History of education in the Southern United States covers the institutions, ideas and leaders of schools and education in the Southern states from colonial times to about the 2000s.
Colonial South to 1800 Residents of the Upper South, centered on the Chesapeake Bay, created some basic schools early in the colonial period. In late 17th century Maryland, the Catholic Jesuits operated some schools for Catholic students. Generally the planter class hired tutors for the education of their children or sent them to private schools. During the colonial years, some sent their sons to England or Scotland for schooling.James J. Walsh, Education of the Founding Fathers of the Republic (1935), p.38.
In March 1620, George Thorpe sailed from Bristol for Virginia. He became a deputy in charge of of land to be set aside for a university and an Indian school. The plans for the school for Native Americans ended when Thorpe was killed in the Indian massacre of 1622. In Virginia, rudimentary schooling for the poor and paupers was provided by the local parish. Most elite parents either home schooled their children using peripatetic tutors or sent them to small local private schools.
In the deep south (Georgia and South Carolina), schooling was carried out primarily by private venture teachers,Margaret A. Nash, Women's Education in the United States, 1780-1840(2007), p.36 in "old field schools." These small schools were local, private subscription schools that often were built on exhausted farm fields. They usually operated for three months a year.David A. Norris, Old Field Schools, in Encyclopedia of North Carolina (William S. Powell ed., 2006). and usually in a hodgepodge of publicly funded projects. In the colony of Georgia, at least ten grammar schools were in operation by 1770, many taught by ministers. The Bethesda Orphan House educated children. Dozens of private tutors and teachers advertised their service in newspapers. A study of women's signatures indicates a high degree of literacy in areas with schools. In South Carolina, scores of school projects were advertised in the South Carolina Gazette beginning in 1732. Although it is difficult to know how many ads yielded successful schools, many of the ventures advertised repeatedly over years, suggesting continuity. Generally, however, literacy rates were lower in the South than in New England.Catherine Kerrison, Claiming the Pen: Women and Intellectual Life in the Early American South, (2006) p.11 .
19th century Public State institutions were primarily located in rural interior of the state to cater to the planter elite, such as the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and University of South Carolina in Columbia. Their reputations were poor and many wealthy families continued to send their sons North to college. In Georgia, public county academies for white students became more common, and after 1811 South Carolina opened a state-wide system of "free schools" where white children could learn reading, writing, and arithmetic at public expense. Other Southern states imitated this system. Before the Civil War it became a primary mode of organizing what became known as basic "poor schools." In the early 19th century conditions remained poor; textbooks were seldom available; homework and exams were not used. Teachers had a year or two schooling beyond 8th grade. Many schools adopted the "Lancasterian system", whereby the only paid teacher taught a few of the older students and they in turn taught the younger ones, usually by everyone reciting in unison.Harlow Unger, Encyclopedia of American Education, (2nd ed. 2001) 2:597-598.Edgar W. Knight, Public Education in the South (1922) p. 266.
Calvin H. Wiley, according to Harlow Giles Unger, in his 12 years as state superintendent of schools in North Carolina (1853–1865) overcame traditionalistic opposition and set up the modern system of public education in the region. He founded the state education association; helped set up teacher training institutions; imposed standards and examining boards for teachers; mandated annual teacher certification; coordinated county school units with school superintendents and boards; and advocated for universal education as a vehicle for ensuring the state's economic prosperity.Harlow Unger, Encyclopedia of American Education, (2nd ed. 2001) 3:1216.
Civil War and Reconstruction Almost all colleges located within the Confederacy closed for at least some duration during the Civil War, due to lack of staff and students; with the exception of the University of Virginia.Ervin L. Jr. Jordan, Encyclopedia Virginia: "University of Virginia During the Civil War, The" (Virginia Humanities, December 7, 2020) https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/university-of-virginia-during-the-civil-war-the/ After Union victory, the U.S. Army assisted in the Reconstruction Era of the former Confederate states. In 1865, the Freedmen's Bureau was created to assist in the transition of former slaves to freedom. During this period over 1,000 black schools were built among them, many Historically Black Universities (HBCU) such as Atlanta University (1865), Fisk School (1866) and Howard University (1867.)The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica: "Freedmen’s Bureau" (Britannica, 2025) https://www.britannica.com/topic/Freedmens-Bureau
Republican governments during the Reconstruction era rebuilt the South's public school systems—establishing the first such schools in some places—and supported them with general taxes. For the first time, both whites and blacks would be educated at the expense of the state, but legislators agreed on racially segregated schools.Ward M. McAfee, "Reconstruction Revisited: The Republican Public Education Crusade of the 1870s." Civil War History 42.2 (1996): 133-153.
Late 19th century In a process they called, "Redemption," white Democrats regained control of the state legislatures in the 1870s. They systematically underfunded public schools for blacks. This would continued until The Civil Rights Act of 1963. However, many private schools for Blacks were funded by Northern philanthropists well into the 20th century. Support came from the American Missionary Association;Joe M. Richardson, Christian Reconstruction: The American Missionary Association and Southern Blacks, 1861–1890 (1986). the Peabody Education Fund; the Jeanes Fund (also known as the Negro Rural School Fund); the Slater Fund; the Rosenwald Fund; the Southern Education Foundation; and the General Education Board, which was massively funded by the Rockefeller family.Stephanie Deutsch, You Need a Schoolhouse: Booker T. Washington, Julius Rosenwald, and the Building of Schools for the Segregated South (Northwestern University Press, 2015).James Christopher Carbaugh, "The philanthropic confluence of the General Education Board and the Jeanes, Slater, and Rosenwald Funds: African-American education in South Carolina, 1900-1930" (PhD dissertation, Clemson University, 1997; ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 9833440.)
In 1954 the United States Supreme Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional. See Brown v. Board of Education.
Generally public schooling in rural areas did not extend beyond the elementary grades for either whites or blacks. This became known as, "eighth grade school".
20th century According to historian C. Vann Woodward: The public schools of the South at the opening of the new century were for the most part, miserably supported, poorly attended, wretchedly taught, and wholly inadequate for the education of the people. Far behind the rest of the country in nearly all respects, Southern education suffered from a greater lag than any other public institution in the region.C. Vann Woodward, Origins of the New South 1877–1913 (LSU Press, 1951) p.398. online
After 1900, some cities began to establish high schools, primarily for middle class whites. In the 1930s roughly one fourth of the US population still lived and worked on farms and few rural Southerners of either race went beyond the 8th grade until after 1945.John Hardin Best, "Education in the Forming of the American South," History of Education Quarterly 36#1 (1996), pp. 39–51 in JSTORCharles Dabney, Universal Education in the South (2 vols. 1939)
The end of racial segregation in the schools came as a result of years of legal structures fought out in the federal courts and promoted by the Civil rights movement, led by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. In 1954 the U.S. Supreme Court in its famous Brown v. Board of Education declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional. Actual integration was a slow process, handled with minimal violence in states such as Texas but, in other states there was "Massive resistance". In some counties, the public school system remained closed for many years. In Virginia, Prince Edward County Public schools were closed from 1959 to 1964.The Closing of Prince Edward County’s Schools, Virginia Museum of History & Culture, accessed November 8, 2025, https://virginiahistory.org/learn/civil-rights-movement-virginia/closing-prince-edward-countys-schools/
Progressives in Atlanta
In most American cities, Progressives in the Efficiency Movement looked for ways to eliminate waste and corruption. They emphasized using experts in schools. For example, in the 1897 reform of the Atlanta schools, the school board was reduced in size, eliminating the power of ward bosses. The members of the school board were elected at-large, reducing the influence of various interest groups. The power of the superintendent was increased. Centralized purchasing allowed for economies of scale, although it also added opportunities for censorship and suppression of dissent. Standards of hiring and tenure in teachers were made uniform. Architects designed school buildings in which the classrooms, offices, workshops and other facilities related together. Curricular innovations were introduced. The reforms were designed to produce a school system for white students according to the best practices of the day. Middle-class professionals instituted these reforms; they were equally antagonistic to the traditional business elites and to working-class elements.
Great Depression The Great Depression had a significant impact on education, schools, and teachers in the U.S. South. The Depression caused a decline in school attendance due to budget crises of local school districts. The rise of unemployment and cuts in pay meant less tax revenue for schools, and many business leaders in the communities pressed, often successfully, for reducing state and local taxes. Schools closed in some instances or shortened their academic year because districts could no longer bear the burden of teacher salaries and administrative costs. By the beginning of 1934, almost 20,000 schools nationwide had been closed down; the crisis was more acute in the South and the Southwest. Black students, facing racism, poverty and neglect were severely impacted. In 1932, 230 counties had no High Schools for Blacks. The Depression greatly transformed teachers' working conditions and educators observed the deterioration of school programs they had spent years building. Unemployment remained very high for youths, leaving them with no option, but to remain in the school system.David Tyack et al. Public Schools in Hard Times: The Great Depression and Recent Years (Harvard UP, 2004).
Social Structure and Education "Separate and unequal" was the typical status of education for Blacks and women, as well as poor whites, into the late 20th century.Louis R. Harlan, Separate and unequal: Public school campaigns and racism in the southern seaboard states, 1901-1915 (Univ of North Carolina Press, 1968).