Historic Black Colleges and Universities Were Created Because Racist Colleges and Universities Would Not Admit Them

Ed Sec Betsy (I am just a clueless white billionaire) Thinks It Was About School Choice

America likes to bury its ugly history of racial discrimination.  The fact that African Americans were denied admission to many private and state funded colleges well into the 1960's is just not something those prestigious institutions want to dwell on.  But until that time if you were Black, you didn't go to places your tax dollars supported.  Then racists would blame lack of Black advancement on the fact that they were stupid and not willing to go to college.  Yeah, that happened.

So in response in the South segregated colleges and universities were started.  They were the only way for African Americans to obtain higher education.  They still exist today, integrated, underfunded and under appreciated.  Well the current Secretary of Education appreciates them.

Angry social media users flew into an uproar Monday evening after Education Secretary Betsy DeVos issued a statement that some said ignored the context under which historically black universities were created.

The statement called historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) “real pioneers when it comes to school choice,” and came shortly after President Donald Trump held a meeting with several HBCU leaders on Monday.

Good grief, it is almost impossible to catalog the ignorance in that statement.  Options mean you have choices, black Americans were given no choice, no rights, no way to go to the top public colleges in the South.  These schools were set up as segregated schools, not as 'options'.  And 'freedom of choice' has a history.  After the Brown decision southern schools decided the way to comply was with freedom of choice, that is, to let students in a school district go to whatever school in the district they wanted to.  Of course if black students made the wrong choice, that is, a white school, they were harassed and their parents were attacked and fired.    That was 'choice' in the 1960's.

Ms. DeVos is one of the most ignorant persons ever to hold a high government position.  She never attended public schools, her children never attended public schools and she has spent her life in luxury and attempts to crush and destroy public education.  The damage she will do to the nation's educational system will live long after she has gone back to her exclusive clubs, her private jets, her support of private schools that only the ultra wealthy can attend.