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950

(1944) [MARC] Author: Gunnar Myrdal
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950 An American Dilemma
servants. Negroes who have succeeded in becoming businessmen have
usually gone through the regular academic curriculum rather than the
vocational schools. Except for the private schools, which train for skilled
work, vocational education for Negroes in the South has usually meant
training to do more efficiently the traditional menial ^^Negro job.” Little
attention has been paid to the fact that a changing economy has created a
serious over-population in agriculture and even in domestic service. The
teaching of new occupations to Negroes is even further from whites’ minds
than the teaching of the older, but desirable, occupations. Vocational educa-
tion in the public schools of the South has also served as a means to keep
Negroes from getting the general education given to whites, since it is felt
—^with good reason—that an academic education would make Negroes
ambitious and dissatisfied with a low occupation, would “ruin a good field
hand.” Vocational education for Negroes in the North has had none of
these degrading traits, and a larger proportion of Negroes in high schools
has been getting vocational training in the North than in the South.®®
Educational conditions for Southern Negroes are better in the cities than
in the rural areas. Negroes live closer together, and the local governments
are thus more willing to build more and better schools. There arc no
problems of having the schools too far apart, of closing down the schools
for planting and harvest season, of having all grades under one teacher in
one room. The teachers are better trained, in some cases better trained than
white teachers in the same cities, since Negro women who go to college
have few opportunities outside of the city school systems.®® They also
achieve a measure of independence.® While the quality and quantity of
education in the city schools is better than in the country schools, the sub-
jects taught and their content are about the same. The Negro school teach-
ers in the Southern cities usually have a high status in the Negro community
and often are looked up to as leaders in social life and general activities.®^
High schools for Negroes in the South have existed in significant num-
bers for only about twenty years^ and are still inadequate. In 1 8 Southern
states (1933-1934), only 19 Negro children out of lOO aged 14 to 17
(1930) were attencling public high schools, as compared to 55 white chil-
dren in the same Southern states and to 60 children in the nation as a
whole.^ These low figures are not entirely due to the lack of public high
schools for Negroes, but are tied up with the whole educational and social
* See Chapter 41, Section i.
**
In 1915-1916 there were only 64 fublic high schools for Negroes in the 18 Southern
states and more than half of these were in 4 states—Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee
and Texas. There were also 216 frivate high schools in that year. In 1935-1936 there were
2,305 fublic high schools in these states, and in 1932-1933, 92 frivate high schools.
(Blose and Caliver, of, cit.y p. 8.)

*


The worst state for Negroes was again Mississippi, where 7 Negro children out of 100,
as compared to 66 white children out of loo, attended public high school. (Wilkerson, of,
cU., np. i6-j7.)

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