Abstract
Dreams for the African American child in rural areas of the South between 1930 and 1955 were often short-lived and were tied to the agrarian culture of the time. Cotton was KING and the African Americans were tied to the farm and its products. Crops, with their plantings, cultivations, and gatherings, were the subsistence for the rural African American family. The entire family, parents and children were dependent on the agrarian calendar and its income for support and existence. Children from an early age were required to share the workload in the fields, and they were considered as much a part of the workforce as were their parents. From sun-up to sundown, parents and children worked the red clay furrows of Burke County, Georgia, to find a meager means of livelihood. As sharecroppers or as manual laborers, African Americans were dependent on the landowners (who were white in more cases) for their standard of living. These landowners had African American families tied to the land. Following the Great Depression and the fall of King Cotton caused by the boll weevil, education for African American children was not a realizable dream for most children.
Recommended Citation
Fulcher, Eugenia M.
(1999)
"Making Dreams Come True: Parental and Community Involvement in the Rural African American Schools in Burke County, Georgia Between 1930 and 1955,"
Education and Culture: Vol. 16
:
Iss.
2,
Article 3.
Available at:
https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/eandc/vol16/iss2/art3
