The Progressive Educator, Race and Ethnicity in the Depression Years: An Overview

FEW historians have analyzed the attitudes of major white progressive educators on race and ethnicity. Very little is known about what they did in the area of race relations and the schooling of minority and ethnic groups or about efforts sponsored by the Progressive Education Association to deal with racial tension and the of blacks and white ethnics in American society. Likewise, the response and contribution of blacks and ethnics to progressive education has received little attention from scholars. To fill some of these gaps this paper will briefly focus on the Depression years, a period of diverse and highly publicized progressive activity to (1) illustrate the place of race and ethnicity in the thinking and activities of prominent progressive educators; (2) outline the position of race and ethnicity in the programs of the PEA; (3) discuss the response of black educators in the South to the progressive education movement; and (4) point to a rich variety of sources which have been generally overlooked by historians. In so doing, regional differences will be considered and preliminary observations of a conceptual nature will be made.