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First Higher Education Institution
The first higher education institution was created and named Harvard College. It was established in Cambridge, Massachusetts, previously known as Newtowne. -
"A Grammatical Institute of the English Language" was written
Noah Webster writes his own English textbook titled A Grammatical Institute of the English Language which consisted of 3 volumes: a spelling book, a grammar book, and a reader. The spelling volume was later renamed the American Spelling Book and has never gone out of print. -
First School for the Deaf
The first school for the deaf opens titled the Connecticut Asylum at Hartford for the Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons. It is the first permanent school for the deaf. In 1864, the son of the founderopens Gallaudet University, the first college made specifically for deaf students. -
First Institution to Provide Higher Education for African Descent
Ashmun Institute becomes the first higher education institute to offer education to male youth of African descent. The institution was eventually renamed to Lincoln University. -
First Indian Boarding School
The first Native American boarding school opens and becomes the model for 26 similar schools with the goal of assimilating Native American children into mainstream culture. The school closed down in 1918. -
First Female President of NEA
Long-time teacher Ella Flagg Young becomes the first female superindenent of a major city school system. She is then elemected to become the first female president of the National Education Association. -
School for African Girls Merges to become a Coeducational High School
The first all black female school oopens in Daytona Beach, Florida. The founder, Mary McLeod Bethune, was an African-American woman.The school merged with the Cookman Institute in 1923, becoming a coeducational high school. -
First Successful School Desegregation Court Case
After Alvarez vs. the Board of Trustees of the Lemon Grove (California) School District succeed in their lawsuit, the court forbid the school district from keeping Mexican-American students separate from their peers. -
Court Decides Racial Segregation of Public School is Unconstitutional
The U.S Supreme Court ruled in favor of Brown in Brown v. Board of Education in which ruled that separate educational facilities are unequal. This lawsuit overruled a previous ruling from 1896. -
Court Rules to Stop Official School Prayers
The case of School District of Abington Township, Pennsylvania v. Schempp and Murray v. Curlett, the Supreme Court ruled that no state law or school board is allowed to require prayer in public schools.