On a hot July day in 1854, 24-year-old schoolteacher Elizabeth Jennings, accompanied by a friend, attempted to board a horse-drawn trolley to attend Sunday church services in Lower Manhattan. The Irish conductor refused, telling Jennings, who was African American, to await a horsecar for "her people." When Jennings resisted, the…

"Gerrymandering" is known best as a tool to manipulate boundaries for voting districts, but school districts have long used the same tool to manipulate school boundaries. The author used geospatial techniques--mapping various kinds of demographic data onto school boundaries--to examine public school attendance zones and their effect on…

The past year has witnessed considerable progress in the field of Negro education, despite adverse conditions brought about by the war. Probably the most significant event of the year was the appointment in Texas of a State supervisor of rural Negro schools, whose salary and expenses are paid entirely by the State. Short terms, poor schoolhouses,…

This bulletin presents statistics of state school systems in 1937-38. For the most part statistics presented in this chapter relate to public elementary and secondary schools in 48 States, the District of Columbia, and the outlying parts of the United States. Such data were submitted by States for nonpublic schools are incorporated in separate…