School Segregation in 19th-Century Cuba

In nineteenth-century Cuba, the developing school system was the site of debates over the place of Afro-descendents in society. Indeed, the school system was one of the few public institutions in which de jure racial segregation was implemented, and challenged. This paper will examine the educational laws that established racial segregation in the schools. The first law establishing a national public education system in Cuba was promulgated in 1842, the same year that the slave code was updated, reflecting increasing social concerns about Afro-descendents as the slave-based sugar economy peaked. The 1842 law allowed towns to build separate schools for children of color as needed. Confusion over the 1842 law gave way to debates in the 1850s about whether Afro-Cubans could be licensed teachers, and then to a new decree in the 1870s that required towns to build segregated schools for children of color. The paper will also examine people of color’s position on racial segregation in the schools. The civil rights campaign by an umbrella-organization of black clubs called the Directorio Central de Sociedades de Color made school integration a central goal, and convinced the Spanish colonial government to integrate the schools in 1894. In tracing the history of school segregation, this paper highlights the importance of education in understanding how ideas of race were developing in nineteenth-century Cuba.