Introduction to Education During the Harlem Renaissance

     For African Americans, education had always been perceived as the great leveler and in the 1920's and 1930's, African Americans held the same intense interest in schooling as they had in the period immediaely following emancipation. Harlem, New York was a magnet that attracted thousands of blacks from the south and the West Indies for not only better economic opportunities but educational opportunities as well. The Supreme Court had set the stage for flagrant discrimination in education for African Americans in Cumming v. School Board of Richmond County, GA. but New York, unlike most states throughout the nation, by law prohibited segregated schools. The promise of equal educational opportunities increased and enhanced a population that became a part of the cultural movement known as the Harlem Renaissance.

On the following pages is a view of philosophies and institutions that influenced public education in New York during the Harlem Renaissance years.