“No Division by Color; Considered Impracticable”: Afro-Descendants in Cuban Schools during the United States Occupation, 1898–1902

During the U.S. military occupation of Cuba from 1898-1902, North American school inspectors on the island were shocked to find that, contrary to their expectations, many of the island’s public schools were not racially segregated. Instead, some inspectors noted that there was “no division by color” in Cuban classrooms. As their surprise demonstrates, North American school authorities were unaware of the long history of educational activism by Afro-descendants in Cuba. As they overhauled the Cuban public school system in these years, U.S. officials also ignored the ongoing educational efforts of white and black Cubans. This paper recovers the ways that afro-descended Cubans continued the long tradition of black education in Cuba, and how they interacted with the official Cuban school system during the U.S. occupation.