Chapter 4 examines the relationships between political economy, ideology, and schooling in the experience of African-Americans following the Civil War. Selected political-economic developments of the period included the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments to the Constitution, which granted civil and political rights to ex-slaves and other African-Americans; the period of Reconstruction, in which African-Americans achieved significant political power in the South, and a number of higher-education institutions were established for African-Americans; and the subsequent period of "redemption," in which the oppression of African-Americans by southern whites through Jim Crow laws and state constitutional revisions reached terrible proportions. Ideologically, racist European Americans believed that this oppression was justified on the basis of a "scientific" view that whites were biologically more evolved than African-Americans and that classical liberal commitments to freedom and equality did not therefore apply to "less evolved" human beings.

        In terms of schooling, it is noteworthy that African-Americans were successful during the Reconstruction period in establishing schools for black children throughout the South. In general, southern whites had less access to quality education than southern blacks. The redemption era, however—particularly the period marked by the ascendancy of Booker T. Washington to political and educational power—resulted in significantly reduced opportunities for the education of African-American youth. While Washington is often regarded as a hero of African-American advancement, this chapter shows that his commitment to vocational education and an acceptance of disfranchisement and lack of civil rights for African-Americans were opposed by some black leaders, including W. E. B. Du Bois. The contrasts between the social, political, and educational analyses of Booker T. Washington and those of W. E. B. Du Bois are drawn in detail and underscored by the Primary Source Readings.