The Reconstruction-era following the U.S. Civil War introduced new educational opportunities for formerly enslaved African Americans, but many of these opportunities were systemically dismantled by 1877. Despite these short-lived policies, Black children who were exposed to greater educational opportunity during Reconstruction had better economic outcomes by adulthood, and passed those benefits on to their children, according to a new study published in the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy.
Using census records and data from the Freedmen’s Teacher Project regarding 11,000 teachers who taught freed people, the authors determined that Black children who lived in areas with many teachers during Reconstruction were 10 percentage points more likely to be literate by 1900. They were also more likely to improve their occupational standing, such as moving from a farm laborer to a tenant farmer or a laboring job outside of agriculture – a profession that earned some 70 percent more than farm laborers. Notably, the sons of fathers who were exposed to Reconstruction-era education benefits also had better educational and occupational outcomes in adulthood – decades after the end of Reconstruction.
Based on their estimates, the authors theorize that “the Black-White income gap might have been considerably smaller throughout the twentieth century had educational opportunities for Black Southerners not been curtailed after Reconstruction.”
The paper was authored from scholars at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania and Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
