The Quest for Education

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Tuskegee University
Despite the burdens of segregation and racism, some high schools and colleges for black students provided educational opportunities that rivaled those offered to white students. Morehouse College and Tuskegee, Howard, and Fisk universities have educated African Americans since the late 1800s. This history class is at Tuskegee University.
(Courtesy of Library of Congress)

Separate public schools were often created for Asian, Latino, and Native American children. Where there were not enough children of a single racial group to form their own school, they were usually required to attend black institutions.

“Mexican school” class photograph in Cotulla, Texas, 1928. The young teacher in the center is Lyndon Johnson, who as president would sign the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
(Courtesy of Lyndon B. Johnson Library Museum)

Lincoln School, Oakland, California, 1910

Paxville, South Carolina
“Colored” and “white” schools in Paxville, South Carolina. In some southern states, white schools received two to three times more money per student than black schools. Black taxpayers in several states not only bore the entire cost of their own schools, but helped support white schools as well.
(Courtesy of South Carolina Department of Archives and History)

Textbook, stamped inside
School administrators often took a hand-me-down approach to black schools. Outdated textbooks from white schools, such as this one from Raleigh, North Carolina, would be transferred to a local black school.

A Study of Educational Inequalities in South
Carolina

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