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No Sacrifice Too Great

The History of African American Education from Slavery to the Twenty-First Century

Author: James D. Anderson

The story of African Americans’ struggle for education, and why it matters

When historian James Anderson began studying the education of African Americans after the Civil War, he uncovered an astounding history. Few today know what African Americans did‚ÄövÑvÆand what they sacrificed-to demand, create, and nourish educational institutions for themselves and their families through the twentieth century. Slaves literally risked their lives to learn to read; African American legislators during Reconstruction passed the first laws guaranteeing public schools in America; and poor Blacks pooled their life’s savings to build thousands of schools‚ÄövÑvÆAfrican Americans demonstrated over and over, in the face of huge obstacles, a wide cultural commitment to education.