Sixty years after Governor George Wallace declared his commitment to preserving white supremacy and maintaining “segregation forever,” today Alabama’s state constitution still mandates racially segregated schools. Adopted in 1901, The Alabama constitution’s Section 256 states that “separate schools shall be provided for white and colored children.” The language set the stage for more than a century of under funding for African American schools at every level– as well as worsening existing economic disparities in African American communities by often not equipping generations of Black students for well-paying jobs and paying Black teachers far less than their counterparts.

The United States Supreme Court’s 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education struck down racial segregation in public schools and invalidated the Alabama mandate. In response, the Alabama legislature passed a constitutional amendment in 1956 that eliminated the state’s responsibility to guarantee public education. This amendment was designed to avoid desegregation spur the growth of white private schools which began to appear throughout the state. Today, many operate as mostly white.

Alabama schools remain deeply separate and unequal: 90.34 percent of students attending Alabama’s 75 “failing” schools in 2018 were Black. Still, throughout the 20th century, African Americans persevered and innovated opportunities to produce excellence. Although everyone could not and did not survive Jim Crow, African Americans miraculously produced institutions, educators and students reflective of their determination to make education a conduit for progress and change.