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The quality of elementary education has been highly dependent on factors beyond a child's control--sex, race, economic situation, geographical location, and time in history. It is also shaped by the people who control the education--the teachers, administrators, and governing officials--and by the goals they design. This module explores these variations as they have affected the elementary schooling of black girls and women in the South since 1865. It is the first of four modules designed to help educators learn more about the double bias that has faced southern black women in American schools since the Civil War. The following topics are discussed: (1) education during reconstruction; (2) the decline of public support for black education from 1877 to 1900; (3) women's life and teaching in late 19th century black classrooms; (4) interest in designing an appropriate black education, 1900-30; (5) early 20th century school life; and (6) school experience in the mid-20th century. Sidebars include excerpts from the diary of a New England teacher; excerpts from other texts showing the role of women in the 19th century; an interview with an urban black girl at the turn of the century; a description of rural school life, 1914-15; questions for discussion; activities for enrichment; and a bibliography. Several black and white photographs are included. (PS)

Vocational education, called industrial education from its beginnings during the Reconstruction years, was hailed by its supporters as a means of making education practical and relevant to the lives of its black students. Its detractors, however, felt that industrial education was intentionally designed to prevent blacks from attaining economic and educational parity with whites. This module, the second in a series of four about the education of black women in the South since the Civil War, traces the development, purpose and design of industrial education. The following topics are discussed: (1) the roots of industrial education; (2) the industrial education curriculum; (3) extracurricular life; (4) the 20th century character of industrial education; and (5) the end of industrial education. Also included are questions for discussion, activities for enrichment, and a bibliography. (PS)

This document is the combined third and fourth modules of a series of four. It is designed to help educators learn more about how the double biases of sex and race have affected the quality of black women's high school and college education in southern schools since the Civil War. The following topics are discussed: (1) education of black women before the Civil War; (2) the purpose of black's academic education; (3) the founding of black colleges; (4) founding of private and public high schools for blacks; (5) academic education in high schools and colleges from 1900 to 1950; (6) extracurricular life in high school and college; and (7) black women in academic education today. Also included are short articles on Mary McLeod Bethune, secondary vocational training, pay inequity, and college women of Atlanta University in 1900. Questions for discussion and activities for enrichment, and a bibliography are included. (PS)