The Education of Blacks in the Frontier West
The settling of the Frontier or Old West was from the 1820s to the early 1900s. Blacks who moved to the Frontier West had limitations placed on their educational opportunities. Over time freed slaves had more access to education, but education of blacks required the support of the government and churches.
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Forbidden Education
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Some states --- such as Texas, Arizona and California --- limited some of the freedoms, including access to education. Other states maintained previous laws from the Southern states that punished those offering an education to blacks. Still other states --- such as Kansas --- welcomed black settlers, enrolling blacks in the state university by the 1880s.
As different areas of the West were settled, local school boards determined whether their schools should remain segregated. In 1870, the state of California determined that blacks could not attend white schools, which set the precedent for segregation.
Freedman's Bureau
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In 1865, the Freedman's Bureau started schools to offer an education to black children. The Freedman's Bureau was initiated by President Abraham Lincoln and was passed by Congress.There was a high level of enrollment in Texas, particularly in Houston, San Antonio, and other cities. The Freedman's Bureau eventually established schools throughout the United States. The focus of the bill was to provide former slaves with housing, food, health care, education and employment.
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Higher Education
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The end of the Civil War in 1865 brought change to what education was offered in the Frontier West and throughout America. In 1873 the first college to educate blacks west of the Mississippi River, Wiley College, was founded in Marshall, Texas.
Other colleges in the West opened to black students over time, including Langston University, Normal University and Claver College in Oklahoma. In 1880 the Associated Presbyterian Church founded the Kansas Colored Literary and Business Academy, a tuition-free school for all ages, in Dunlap, Kansas. By 1885, the University of Kansas graduated its first black student and had enrolled a black female student.
Buffalo Soldiers
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Buffalo Soldiers were black soldiers responsible for maintaining order on the frontier and on Indian reservations, as well as working on the infrastructure through building roads and telegraph systems. Black soldiers in the Frontier West had a unique opportunity to receive an education through the U.S. Army. Army chaplains were charged with teaching black soldiers to read and write, as well as to understand math, history and elementary science.
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