Black hope, white power: emancipation, reconstruction and the legacy of unequal schooling in the US South, 1861–1880

Current explanations for the gap between African‐American and white school achievement are inadequate; most cannot explain the high level of black school achievement in the decade after Emancipation. Further, traditional accounts of the origins of educational discrimination against African‐Americans are inaccurate. The roots of educational discrimination began at the moment African‐Americans first demanded access to education as slavery collapsed. White southerners responded to that demand with overwhelming force and violence, ranging from simple intimidation through incendiarism, physical violence, shootings and murder against students and teachers.