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Aiming for Excellence, Facing Inequality

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Funding & Outcomes

The end of the slave economy and the destruction of Confederate territory caused southern states to struggle financially—leaving education without adequate funding even for white children. If a town did not have enough money for two separate schools, they built only one for white children only. In 1891, the State of Alabama began to allow counties and cities to divide education funding as they saw fit. Consequently, local jurisdictions gave white schools the bulk of allocations, a common practice among segregated school systems throughout the South.

At the turn of the century, the average annual salary for white male teachers was $863 and $422 for white female teachers. Black male teachers earned $480 while black female teachers earned just $140. Black schools were supplied used materials from white schools. Therefore, the texts emphasized white men and women as heroes and African Americans as laborers in service to others.