Black Education and the Great Migration (2018)

BLACK HISTORY BULLETIN VOL. 81, NO. 2 | 11 10 | BLACK HISTORY BULLETIN VOL. 81, NO. 2 81 81 No.2 No.2 12 | BLACK HISTORY BULLETIN VOL. 81, NO. 2 81 No.2 BLACK EDUCATION AND THE GREAT MIGRATION By Alicia Davis and Greg Wiggan Since the 1860s, despite racist labels of inferiority and attempts to deny African Americans equitable educational opportunities, these students have persevered and shown great resilience in education. From the creation of the HamptonTuskegee (HT) model of education by Samuel Armstrong and Booker T. Washington, which was designed to keep the Black southern population in their place as ex-slaves through semi-skilled jobs,1 to the expansion of school choice programs proposed in Betsy DeVos's 2018 US Department of Education budget,2 the African American community continues to advocate for equity and access to quality education, as these are key ingredients to their social mobility. African American social mobility and economic independence have been greatly impacted by Black migration in the United States, resulting in many youth attending low-income schools with few qualified teachers. This article provides an overview of Black migration from the 1860s to the twenty-first century. It gives special consideration to the first and second waves of Black migration out of the rural South and the reverse migration back to southern urban cities starting in the 1970s. Universal Education in the South, 1865–1915 Following the Civil War, free Blacks desired a universal education system that would enlarge and strengthen their freedom and political power, but their children were forced into a system of industrial education that promoted second-class status.3 Through the creation of the HT model, philanthropist Samuel Armstrong and Booker T. Washington challenged the South's reluctance to offer public education to African Americans, but paradoxically, the duo only wanted to support vocational education, which in effect ensured that Blacks would never be able to attain positions of power or compete for the same jobs as their White counterparts. Designed to reinforce the structure of the South's political economy, the HT model perhaps intentionally upheld the racial hierarchy of the South. Through a similar model, the Rosenwald School building program was introduced, which provided matching funds to African Americans to start schools. However, this program was aimed at providing a basic level of education and training that was oriented toward manual labor. African Americans were experiencing taxation without the benefits of quality schools or political representation, which led to Black families migrating to northern cities in hopes of better economic, political, and educational opportunities.4 The Great Migration, 1916–1970 During the Great Migration, approximately six million African Americans left the South for the urban industrialized cities in the North.5 Table 1 shows the percentage change in the Black population in urban cities during the Great Migration. As World War I was taking place, the need for factory and railroad workers increased, and African Americans headed to the North to try to secure these jobs. The Pennsylvania Railroad Company relocated more than ten thousand African Americans during the summer of 1916 so that they could work on the railroads.6 The growing population of African Americans in northern cities created Black urban enclaves, which resulted in increased racialization and profiling. In the summer of 1919 (Red Summer), there was a culmination in racial riots across the US where White mobs attacked, lynched, and killed Blacks, and burned Black communities and businesses. For African Americans, the racial tensions in the North proved to be just as tumultuous as in the South. BLACK HISTORY BULLETIN VOL. 81, NO. 2 | 13 No.2 81 Table 1: The Great Migration, 1910–1970 City and State Percentage-point change in Black population 1910–1940 Percentage-point change in Black population 1940–1970 Albany, NY 10.0 1.2 Atlanta, GA 16.7 1.1 Bakersfield, CA 9.8 1.4 Baltimore, MD 27.1 4.1 Boston, MA 13.3 1.0 Bridgeport, CT 13.8 1.3 Camden, NJ 28.5 4.2 Chicago, IL 24.6 6.2 Cleveland, OH 28.7 8.1 Detroit, MI 34.5 8.0 Flint, MI 23.7 3.3...