Title: History of Institutional Racism in U.S. Public Schools - The Edvocate
Headings: 
History of Institutional Racism in U.S. Public Schools
Institutional Racism today – the “New Racism”
Matthew Lynch

Content: In the American South, laws against African-Americans completely obstructed their ability to get an education. By law, it was illegal for an African-American to learn how to read and write. African-American communities had to turn to schools established by Quakers and Christians in order to get an education. But turmoil and violence would always find their white allies, forcing these schools to close their doors. Fear of uprising was palpable in these plantation states, and illiteracy became a weapon used against African-Americans. If African-Americans remained uneducated, plantation owners and Southern Whites believed, they would not revolt, maintaining the status quo of slavery. Jim Crow laws then made their appearance in 1877. The “separate but equal” doctrine created an educational system of segregated schools (i.e., Plessy vs. Ferguson). Under this doctrine, African-American students had difficulties finding schools in their districts or they were forced into schools that did not meet proper standards. Black schools were also under constant threat of closure in favor of funding for their white counterparts.