Formal education is an essential element for active participation in society. When this instrument was denied or deprived by underfunding and was administered in unequal allotments to different groups, education became weaponized.
This website is a testament to the weaponization of education on a multicentury time scale. Prior to emancipation, there was a prohibition to teaching African Americans formal education. After emancipation the infrastructure for any social or educational achievement sporadically existed and the general attitude of the empowered was “Why should they be educated? What will they do with it?” Any effort to change agricultural/domestic platform was resisted. The religious denominations were quick to the charge of self-help. Education for the masses of African Americans, finally became acceptable at the turn of the twentieth century. Under the guise of equality, a separate but equal mantra with an eyewink was instituted. The public school system finally was embraced for the masses of African Americans but on an unequal footing.
The scheme of equality did not exist and a dual education system continued. A challenge to the equal access to education mounted, training schools flourished after the “Great Depression” until the mid-twentieth century. Approaching the mid-century a Topeka, Kansas, United States Supreme Court decision was greeted with a massive construction effort to feign equality. This effort was futile. Sixteen years later, deliberate action was realized so schools became united so there could be equal educational opportunities for all. Many issues exist today that prevent the equal distribution of education. Just as we see advancement in education today, we should also think, what would have happened if education had not been weaponized by denying a segment of the population equal access? What would have happened if education had not been weaponized?
African American High Schools in Louisiana Before 1970 