African-American teachers

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Southern States passed Jim Crow laws to mandate racial segregation in all aspects of society, and prevent Blacks from voting.

The legal desegregation of schools in the U.S. by federal enforcement of a series of Supreme Court decisions following Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.

Slavery in the United States was abolished in mid 19th century and allowed for the establishment and push for education among black communities.

The early-advocates of the education for African-Americans were those who masters who wanted to increase the economic efficiency of their labor supply, sympathetic persons who wished to help the oppressed, and zealous missionaries who taught people who were enslaved, English in hopes they learn the principles of the Christian religion.

The African-American struggle for education was rooted in the desire to bring about social and political equality and to defeat racial prejudice.

[5] Later-advocates of education were characterized, specifically women educational advocates, as fighting for eradicating prejudice and promoting Christian love, training black women and men to be educator-activist who would fight for civil rights, and, lastly, cultivating moral and intellectual character in children and youth.

In order to battle certain expectations and eliminate the prejudice that black educators faced, many employed a strategy that called for the emphasis of Christian Ideals.

[11] Many times, whilst teaching, the women would be exempt or have to step away from their roles in order to speak freely about the racial, classist, and sexist injustices plaguing the black community.

Below is a list of essays, prose, speeches, and more that touch on the black women experience specific to education.

- Lucy Craft Laney (1899) - "Whatever excuse may be offered in the states for exclusive institutions, I am convinced that … none could be offered with a shadow of reason, and with this conviction, I opened school here with the condition of admission to children of all complexions" - Mary Ann Shadd Cary (1853) - "Black Women saw education as a vehicle to ready both personal and larger community goals" - Daina Ramey Berry & Jermaine Thibodeaux[10]