Afro American Education Black Americans have had to battle for their right to public education from their very start in this country (Forsyth, 1991). The precedent of Brown v. Board of Education catapulted this battle to the forefront in1954 (Forsyth, 1991). The struggle for education was one of the most important in the struggle against oppression because blacks were denied education as a group-based entirely on the foundation of race (Forsyth, 1991).

In earlier times, the general right to public education pertained only to Caucasians (Forsyth, 1991). In slavery times, Southern states prohibited teaching slaves to read and write (Forsyth, 1991). Some slaves learned to read and write in secret, had their owners found...

When Radical Reconstruction ended in the 1870s so did these schools, some were burned by racists, others were closed when funding was cut and when segregation was made into law in the 1896, landmark case Plessy v. Ferguson (Forsyth, 1991).
Plessy v. Ferguson called for "separate but equal education, separation occurred but equal education did not occur. Black children were given inferior schools, which were so overcrowded that only half of the Black children seeking to attend could do…