During the 1960s, mainstream America was at the height of the Civil Right Movement. Jim Crow laws mandated segregation in public schools and public places. Even though, Brown vs Board of Education in 1954 declared segregation unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States, many areas resisted this change. For example, in 1956, the Massive Resistance law in Virginia cut off funding for any school that attempted to integrate and lasted until the early 1970’s (Hershman, 2011). In fact, de jure segregation continued in the South throughout the 1960’s and de facto segregation entered the North. John Rury (2013) contends that many schools did not support equity and social policy in education, and there was a broad movement resistance
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African Americans seeking education was not a new phenomenon and this emphasized a social uplift. Furthermore, African Americans and other racial groups suffered exclusion and discrimination in education. “Their unequal status was often justified by an ideology defined and fostered by native-born White males…” (Rury, 2013, p. 94). Many of the challenges African Americans faced in education during the 1960s stem from the Jim Crow laws and most of the White society unwillingness to change. McFee looks at how art educators need to engage in self-reflection of how to look at diverse ethnic groups. She …show more content…
McFee challenges art education and the relationship between art and humanity. She boldly voices her reservation about the belief system of art education and questions if art is only for the limited elite subculture. McFee continues to ask, if art education were considered a part of human behavior, as a form of communication, then it would be for everyone. McFee (1966) defines society as an organization of people whose interaction clusters them as a group and she defines culture as identifying the attitudes and values of people from a common heritage. For many of the American middle-class, the structure and culture of the African American society remained insufficient to their own ideology despite the identifiable differences and overlapping similarities between groups. McFee (1966) theorized if art educators began to explore the relationship between art and society to humanity; create a curriculum to identify to all forms of art; develop criteria to evaluate their quality, and look passed their own biases, then art education could respond to the social demands of the day. Despite her optimism for art education and to enlighten other educators, there were misperceptions on how African Americans comprehended their education, economics, and culture during their transition into hegemonic
African Americans seeking education was not a new phenomenon and this emphasized a social uplift. Furthermore, African Americans and other racial groups suffered exclusion and discrimination in education. “Their unequal status was often justified by an ideology defined and fostered by native-born White males…” (Rury, 2013, p. 94). Many of the challenges African Americans faced in education during the 1960s stem from the Jim Crow laws and most of the White society unwillingness to change. McFee looks at how art educators need to engage in self-reflection of how to look at diverse ethnic groups. She …show more content…
McFee challenges art education and the relationship between art and humanity. She boldly voices her reservation about the belief system of art education and questions if art is only for the limited elite subculture. McFee continues to ask, if art education were considered a part of human behavior, as a form of communication, then it would be for everyone. McFee (1966) defines society as an organization of people whose interaction clusters them as a group and she defines culture as identifying the attitudes and values of people from a common heritage. For many of the American middle-class, the structure and culture of the African American society remained insufficient to their own ideology despite the identifiable differences and overlapping similarities between groups. McFee (1966) theorized if art educators began to explore the relationship between art and society to humanity; create a curriculum to identify to all forms of art; develop criteria to evaluate their quality, and look passed their own biases, then art education could respond to the social demands of the day. Despite her optimism for art education and to enlighten other educators, there were misperceptions on how African Americans comprehended their education, economics, and culture during their transition into hegemonic