From the Editors

From the Editors n this issue ofOhio Valley History,we focus on questions ofpower in educational institutions, practices, and ideas. Who controls schools and universities,and for what purposes? What sorts of social relations should those institutions promote?What should be the place of the larger community in making educational decisions? What role should local,state, and national governments play,if any? Moreover,should questions of race and class and gender bear upon educational questions and, if so, how? These are the kinds of questions our three authors address in this issue. And they are timely questions . Even today we contest among ourselves about whether educators or parents, the state or local communities ought to govern our public schools, and how they should do so. Ann Hassenpflug begins by drawing our attention to a spectacular murder case in antebellum Louisville. In 1853,when a young,rich and violent young man murdered his brother's teacher,he inadvertently launched not only a vigorous debate in that city about the conduct of schools and teachers,but also raised basic questions about fairness and justice amidst a new system of social and cultural relations that had come to dominate the Ohio Valley during what historians call the nineteenthcentury " market revolution." Kevin Bower then moves us into the twentieth century,investigating what happened to those Depressionera young people in Ohio who found themselves without jobs or hope. Through the New Deal' s National Youth Administration, the federal government sought to avoid potential social chaos by implementing hundreds of local training and education projects. But they quickly ran up against a serious limitation implicit in schooling of every kind. Teachers ( and the state that employs them) might educate their students, especially young working class men and women,to take up positions,both economic and social, that society and its economy cannot or will not supply. Finally,David Wolfford examines the reluctance of many white residents of western Kentucky to give up segregation,especially segregated schools,during the 1950s and 1960s. Here the questions turn on race more than class,but the central issue still centers on a question of power. Who will control schools and for what purposes? Should the advantage that some whites enjoyed by attending segregated schools be continued or not,and who should say soa local white majority opposed to school integration or a national majority SUMMER 2004 3 FROM THE EDITORS favoring integration? And what role should the state play in resolving such questions? It should be noted that two books reviewed in this issue deal with similar educational issues. Joy Ann Williamson' s Black Power on Campus explores many of the same questions raised in David Wolfford's article,only in this case on the campus of the University of Illinois in the late 19605. Rick Nutt' s Many Lamps,One I. ight:Louisville Presbyterian Tbeological Seminary documents a longterm struggle played out in the Presbyterian Church over whether fundan ] entalists or modernists should control the education of future clergy. We hope you will find these articles stimulating. Taken together,they should shed some light on the historical roots of many of the conflicts and conundrums that face all of us today when thinking about and practicing education. 4 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY ...