From NKAA, Notable Kentucky African Americans Database (main entry)
First Study of Higher Education for African Americans in Kentucky, 1932
*Christina Barone, UK Special Collections Cataloging Library Technician Senior, suggested this entry and provided a copy of each study.REVIEW:
Higher education in Kentucky was segregated in 1932 when Oscar F. Galloway completed his study, "Higher Education for Negroes in Kentucky." The study was undertaken for the Kentucky Bureau of School Service, located in the College of Education at the University of Kentucky. The study was published in the Bulletin of the Bureau of School Service, v.5, no.1, September 1932, pp.1-133.
The purpose of the study was to gauge the efficiency of higher education for African Americans in Kentucky, and to see if there really was a need for a future program and additional higher education institutions. Earlier Kentucky higher education studies, from 1922-1930, had included some information about the African American institutions. However, Galloway's study looked at only the African American institutions, along with population trends and growths, and the locations of African American high schools. It was assumed that the study would confirm that African Americans needed different types of higher education: industrial training, professional education, and classical education for future leadership and responsibility.
In the United States, African Americans had been the focus of many studies by the 1930s. O. F. Galloway's study was the first indepth look at African Americans in Kentucky as the focal point of higher education availablility.
Four institutions were reviewed:
- Kentucky State Industrial College in Frankfort, KY, [now Kentucky State University], 1886-present.
- Lincoln Institute in Lincoln Ridge, KY, 1912-1966.
- Louisville Municipal College for Negroes in Louisville, KY, 1931-1951.
- West Kentucky Industrial College in Paducah, KY, 1909-1938.
- Governing Body
- History
- Curricula
- Students: number, distribution, and residence
- Student Loads
- Facilities
- Buildings, Grounds, and Equipment
- Libraries and Laboratories
- Finances
- The African American population in Kentucky was declining due to natural losses and continuing out-migration. Between 1880-1930, there was a 16.73% population decrease among African Americans in Kentucky.
- The remaining African American population was shifting with the major increases in three counties: Fayette, Jefferson, and McCracken.
- Three cities with a moderate African American concentration center might be considered for a new higher education institution: Glasgow, Hopkinsville, and Madisonville.
- The number of African American accredited high schools, teachers, and enrollments all increased between 1912 and 1931:
76 schools with 252 teachers and 4,914 students in 1931.
- Given the location of the four Kentucky higher education institutions for African Americans, and the locations of the centers of African American populations, and the locations of the accredited high schools, it was concluded that there was little justification for additional higher education institutions for African Americans in Kentucky.
In 1936, three years after O. F. Galloway's study was published, the Kentucky General Assembly approved the Anderson-Mayer State Aid Act. The act initially provided $5,000 annually for African Americans to attend out-of-state colleges in order to pursue degrees that were not available to them at one of the four African American higher education institutions. The Anderson-Mayer State Aid Act was well-intending, but it provided an avenue for some of the brightest African American students to leave Kentucky and not come back. Futhering the out-migration of African Americans from Kentucky.
O. F. Galloway's study was completed in 1932 during The Great Depression. For additional information about African Americans, education, and The Great Depression, see Murphy, Mary-Elizabeth B. "African Americans in the Great Depression and New Deal," Oxford Research Encyclopedias, 19 November 2020. (online); "What was Black College Life Like in the New Deal?" A photo exhibit exploring life through the lens of Kenneth Space, by U.S. National Archives. (online); Irons, Peter. "Jim Crow's Schools," American Educator, Summer 2004. (online at American Federation of Teachers: Education Healthcare Public Services).
A comparative study of the Kentucky elementary and secondary schools for African Americans and the schools for whites was completed by Leonard E. Meece in 1938. The study was a companion study to O. F. Galloway's work in 1932. The purpose of Meece's work was to present a comprehensive description of the status of education for African American children in Kentucky. Though, the true purpose of the study and the conclusion were meant to reaffirm the belief that segregated education in Kentucky did not discriminate against African American children. Source: Meece, Leonard Ephraim. "Negro Education in Kentucky: a comparative study of white and Negro education on the elementary and secondary school levels," Bulletin of the Bureau of School Service, v.10, no.3, March 1938, pp.1-180.
See also African Americans and sociological studies: Young, Alford A., Jr. "African Americans," Oxford Bibliographies Online, 29 October 2013 (online).