Document 4: Photograph: "Separate but Equal"

"SEPARATE BUT EQUAL" SCHOOLS
Above, Public School for White Children, Macon County, Ga.
Below, Public School for Negro Children, Macon County, Ga.
Photographs from "Preface to Peasantry" by Arthur Raper,
University of North Carolina Press, 1936.

Citation: From Letters to the Secretary of Agriculture re: NAACP, Records of the Office of the Secretary of Agriculture, RG 16.

Questions for Students

1. Review the time line from 1866 to 1915. What does it tell you about black educational facilities in Macon, Georgia, in 1936? What questions does this information raise?

2. What are the obvious differences between the two schools as evidenced in the photographs?

Discussion Questions

1. What can you infer from this photograph about the quality of education provided by each school? Consider how you are defining quality and make only those inferences that can safely be drawn.

2. This photograph is part of a file that includes materials from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Why do you think this photo was used by the organization? Why do you think it is in Federal records?