Reparation and Reconciliation: The Rise and Fall of Integrated Higher Education by Christi M. Smith (review)

In 1878 John G. Fee stated, "'Those who pray together and study together will not fight'" (p. 5). Nearly 140 years later, readers of Reparation and Reconciliation: The Rise and Fall of Integrated Higher Education will surely wonder what could have been if Fee's vision of educational integration had succeeded. Christi M. Smith examines the narrow window of time between the end of the Civil War and the normalization of codified segregation as various individuals and groups worked passionately to diversify higher education. Ultimately Smith argues that while racial coeducation was achieved in certain institutions, the increasingly competitive collegiate world, coupled with lack of federal support and enforcement as well as subsequent reliance on private organizations, led to the demise of racial coeducation. The interplay of these actors and forces against the backdrop of deep-seated racism, classism, and patriarchy led to coexistent but separate systems of higher education for African Americans, working-class white men, and women. As Smith notes, "more doors were opened, but they did not lead to equal opportunities" (p. 17).

Chapters 1 and 2 provide context for U.S. policy after the Civil War. Higher education emerged as the most culturally acceptable form of rehabilitation and reform compared with other options such as military occupation, political rights, and land redistribution. Here Smith focuses on the "anti-caste" movement, which viewed race as but one category in a larger social order based on rigid stigmas determined by inherited traits rather than the merits of one's work or potential (p. 2). Even so, the expansion of land-grant colleges and public-private partnerships with organizations such as the American Missionary Association (AMA), the General Education Board (GEB), and the Freedmen's Bureau did democratize higher education to an extent. College enrollment increased 278 percent between the end of the Civil War and the start of the twentieth century, but this growth did not lead to a single model. Chapter 4 delves deeper into the coordinated but at times disorganized efforts of the AMA, the GEB, and the Freedmen's Bureau.

Chapter 3 documents three institutions far ahead of their time and some of the most successful experiments in racial coeducation: Berea College, Howard University, and Oberlin College. It is arguably the strongest chapter in the book. Backed by rich primary sources and data, it carefully navigates the evolution and development of each school. Smith rightly points out that there was no predetermined protocol for integrating these schools. In 1908, 5–10 percent of Oberlin's enrollment consisted of African Americans, Berea's student population was approximately 50 percent white and 50 percent black, and Howard was predominantly African American but maintained some white students. Chapters 5 and 6 deal with issues relating to white and black women and the cultivation of a male black elite, at the time often referred to as the Talented Tenth. These chapters yield great insight into the competing forces that controlled the intellectual experiences of Berea, Howard, and Oberlin students as well as those of wealthy white men who attended traditional universities. Readers will also see the formation of parallel systems of higher education in the late 1800s that remained in place until after World War II.

From its first words to its final sentence, Smith's book speaks to the trials and tribulations, the victories and setbacks, and the immediate and long-term strategies of schools committed to creating an inclusive learning environment between Reconstruction and the early Progressive era. Reparation and Reconciliation uncovers a lost chapter in history that demands our attention if we are to use the past as a guide for current social and cultural divides. Most textbooks refer to the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in one paragraph and the introduction of Jim Crow in the next. Smith's...