Left Back: A Century of Battles Over School Reform. 

Author Diane Ravitch

Black Americans over the years have faced many difficulties. They came to the U.S.A.as slaves and were treated as such. They were discriminated against and were segregated from main stream America.  Blacks were look down on in every spare of life. They got the worst jobs, lived in poor conditions and were not allowed to have an education.  In their classrooms one can see enormous differences when compared the classrooms of Whites.  Blacks faced many problems in schools their buildings are often run down and dilapidated and in desperate need of repair. The foundation problems range from broken windows, leaky roofs, to sewage problems. On a smaller scale, but not necessarily less important, are the lack of classroom materials available: no paper or chalk, blackboards that are broken and unable to be used, textbooks that are outdated. Blacks’ schools are often in crime infested neighborhoods and are surrounded by high chain link fences to shield their students from random and purposeless acts of violence. The White schools on the other hand flourished with books, equipment’s, and the classrooms are kept small at manageable  sizes. Good teachers were employed to teach White students, on the other hand, Black schools were filled with unqualified teachers all of who were Blacks. Although Blacks have come a long way, they still have a long way to go in terms of education.