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Education separated from religion
Thomas Jefferson championed that idea that church and state, and church and education should be separate. This signaled a major change in education because much of education in America had been based in religion. It followed the scientific revolution. -
Common schools started
Horace Mann started the common school movement, making public education free and available to everyone. His idea was that education was good for society because people would act respectfully toward one another if well educated and understood the common good. -
Progressive era made schooling available to Blacks
Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois worked to make public education available to Blacks following the civil war and freed from slavery. They disagreed on the purpose of education -- Washington favoring practical vocational education and DuBois favoring liberal education -- but both were instrumental in making education available to Blacks. -
Scopes Monkey Trial
Evolution was a controversial topic and many people were opposed to its being taught in public schools. The Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925 challenged the notion that certain scientific concepts were forbidden. It was a watershed moment for science education when it was ruled that evolution could and should be taught in schools. -
Brown versus the Board of Education
In the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Brown versus the Board of Education in 1954 it was ruled that Black children could attend the same schools as white children. The ruling said that "separate but equal" in education was not constitutional.
