Article 1: Public Perceptions, Private Agendas: Washington, Moton, and the Secondary Curriculum of Tuskegee Institute 1910-1926

After the Civil War, schooling for African Americans was irregular and consisted mainly of elementary grades. Education was provided, primarily, by elite, private institutions and fewer than three percent of students aged 13-17 attended regularly (Anderson 1988). In 1866, Congress established the Freedman’s Bureau to assist former slaves in the South, with one task of the organization being to address the educational needs of the newly freed slaves. Southern whites were openly hostile to the newly freed blacks and burned many of the schools established by the Freedman’s Bureau in the late 1860s. Despite the dangers, blacks flocked to the often overcrowded bureau schools (Sitton and Conrad 2005).