Chapter 1: Why the Nineteenth Century Still Matters

Every generation will have to ask and answer questions on their own terms. The study of history is no different. For historians who have studied the specifics of the African American educational experience, there is a noticeable change in the type of questions contemporary historians are asking and answering in relation to their predecessors. In recent years, the study of the educational history of African Americans has significantly shifted from understanding their earliest experiences in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to a concentrated focus on mid-to-late twentieth century concerns. In some ways the timing of important milestones has shaped this shift. The anniversaries of Brown (1954), Freedom Summer (1964), the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) (1965), the Higher Education Act (1965), Milliken (1974), and countless desegregation efforts have captured the attention of historians. In addition, attempts to explain contemporary issues and discourse about African Americans have also shaped the questions historians ask and the ways they conduct their research to answer them.