Abstract
AMERICAN Negroes have seldom played any notable part in education. A well-documented paper book, “Special Problems of Negro Education” (Washington, D.C.: G.P.O. 25 cents), shows that coloured children suffer from an inequality of chances compared with whites. The author, Prof. Wilkerson, has made several studies of the subject, and the results are gathered in this monograph. Negroes are required by law to attend separate schools in eighteen States, from Alabama to West Virginia. Four fifths of them are in the South and supply nearly one fourth of the population. Is their education in separate schools adequate, and, if not, what can be done to improve it? These are the questions the author answers. The figures tabulated are a little puzzling, but suggest on careful examination that during 1933–34 school attendance was considerably less among Negroes than whites. The Negro schools were kept open on the whole for a shorter time, though States offer varying data. A racial difference of one school month becomes over a period of years a real handicap and leads to lower levels of scholastic achievement; pupils retarded in early grades are likely to drop out of school. Eminent authorities all agree that they are quite as good in learning ability as whites. Transportation for education is important for rural districts, and here, too, they are handicapped, while they have fewer and worse-paid teachers. These disparities have been defended, but no sensible authority doubts that they should be eliminated. In Mississippi many of the coloured schools are housed in churches, old stores and shanties and lack decent comfort and educational materials. The story of higher education is similar, but it has to be noted that the Southern States in view are unable to finance public education at a satisfactory level. A much enlarged programme of Federal aid is needed, and a recent decision of the United States Supreme Court recognizes the right of Negroes to “proper provision” of graduate and professional study. So the States must provide separate facilities for them, or admit them to their universities.
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Negro Education in the United States. Nature 144, 937–938 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/144937c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/144937c0