By Garry Blanson
“Although some individual public schools in Monroe, Louisiana and Ouachita Parish currently have Black principals and even a Black Monroe City School Superintendent of Education, the majority of the chief administrators who serve on the Louisiana State Board of Education, and who are in charge of establishing most of the policies as well as the curriculum at the public schools in Louisiana, have historically been White individuals.” – Garry O. Blanson
Again, in this week’s article, we can see that by looking at the past, we can understand how some things going on today in Monroe, Louisiana and Ouachita Parish are similar to how things went on over 65 years ago. While many Black people in Monroe have heard about American billionaire John D. Rockefeller and the famous Rockefeller family, not nearly as many of them have heard anything about the General Education Board, which was founded and funded by him in 1902. Furthermore, it amazes me that many Black and White teachers and educators who have graduated from American colleges and universities still don’t have the foggiest idea about the General Education Board.
As the story goes, following a tour of the Southern states by his son and other wealthy White American men in 1901, along with his son’s fervent plea, John D. Rockefeller decided to donate the outstanding sum of one million dollars to start what became the General Education Board. Even though the G.E.B. was initially supposed to be about improving education in the United States without distinction of race, sex, or creed, things changed when the G.E.B. reached the Southern states. Perhaps the G.E.B. had good intentions at first about not being partial regarding ethnicity. However, when it came to the Southern states, the G.E.B. ended up going along with the common Jim Crow segregation and White supremacy ways of the South.
By the way, each year John D. Rockefeller increased the amount of money used to fund the G.E.B. and pay outside government officials as well as teachers. At the time, an influential source even said, “The G.E.B. is acquiring a virtual monopolistic control of educational philanthropy for the South as well as the Negro!”
Well, I hope that this week’s article has whetted some of your appetites enough to go online and read more about the General Education Board and how John D. Rockefeller bankrolled the American education system back in the early 1900s.
