Books: Non-Fiction

Educational Reconstruction: African American Schools in the Urban South, 1865-1890

Book — Non-fiction. By Hilary Green. 2016. 272 pages.
An in-depth look at postwar African American education and the gains of Reconstruction.

Time Periods: 19th Century, 1865
Themes: African American, Reconstruction

Educational Reconstruction (Book) | Zinn Education ProjectTracing the first two decades of state-funded African American schools, Educational Reconstruction addresses the ways in which Black Richmonders, Black Mobilians, and their white allies created, developed, and sustained a system of African American schools following the Civil War.

Hilary Green proposes a new chronology in understanding postwar African American education, examining how urban African Americans demanded quality public schools from their new city and state partners. Revealing the significant gains made after the departure of the Freedmen’s Bureau, this study reevaluates African American higher education in terms of developing a cadre of public school educator-activists and highlights the centrality of urban African American protest in shaping educational decisions and policies in their respective cities and states. [Publisher’s description.]

ISBN: 9780823270125 | Fordham University Press


Learn more in the Zinn Education Project national report, “Erasing the Black Freedom Struggle: How State Standards Fail to Teach the Truth About Reconstruction,” and find teaching resources on Reconstruction below.

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