Education in Mississippi - African Americans and Education

African Americans and Education

Missionary groups in Northern Mississippi helped establish schools to educate African American youth. White supremacists realized the on-goings on such missionary groups and demanded to have control of the system, hoping to quell efforts to educate African Americans.

The Constitution of 1868 did not include information on integrating public schools and it was determined by legislators that each individual school district to include integration or not. Superintendents of each county were told to divide the funds equally between white and black schools in the district, but equal rights was very uncommon and most of the funding was sent to white schools.

Therefore, white schools were better constructed and were able to better serve the students academically. During the 1870s, education for blacks was further endangered as violence erupted in protest to educate African Americans. Also, the government cut greatly decreased funding for public schools and effectiveness of schools diminished.

State Superintendent J. R. Preston in 1886, created a revised education code that slowly raised standards in the classroom and teachers were then paid more in salaries than before and were required to take teacher licensing exams.