Although Jim Crow laws varied greatly between counties, cities and states, their purpose was consistent: to subjugate, intimidate, and oppress African Americans. These laws coupled with economic deprivation, lynching, police sanctioned brutality, chain gains and the like, instilled legitimate fear in African Americans. Burdened with this paralyzing fear of questioning the southern social hierarchy and thereby offending southern Whites, African Americans were in an unenviable position. Their challenge was to create mechanisms within the parameters of “Jim Crow” that challenged the established social order, while never accepting the dehumanized status cast upon them by their oppressors.
This research focuses on an organization, the Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools for Negroes (the Association), which was the “Jim Crow” equivalent to the all White southern regional accrediting organization, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (the Southern Association). As was true of many professional organizations, the exclusively White organization did not extend membership to African American secondary schools or colleges. Consequently the Association was established to provide similar services to African American colleges and secondary schools. However as will be discussed, the Association also acknowledged and operated within the southern realities of Jim Crow as evidenced by its organizational structure, its leadership and its relationship with the Southern Association.
This research provides not only an historical review of an organization, but also utilizes as an interpretive lens, the social, cultural and political hegemonic structure that shaped its beginning, its work and its eventual cessation. By foregrounding the institution of Jim Crow while analyzing issues of accreditation, the role of the Association’s leadership, the focus of Association sponsored studies, the relationship between the Association, the Southern Association and their membership, this research’s guiding questions are: (1) How did the Association and its work serve as a strategy to challenge the dominant structure?; (2) how should this knowledge inform our epistemological understanding of African American educational history?; and (3) how is this relevant to our present day educational practices?