African American Education Timeline

  • A school for enslaved people

    Approximately 1,500 slaves lived in New York City at the beginning of the 1700s, most of whom were illiterate. A school for enslaved people was first opened by Elias Neau on February 28, 1704, with visits to theirs. In the following years, he was permitted to open a classroom on the upper floor of his house. The number of students attending Neau's school had grown to more than 150 by 1708. Classes would begin with prayer and singing, followed by instruction.
  • Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute

    A former slave, Booker T. Washington founded the school in 1881.
    Inculcating Washington's principles of giving practical training to African Americans and making them self-sufficient through manual trades and agricultural training, the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute helped African Americans become economically independent.
  • Brown v. Board of Education

    Oliver Brown filed suit against the Topeka, Kansas, Board of Education in 1951. Segregation, according to Brown, violates the 14th Amendment's alleged "equal protection clause" because black schools are not equal to white schools.
    It was ruled by Chief Justice Earl Warren on May 17, 1954, that "separate but equal doctrine has no place in public education since segregated schools are intrinsically unequal." As a result, plaintiffs were denied the 14th Amendment.
  • Little Rock Nine

  • Grutter v. Bollinger