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Aiming for Excellence, Facing Inequality

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Life in Former Confederate States

When the Civil War ended, legal emancipation changed the status of African people from enslaved laborers to citizens. As such, they erected schools, training organizations and intellectual societies because they recognized education as an avenue to progress in their new lives. At the same time, white opposition saw black education as a threat to the existing racial and economic order. Thus, quality education for African Americans came under attack. Furthermore, fewer African Americans were enrolled in school because their families were forced to sharecrop on farms, often owned by their former masters, which required the labor of everyone– including children. Sometimes, landowners simply forbade African American children from attending school, even if they were not needed for work. They threatened black parents with job loss if they refused to cooperate, and white mobs waged violence upon black schools. These realities made attending college unlikely for most African Americans in the decades following the Civil War. Furthermore, fewer African Americans were enrolled in school because their families were forced to sharecrop on farms, often owned by their former masters, which required the labor of everyone– including children. Sometimes, landowners simply forbade African American children from attending school, even if they were not needed for work. They threatened black parents with job loss if they refused to cooperate, and white mobs waged violence upon black schools. These realities made attending college unlikely for most African Americans in the decades following the Civil War.