ABSTRACT
In surveying and teaching the history of American education, the evidence of a relationship between educational opportunity and economic participation surfaces as strong and convincing. In many cases, this relationship between education and economics adversely affects individuals of low socio-economic status as well as those having minority racial and ethnic identities. Moreover, Black Americans, obviously identifying with or having been identified as belonging to a minority racial and ethnic group (see Darity, Mason, & Steward, 2006), are often also of low socio-economic status and, therefore, experience race and class discrimination resulting from the connection and interplay of U.S. education and economic systems. In this chapter, the author examines these links between education and economic factors such as land, labor, and capital. This educational and economic relationship has existed in U. S. history from the late 19th Century through industrial, post-industrial, and postmodern societies. In this chapter particular attention is paid to the effects that race and class discrimination have had upon the allocation and distribution of these economic factors and, in doing so, the author looks at various economic models and theories that are used to explain this relationship and the economic and educational gaps that exist between racial groups. Outlining group disparities in educational and economic resources further illuminates the nature of this relationship and brings into focus the effects that unequal educational opportunities have had on Blacks in American society.
