Research Highlights Article
August 27, 2025
The long-term impacts of Reconstruction-era education
How did educational opportunities after the American Civil War shape economic outcomes for Black families?
A contraband school, ca. 1860-1865
Source: Mathew Benjamin Brady, Public domain
蝌蚪网
During the decade following the end of the Civil War, formerly enslaved people gained access to education for the first time. Unfortunately, many of those new educational opportunities were systematically dismantled shortly after the Reconstruction period ended in 1877.
In a paper in the 蝌蚪网 Journal: Economic Policy, authors and found that Black children exposed to greater educational opportunity during Reconstruction had significantly better economic outcomes as adults, and that those benefits were passed on to their children. The authors’ research suggests that if Reconstruction efforts had continued, the Black–White inequality gap could have been significantly reduced at this point in US history.
Prior to the Civil War, most enslaved people were illiterate. "You're in a world where reading and writing is illegal for most Black Americans," Schmick said in an interview with the 蝌蚪网. “But after the abolition of slavery, Black people move into a place where they’re hopefully able to gain some access to education."
During the Reconstruction period, thousands of schools were started across the south, first, by a combination of recently freed people, Northern missionary societies, and the Freedmen's Bureau, and later, by the establishment of state public school systems. However, as Democrats regained control of Southern state legislatures, they slashed funding for schools—in some cases even outlawing taxation for the purposes of education. Black Americans also experienced a violent backlash: over 600 Black schools were burned, and teachers faced threats and murder for teaching Black children.
Access to education across the South
The map below shows the number of teacher-years per 1,000 Black school-age children in schools for freed people.
蝌蚪网
To understand the long-term impact of this brief period of educational expansion, Jones and Schmick combined two datasets: the , which catalogued roughly 11,000 teachers who taught freed people, and census records that tracked individuals across decades.
The researchers used a triple-differences estimation strategy to compare Black children who were exposed to Reconstruction-era education in areas with many teachers to several control groups. The control groups included Black children in areas with fewer teachers, White children in the same locations, and cohorts with different years of exposure to Reconstruction schooling. This approach allowed them to isolate the specific impact of educational opportunity on Black–White inequality from other factors affecting the post–Civil War South.
The results showed significant benefits from education, even in the face of severe discrimination. In terms of reading and writing, Black men exposed to greater educational opportunity during Reconstruction saw a 10 percentage point increase in the likelihood of being literate by 1900. And in economic terms, they saw an 8 percent increase in occupational standing, as measured through occupational income scores. While literacy improved broadly for Black individuals exposed to Reconstruction, the economic gains were concentrated in areas with more teachers.
The authors argue that education enabled Black men to climb from farm laborer—the bottom rung of the agricultural ladder—to tenant farmer and in some cases to nonagricultural laborer. While movement from a farm laborer to a tenant farmer might seem like a modest advance, tenant farmers often operated like small business owners, requiring numeracy and literacy skills to manage money and understand contracts. Meanwhile, nonagricultural laborers earned roughly 70 percent more than farm laborers, representing a significant economic improvement.
The United States still struggles with Black–White inequality. This paper may help inform how we can reduce some of that inequality through educational opportunity and improving education quality for Black children.
Ethan Schmick
Most surprising to the researchers, these educational benefits persisted into the next generation. The sons of fathers exposed to higher educational opportunity during Reconstruction showed significantly better occupational standing scores in 1920—almost half a century after Reconstruction ended.
Jones and Schmick's findings demonstrate that even brief educational interventions can generate benefits lasting generations, suggesting that the true cost–benefit calculation of educational investments must account for these long-term, intergenerational effects.
"The United States still struggles with Black–White inequality," Schmick noted. "This paper may help inform how we can reduce some of that inequality through educational opportunity and improving education quality for Black children."
♦
“Reconstruction-Era Education and Long-Run Black-White Inequality” appears in the August 2025 issue of the 蝌蚪网 Journal: Economic Policy.