The Relative Enrollment of Negroes in Higher Educational Institutions in the United States

The purpose of this chapter is threefold: first, to ascertain the number of Negroes and whites who were enrolled in institutions of higher learning in the Census year, 1950; second, to determine the relative increase of enrollment in higher institutions in 1950 over 1940, and third, to discuss some of the factors responsible for the disparity between Negro and white enrollment, and point out some of the implications of this disparity for the cultural status of the Negro and for the public welfare. The main sources of data employed here are the 1940 and 1950 Census figures, although data from other sources such as the U. S. Office of Education statistical summaries and the annual enrollment survey published by the JOURNAL OF NEGRO EDUCATION are also utilized. The census data have certain definite limitations and advantages. In addition to the limitations noted later, the census data have the advantage of providing information concerning non-whites who attended the non-segregated schools of the North and West. Unfortunately, the other sources of data merely gave information on the number of Negroes who attended the segregated schools of the South. In view of the limitations of the sources of data, it should be observed that no absolutely exact statement of enrollment either for whites or nonwhites can be given. However, the data do make it possible to obtain a fairly accurate relative statement on the general enrollment of Negroes. Again, it should be noted that the nature of the data is not sufficiently refined to go into much of any detail concerning categories of enrollment, such as the various types of professional training. Some of this information, however, will be given in the chapter on the Negro in the professions

Demographic economics · Economics · Political science · Sociology · Demography · Higher Education Research Studies · Race, History, and American Society · School Choice and Performance

• Charles H. Thompson

  Lenwood G Davis, Belinda S Daniels•The Journal of Negro Education•1981

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• Annie Mae Kenion (1912–2009)

  Open Access•Iris Carlton-Laney, Annie Mccullough Chavis•Affilia•2011

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