Rethinking How Young 19th and 20th Century Voices Reframe Our Present Educational Crisis

Session Submission Type: Panel Session

Abstract

Dr. Sharony Green's paper, "Education and the Gentlemen's Children Sent from the South" sheds light on the complex and often quiet ways southern white men made it possible for children produced with women of African descent to obtain an education. These young people's experiences reflect an emergent postbellum black elite who remained aware of the challenges facing them and other people of African descent in an outside the South during the postbellum period and the rise of Jim Crow. What do we make of their lives and ongoing hurdles facing African Americans in educational settings and beyond? Dr. Hilary Green's paper, "The Blair Education Bill and the Death of Educational Reconstruction," argues that Educational Reconstruction ended and Jim Crow education began in 1890 when Congress failed to pass the Blair Education bill. The legacy of which contributed to the crisis of black education discussed by Carter G. Woodson and others during the 20th century. Miss Cindy A. Jones' paper, "The Brown Decision: Idealism and Institutional Practice in Conflict," argues that the idealism of the Brown decision was tainted by the objectification and commodification of the black student. She also argues that we witness the vestiges of this objectification and commodification outside and within the black community and that until we recognize and rectify these realities, the "Crisis of Black Education" will continue.

Sub Unit

• 102nd Annual Meeting and Conference of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History

Individual Presentations

• "Education and the Gentlemen's Children Sent from the South" - Sharony Green, The University of Alabama

• "The Blair Education Bill and the Death of Educational Reconstruction" - Hilary N Green, The University of Alabama

• "The Brown Decision: Ideals and Institutional Practice in Conflict" - Cindy Alyce Jones, The University of Alabama

Commentator

• Cindy Alyce Jones, The University of Alabama