has abstract
| - Freedmen Schools (1863–1870) were created soon after the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. Due to the remaining opposition to equality between blacks and whites, it was difficult for the formerly enslaved to receive a proper education, among a myriad of other things. Schools were made especially for blacks but were open to anyone regardless of race. These schools were far from perfect; however, they did give African Americans hope and opportunity for their future. To free formerly enslaved people and other lower-class citizens from ignorance required education, a good one at that. The federal government created the Freedmen’s Bureau, to help freedmen get on their feet, which after a few years of this establishment focused itself solely on education. And so the name for these schools became widely known as Freedmen Schools. Unlike other public schools, freedmen schools did not receive most of their funding from the government or taxes, so they had to find other means to stay afloat; African Americans relied primarily on donations, community taxes, and several churches to continue functioning given the low-to-nonexistent budget. The belief that African Americans needed to learn how to be American and proper before they could be deemed as citizens joined together supporters to accomplish this vision. The establishment of these schools was years before the Jim Crow ‘separate but equal’ policies were enshrined into law. Separate schools where black and white segregated schools were regulated by the government; however, these schools were a predecessor to changing school systems and rising contention. (en)
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