possible for more
teachers, black and white, to receive training on the high school and
college
level.
Superintendent
Whitfield also advocated the creation of agricultural high schools to
meet the
needs of rural areas of the state. Ninety
percent of Mississippi’s
educable children lived in rural areas and Whitfield sought to
facilitate
modern agricultural and farming techniques through agricultural high
schools,
making rural life more attractive and productive. Legislation
was passed in 1908 which provided
for agricultural high schools, but its failure to provide “separate but
equal”
facilities for black students prohibited its implementation until 1910
when the
law was amended to allow districts to create two agricultural high
schools
within the district, one for white students and another for
black students. Only one such school was
in operation for
black students by 1926, in contrast to the 48 while agricultural high
schools
across the state.
Another concern
identified during this period was the condition of school facilities. The vast majority of Mississippi’s
schools were one-room, one-teacher schools, which lacked proper heat,
water,
and equipment. To address this problem,
the state began to move toward the consolidation of smaller schools
into
larger, permanent, and more modern facilities. The
funding of these larger consolidated schools resulted
in further
inequities between white and black school facilities.
By 1926 there were only four black high
schools in the state. While white
schools were funded by county-wide poll taxes, black schools often
failed to receive
their fair share of the taxes which resulted in under-funded and
ill-equipped
school houses. In response, the black
community petitioned the state in the 1920s to divide education funds
according
to race, with blacks receiving their full share of the taxes they had
paid
toward public education. Their calls for
reform went unheeded as white legislators soon realized that such a
move would
allocate more money to black schools than they were willing to share. Even though blacks made up the majority of
the state’s educable children, black taxpayers ended up funding the
construction of white public schools, leaving their own schools
under-funded
and under-equipped.
Sustaining black
schools meant that school districts had to depend on a variety of
sources for
funding. The majority of black schools
were constructed using funds contributed by several northern
philanthropic
organizations. The Julius Rosenwald Fund
provided funds for black school construction, with the remaining funds
coming
from private donations from black
citizens, white citizens, and the portion of taxes appropriated by the
county. The state viewed the Rosenwald
Fund as an
opportunity to free up more resources for white school construction and
saw no
wrong in diverting funds away from black schools to white schools. The same philosophy also applied to the
funding of county training schools. The
state depended upon the John F. Slater Fund and the General Education
Board of New York City to
provide matching funds for the building
and equipping of industrial, agricultural, and domestic science schools
for
black boys and girls. By 1926 there were
29 such schools for black students in Mississippi. The Jeanes Fund also contributed to paying a
portion of the salary for black vocational or industrial supervising
school
teachers. These teachers served as
mentors to other black teachers and often were the only black
educational
official in the county. The General
Education Board also provided scholarships for summer teacher
institutes attended
by the state’s black teachers. The
passage of the federal Smith-Hughes Act in 1917 provided funds to pay a
portion
of the salaries for vocational educators in the state.
This led to an expansion of agricultural and
vocational high schools. In 1922 the
state passed legislation permitting four-year accredited high schools
to add
two years to their courses and thus become junior colleges. As rural school districts began to
consolidate in the 1920s, many agricultural high schools began the
process of converting
into junior colleges. In 1918 the
state
also passed a compulsory school law, which was amended in 1920 and then
repealed in 1954 following the United States Supreme Court’s
desegregation
order. The compulsory school law, while
in effect, was ineffective due to lack of enforcement and provisions
which
exempted families living two and one half miles from the school from
complying. Since the majority of the
state’s children lived in rural areas miles away from the consolidated
schools,
many families were exempted from obeying the “compulsory” school
attendance
law.
Public
Education during the
Great Depression and World War II - 1930-1945
A
dramatic drop in cotton prices in the late 1920s combined with the
collapse of
the stock market in 1929 placed the state of Mississippi
in heart of the Great Depression. The
effect of the Great Depression on public education was significant. The funding mechanisms that had supported
public education were scarcely able to keep up with the needs of the
state’s
schools. Following the end of the first
pay period in September, 1931, the superintendent of the Jackson
Separate Public
School District asked
teachers to accept a ten percent
reduction in salary for the remaining eight months in the school term. Schools across the state shortened
their school terms by one month and asked teachers to teach one month
for
free.
With
little work to be found, student attendance rose creating overcrowded
conditions in many black schools. Teachers
were given impossible teaching loads, supplies
and teaching
materials were always in short supply. Private
donations from charitable whites and blacks toward
building and
maintaining black public schools shrank, but the Rosenwald Fund
continued to
match county and private donations. White schools suffered during
the
Depression as well. By 1936 Mississippi
was investing in school plants only $69.00 per child enrolled in school
in
contrast to an investment of $250.00 per child enrolled on a national
average. With the assistance of the Public
Works Administration the
state secured labor to construct and improve many of the state’s white
school
plants. In the midst of the Great
Depression the state of Mississippi
acted to revise the school financing laws. In
1936 the Kyle-Cook Budget Law was passed which created
an
equalization fund and expanded county-wide and district tax levies for
public
schools.
As Mississippi
entered
the second
world war, significant improvements in a number of areas were on the
horizon. In 1940 Jackson
College was acquired
by the state
to serve as the training school for black teachers.
In the same year, two training schools for
bus drivers were created to facilitate the safe transportation of
students to
and from school. In 1944 the state
increased funding for new buses and additional safety programs for bus
drivers. The Mississippi State Textbook
Rating and Purchasing Board was established in 1940 to provide
uniformity in
the selection of textbooks. The
legislature also passed a free textbook law for grades one through
eight in
1940 and amended it to include grades nine through twelve in 1942. Other notable accomplishments during this
period included the extension of the school term to eight months for
white
schools, the establishment of a Teacher Retirement System and an
increase in
public school appropriations of over six million dollars from 1936 to
1945.
Public
Education on the Brink of
Desegregation - 1945-1953
As
World War II came to an end and soldiers returned home to Mississippi,
a new sense of determination gripped the black community.
Black soldiers who had fought to expand
democracy in Europe and Asia,
now
returned to the United States
and Mississippi committed
to expanding democratic
participation at home. Sensing this new
attitude in the black community, State Superintendent Jackson M. Tubb
challenged the state legislature to give greater attention to
adequately
funding black education:
"There is
vital need for the passage of new legislation in Mississippi
that will provide a way whereby Negro schools
can be conducted and maintain through more public support than is now
possible under existing laws. It is
imperative that the Legislature enact
necessary laws that will insure a greater
degree of comparable educational opportunities for all the children of
all the
people."
- Mississippi, Biennial Report
and Recommendations of the State Superintendent
of Public Education to the
Legislature of Mississippi, 1947-1949, p.15.
Superintendent
Tubbs concerns
likely fell on deaf ears as the state’s governor, Fielding Wright, led
southern
Democrats to walk out of the Democratic National Convention in 1948. Southern Democrats objected to President
Truman’s stand of civil rights and formed the States’ Rights party,
with
Fielding Wright nominated as the vice-presidential candidate of the
party. In such an environment, little
progress could
be expected in improving the educational opportunities for blacks.
As Mississippi
entered the 1950s it became evident to the state’s political leaders
that the
segregated school system which they supported was in danger of being
ruled
unconstitutional by the federal courts. The
Democratic party, home to white supremacists in the
South since
before the Civil War, was gradually changing its position on civil
rights. In 1952, with the Democratic party
favoring
integration, many whites abandoned the Democratic party and joined the
more
conservative Republican party. Hugh
White was elected governor in 1951 and immediately began a school
consolidation
program with hopes of bringing the state into compliance with the
“separate-but-equal” doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson. This 1896 United States Supreme Court ruling
allowed states to establish segregated
schools as long as the facilities were equal. In
Mississippi,
the
“separate-but-equal” concept was never taken seriously until it became
clear
that Plessy v. Ferguson was in danger of being overturned. In an
effort to preserve segregation in public education, Governor White
proposed a
“voluntary” segregation plan which called for a massive program of
black school
construction and equalization of black teacher salaries to the same
levels as
white teachers. Black education leaders
rejected this proposal and the state legislature responded by
threatening to
amend the state constitution so as to close all public schools in the
event
that the federal courts called for the end of Mississippi’s dual system
of
public education. Superintendent Tubbs
objected to this approach and in the wake of the 1954 Brown v.
Board of
Education ruling that “separate-but-equal” was unconstitutional, Mississippi
repealed its laws requiring separate districts for white and black
students. However, the state
still
maintained separate schools for white and black students within the
same school
district, setting the stage for intense conflict between the state of Mississippi
and the federal courts.
Sources
McKee, Jesse O.
ed. Mississippi,
The Magnolia State. Atlanta:
Clairmont Press Inc., 2005.
McLemore, R. A. A
History of Mississippi.
Vol. 2. Jackson: University
of Mississippi Press, 1973.
Mississippi. Biennial
Report and Recommendations of the State Superintendent of Public
Education
to the Legislature of Mississippi,
1947-1949.
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