caged+bird+education+notes

Caged Bird notes – mid-book


 * At the beginning of the book the narrator has no self-confidence.
 * She imagines waking up with blonde hair and blue eyes – being white!
 * What she sees around her is a bigger society that values people who aren’t like her.
 * Her family supports her.
 * Her community is made up of people who support each other.
 * Sometimes because they have to!
 * 1890s – Plessy v. Ferguson
 * Case decided by U.S. Supreme Court
 * Determined that school districts could have segregated schools, provided the facilities were equal.
 * Separate but equal
 * In reality schools did not get equal facilities
 * Sometimes black schools got athletic equipment – assuming that was the only way they could excel.
 * Mostly got used supplies from the white schools.
 * Out-of-date texts, libraries, old science equipment
 * School can’t be as good with outdated, neglected materials.
 * However, the segregated black schools often had one good aspect
 * Students were taught by black teachers from their community who cared about them
 * Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
 * Declared that schools must be integrated
 * Didn’t happen until 1960s
 * Civil Rights Act
 * Students put into schools with good supplies
 * But teachers often didn’t believe they could succeed, and didn’t care