• African Americans have made dramatic strides in their education during the 20th century.

• Well into the 20th century, the struggle was for the most basic of educational skills, such as literacy. In 1890, three of every five African Americans ages 14 years and older were illiterate(1). This rate was almost cut in half, to 33% by 1910, and by 1930, fewer than one in every five blacks was illiterate.

• By the end of World War II, illiteracy in the Black population had fallen to 11%, and was subsequently cut to 7% of blacks in 1959, and 1.6% in 1979.

• The trends in illiteracy in part reflect the growing percentages of black youth who were enrolled in school in each period, as well as the passing of older generations who had very limited educational opportunities. The percentage of 3 to 34 year old blacks who were enrolled in a school rose from 41% in 1947, to 50.7% in 1955, and 58.8% in 1963. By 2000, almost 60% of blacks in this age group were in school. This percentage was higher than that for whites (59.3%) because blacks between 3 and 6 and 25-44 were more likely to be in school.

• Since 1980, 95% or more of the 5 to 17 year old African-American population were enrolled in school. An indicator of the challenges that remain, however, is that in 1996, the average reading and math proficiency scores of Black and Hispanic 17 year-olds were roughly comparable to those of white 13 year olds.

High School and College Graduates

• The percentage African American adults (ages 25 years and older) who have completed high school has risen dramatically since 1940, when only about 8% had completed 12 years of schooling. By 1959, one in five (20.7%) African American adults had completed high school, and this rose to one in three (33.7%) by 1970.

• By 1980, just over one-half of African American adults (51.2%) had completed at least high school. The percentages climbed to nearly two-thirds (66.2%) of all African American 25 years and older by 1990, and to over three quarters of them (76%) in 1998. By that time, 87% of 25 to 29 year old African Americans had a high school diploma, compared to about 93% of their white counterparts.

• These gains enabled African Americans to substantially close the gap in the percentages of Black and of White adults (25 years and older) who at least completed high school. In 1940, African Americans were only 30% as likely to have a high school diploma as whites, and in 1962 they were still only half as likely. In 2000, the ratio of black to white adults with high school diplomas was 78.5%.

• The percentages of African American adults completing college has also risen dramatically from 1940, when only about 1 percent had done so. By the 1960's, this had risen to about 4 percent of Black adults. The decades since 1970 have seen substantial gains, with the percentage of college graduates increasing from 4.5% of African Americans in 1970, to 7.9% in 1980 and 11.3 percent in 1990. By 2000, 16.6% of African American adults were college graduates.

• Whites have made even greater gains in College completion than African Americans, so the gap actually has increased since 1960. The percentage of black college graduates was more than 40% of that for whites until about 1960, but has remained at about one-third the percentage for whites since the early 1980's.

References

United States Census Bureau, The Social and Economic Status of the Black Population in the United States: An Historical View, 1790-1978.

1. After 1979, statistics were no longer collected on illiteracy. Reading proficiency has been measured instead.

Prepared by Cassandra Cantave and Roderick Harrison for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. November 2000.