Before and during the Civil War, support for educational opportunities for African Americans came mainly from religious groups, including the Society of Friends and the Methodist Episcopal Church. These groups and other supporters believed that education for all benefits society as a whole, and that education was a crucial and necessary step in preparing "the minds of this people...for that state of freedom which is their right, and which they will one day most assuredly obtain." Those opposed – white supremacist groups led by the Democratic Party (also called the “White Man’s Party” at the time) – argued vehemently that education would only cause African Americans to revolt against the government, or make African American men appear as more eligible suitors for White daughters.
Seven schools existed for African Americans in Delaware when the Civil War ended, six of which were likely organized by the Society of Friends. Because the Democratic Party controlled the state legislature, there was little hope the government would expand its public education system to include African Americans. This left religious organizations and private philanthropy to take the lead on establishing a system for African American education. On January 3, 1867, these groups formed the Delaware Association for the Moral Improvement and Education of Colored People (the Delaware Association). By 1900, the Delaware Association reported more than 80 schools for African Americans in Delaware.
Since 1821, Delaware had a law on the books that specifically denied state aid for the education of free blacks. This forced African American schools to rely on charitable donations, community fundraising events, and a ten-cents-per-week fee per student to stay open, all while Black families were taxed to support the Euro-American public schools their children were banned from attending.
When the Fifteenth Amendment granted African American males the right to vote in 1870, they quickly used their newfound political power to call for equal access to state-funded education. The result was "An Act to Tax Colored Persons for the Support of their Own Schools" in 1875, which allowed African Americans the right to tax themselves for the support of their own schools. The act was unsuccessful, however, as many tax collectors simply refused to collect the tax; fourteen months into the program, the Delaware Association had collected only $606.98 from the tax to support African American schools. Other legislation passed and floundered in the following years, culminating in the creation of a state-controlled African American school system as segregation became ratified into the Delaware state constitution in 1897.
By the end of World War I, the state of all Delaware schools was miserable, largely due to under-funding. Despite reforms that allowed for equal distribution of taxes to Euro-American and African American educational systems, many Whites protested the notion that their tax dollars could go to support Black education. Pierre S. duPont, chair of General Motors Corporation and president of E.I. duPont de Nemours & Co., attempted to circumvent this opposition by embarking on an "experiment" of African American education in Delaware.
In 1919, as the new Vice President of the State Education Board, duPont ordered a survey to determine the condition of every school in the state and created the Delaware Auxiliary Association to fulfill the recommendations of the survey. The survey reports were “even worse than had been anticipated”, with African American schools scoring the lowest, and recommended a complete overhaul of existing school buildings and consolidation of schools to form “a sufficiently large number of pupils to insure well graded schools.”
Realizing that no additional funds would come from the state for this educational overhaul, duPont created a trust fund for the Delaware Auxiliary Association and provided $2.5 million toward the project, starting with the African American schools. The Auxiliary Association used the funds to develop 89 African American schools throughout the state, well-equipped enough to foster local school associations, serve as community centers, and provide basic child healthcare facilities. In addition, through his appointment as tax commissioner by the 1930s, duPont collected unpaid taxes and enforced their fair distribution, helping African American schools to receive appropriate funding from the state.
Despite these efforts, inequities still existed in the segregated school system. Fewer African American schools meant that many Black students had to travel further between their home and school, and many had trouble accessing or paying for daily transportation due to limited public transportation options on rural areas, poorer economic status, and other factors of systemic racism. In the African American school system, it was also difficult to access education beyond the sixth grade. Until the 1920s, when a high school was opened at the State College for Colored Students in Dover, Howard High School in Wilmington was the only African American high school in Delaware.
These were the issues that led Louise Belton and nine other Claymont families to sue the Delaware State Board of Education for the right to attend their local, all-White high school in a case that was ultimately combined with similar cases across the country in the Brown vs. Board of Education case that declared segregated schools unconstitutional.
N.B. Along with the educational opportunities afforded African Americans through the efforts of the organizations described in this post, I find it important to note that many actions can and should be viewed as white saviorism, rather than true allyship. The goals of religious leadership were largely driven by a calling to “rescue” African Americans from their situation rather than truly viewing them as equals. This mindset is demonstrated, for example, as the Delaware Association – an organization created specifically to establish a statewide educational system for African Americans – deliberately excluded any African Americans from leadership roles. In addition, praise for the schools built by the African American communities, sponsored by the Delaware Association, went solely to the association, leaving the work of African Americans themselves unrecognized.
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