Education and Also Being a Essay

The effort to create an educational system by blacks and for blacks reflected the determined pride that characterized the newly freed black community. Moreover, the emphasis on black education also pointed to the segregated social conditions of the south.

Fairclough's second main point is that white supremacy reigned in the south until the Civil Rights movement. In fact, black political, social, and economic welfare actually worsened at key moments in history. White southerners relished the notion that blacks would run their own schools without the interference of socially liberal white Yankees. Black educators in the south found that schools did little to promote the practical advancement of black communities. African-Americans continued to earn less than their white counterparts even after they achieved the same level of educational attainment. Continued white supremacy led to a gradual mistrust of black educators and of black education in general. Cynicism poisoned the potential of education to uplift black communities.

Black-only schools became a symbol of as well as a form of resistance to white supremacy. Ironically, all-black schools were depended on white money for their survival. Booker T. Washington more than any other figure in history epitomizes the sordid compromises that African-Americans and African-American educators made to achieve their goals. Wooing whites meant sacrificing dignity and surrendering certain educational goals. Some blacks who had light skin or who could pass as white would attend white schools and assimilate into white society. Black educators who became versed in the white system had an increasingly hard time reaching out to poor blacks in the rural south who viewed them with distrust. Black educators became synonymous with Uncle Toms. The contribution of all-black education to the empowerment of black communities remains as ambiguous as Booker T. Washington himself, according to Fairclough.

Fairclough does affirm the contributions that Washington and other black educators made to improving the social, political, and economic realities of black communities. In spite of the setbacks black education experienced, gradual progress is better than no progress at all. Fairclough's article sheds light on the current realities in the south. African-American schools are in generally poor condition.

The cynicism towards education that Fairclough refers to is stronger than ever, as many young blacks have seen their parents and grandparents been shut out of wage earnings and good jobs in spite of having good educations. Although Fairclough does not offer specific solutions to the underachievement of blacks, the article does point out the root causes of why…