Griffin Black has recently published Reconstruction State Constitutional Conventions and the Rebirth of American Schooling as a student note in the Yale Law Journal:
A rebirth of American education occurred in the state constitutional conventions of the Reconstruction South. At a moment of national constitutional reformation, biracial coalitions of delegates constitutionalized universal public-school systems, viewing them as a core component of remaking their states in the image of the U.S. Constitution. These delegates succeeded in keeping their constitutions free from the language of segregated schooling. This ill-understood history severely troubles the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence of the schoolhouse. This Note fills gaps in the ongoing conversation emanating from the Court about the relationship between our nation’s history and its current educational landscape.
--Dan Ernst
