FEDERAL, STATE, AND LOCAL HOUSING POLICIES THAT ENFORCED RESIDENTIAL SEGREGATION ALSO LED TO THE CREATION OF SEGREGATED SCHOOL SYSTEMS AND ONGOING EDUCATIONAL INEQUITIES
A legacy of discriminatory laws and practices has actively constrained access to education for African Americans throughout United States. For example, the 1847 Virginia Criminal Code explicitly prohibited the education of both enslaved and free Black individuals within the state. In the aftermath of the Civil War and Reconstruction, Jim Crow laws banning integration meant Black students were legally barred from attending postsecondary institutions in the South for decades, while quota systems restricted Black enrollment at Northern universities.
In 1896, The United States Supreme Court’s Plessy v. Ferguson ruling sanctioned racial segregation under the false pretense of "separate but equal." This enabled the proliferation of vastly inferior Black schools. Later, the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 (G.I. Bill) effectively denied countless Black veterans access to higher education by failing to prohibit segregation in the distribution of its education provisions.
While the Supreme Court's landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling finally rejected the concept of "separate but equal" and declared segregated education unconstitutional, the broken American public school system was further exacerbated by its dependence on local property tax revenues for funding and remains highly segregated and unequal along racial lines today.
Key Terms
Plessy v. Ferguson
Brown v. the Board of Education