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(1944) [MARC] Author: Gunnar Myrdal
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Note: Gunnar Myrdal died in 1987, less than 70 years ago. Therefore, this work is protected by copyright, restricting your legal rights to reproduce it. However, you are welcome to view it on screen, as you do now. Read more about copyright.

Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - IX. Leadership and Concerted Action - 41. The Negro School - 3. The Development of Negro Education in the South - 4. The Whites’ Attitudes toward Negro Education

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Chapter 41. The Negro School 893
Southern Negro schools, and white school supervisors do not care to bother
with Negro schools unless they hear that something is being taught that
they do not like. But ultimate control is held by the white superintendents
and school boards, subject only to the few restrictions entailed in accepting
federal grants-in-aid and to the advice of the General Education Board
supervisors. The same is true of the public colleges. The private colleges
and universities for Negroes in the South are still supported, in large
measure, by Northern philanthropy j
control over them is still held by the
trustees (who often come from outside the community where the colleges
are located), by the foundations and other philanthropists, and by the
Negro faculty itself which is expressly permitted a significant degree of
autonomy.
4. The Whites’ Attitudes toward Negro Education
There are apparent conflicts of valuations between whites and Negroes
in regard to Negro education. These conflicts, the interests involved, and
the theories expressing them determine the forms of Negro education. But
the situation is not so simple as just a difference of opinion. In fact, many
whites are as eager to improve Negro education as is any Negro, and there
are some Negroes who are rather on the other side of the fence, at least for
the purpose of an opportunistic accommodation. The situation is compli-
cated by the fact that both whites and Negroes are divided in their own
minds. They harbor conflicting valuations within themselves. Only by
keeping this constantly in mind can we understand the development of
Negro education and correctly evaluate future prospects.
The American Creed definitely prescribes that the Negro child or youth
should have just as much educational opportunity as is offered anyone else
in the same community. Negroes should be trained to become good and
equal citizens in a democracy which places culture high in its hierarchy of
values. This equalitarian valuation is strong enough to dominate public
policy in the North, in spite of the fact that probably most white people in
the North, too, believe the Negroes to be inferior and, anyhow, do not
care so much for their potentialities and possibilities as for those of whites.
In the South the existing great discrimination in education is an indication
that another valuation is dominating white people’s actions. But it is a great
mistake to believe that the American Creed is not also present and active
in the motivations of Southern whites. Behavior is as always a moral com-
promise. Negroes would not be getting so much education as they are
actually getting in the South if the equalitarian Creed were not also active.®
* The division of white opinion with respect to Negro education is brought out by a poll
of public opinion in July, 1940. (Planned by the American Youth Commission, interviews
by the American Institute of Public Opinion} tabulations and analyses by several individuals
and groups} published by the National Education Association. See National Education

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