From Cotton Field to Schoolhouse by Christopher M. Span

Author:Christopher M. Span [Span, Christopher M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Ethnic Studies, American, African American & Black Studies, Education, History, United States, 19th Century
ISBN: 9781469601335
Google: ROPkbu5VjtgC
Publisher: UNC Press Books
Published: 2012-04-01T02:40:23+00:00

Race Educable

Children

(Ages5–21) Number

of Children

Enrolled

in Schools Percentage

of Children

Enrolled Average

Attendance

of Enrolled

Children Average

Attendance as

a Percentage

of Enrolled

Children

Black 126,769 45,429 35.8 36,040 79.3

White 120,073 66,257 55.1 49,290 74.4

Total 246,842 111,686 45.2 85,530 76.4

Source: Adapted from Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public Education of the State of Mississippi for the Year Ending December, 1871 (Jackson, Miss.: Kimball, Kaymond, State Printers, 1872), 124–31.

Black and white children benefited. As table 4 shows, approximately 45,429 out of the 126,769 black children, or 35.8 percent, enrolled in public school. Almost 80 percent of these children attended school on a daily basis. Comparably, 66,257 out of the 120,073 white children, or 55.1 percent, enrolled in public school, and approximately 74.4 percent of these students maintained a daily attendance. While black children constituted a majority of the children in the state—roughly 51.3 percent—nearly 21,000 more white children were enrolled in school. This result, however, had more to do with the educational opportunities available to black children—smaller or fewer schools or fewer teachers—than with the enthusiasm or attitudes they had toward schooling. As table 4 indicates, black children who enrolled in a public school regularly attended when the opportunity to do so arose.

That black children attended school when they had the chance to do so is more apparent when one looks at attendance by county. In majority-black counties, Mississippi blacks took full advantage of the educational opportunities before them. Their majority representation, mounting economic leverage, and growing political voice assisted them in their educational pursuits. Moreover, the fact that so many African Americans could financially contribute to the burgeoning public school system greatly increased their children’s schooling opportunities. The two-dollar poll tax on all adult males (including freed black males) was paid and collected in these counties, but—as it will be seen—much of the monies raised from this tax went more toward the establishment and perpetuation of white rather than black public schools.

On average, as table 5 demonstrates, the enthusiasm blacks maintained toward public schooling in these predominantly black counties, if again measured by average daily attendance, was slightly more pronounced than their white counterpart.55 On average, roughly 82 percent of black children who enrolled and 76 percent of white children who enrolled attended school. More evident, however, were statistics that suggest the seemingly apparent disregard black children held for attending school. Only 21,327 out of the counties' 72,873 black children, or 28 percent, enrolled in a public school. In contrast, 18,584 out of the counties 37,920 white children, or approximately 48 percent, enrolled in a public school. These statistics, if studied alone, offered a direct challenge to the contentions by contemporary historians that southern blacks strongly favored the possibility of attending school.56

Then again, as table 6 reveals, these totals are misleading and do not reflect a disregard for learning or a change in attitude on the part of blacks toward the idea of universal schooling. Rather, they reflect the limited or poor schooling opportunities available to black children. Charles C. Walden, superintendent of Adams County, spoke of this when he summarized the shoddy conditions of the schools established for blacks in the inaugural year.

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