Thursday, January 25, 2024 at 12pm
Professor of Economics and Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research
“Voice without the Vote? Black Educational Progress in the Mid-Century South”
Racial inequality in spending on teacher salaries and school infrastructure in the South narrowed markedly in the mid 20th century, despite continuing Black disenfranchisement. Cascio explores the roles of legal activism, court rulings, and state policy in these developments, using newly collected panel data on southern school districts and an economic lens on state and local decision-making. The analysis reveals surprising heterogeneity in how state governments met the moment and in how much racial discrimination persisted across school districts in the allocation of school resources as of 1960. These differences mattered: the closer to “equal” Black schools became over the 1940s and 1950s, the more Black-white gaps in educational attainment subsided.
When: Thursday, Jan 25, 2024, 12:00-1:30pm
Where: SNF Agora Conference Room, 3100 Wyman Park Drive, Suite N325, Homewood Campus or can be accessed on Zoom.
Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/92121743165
This event is limited to JHU faculty, fellows, students, and staff.