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schools United States -- individual schools rural Mississippi 1909
Individual U.S. School: Unidentitfied Rural School (Mississippi, 1909)
Figure 1.-- This school photo was taken somewhere in Mississippi, a deep South state, during 1909, but we don't know exactly where in the state. All we have is the date and state. At the time, Mississippi did not have a compulsory school attendance law. This was the case in other Southern states. The South generally lagged behind the rest of the country in both compulsory attendance abd child labor laws. We see the children with their teacher in front of what would seem a small brick school. We only see white children because the schools were strictly segregated. The children look to be about 6-11 years old. Put your cursor on the image to see the rest of the school.
This school photo was taken somewhere in Mississippi, a deep South state, during 1909, but we don't know exactly where in the state. All we have is the date and state. At the time, Mississippi did not have a compulsory school attendance law. This was the case in other Southern states. The South generally lagged behind the rest of the country in both compulsory attendance abd child labor laws. We see the children with their teacher in front of what would seem a small brick school. We only see white children because the schools were strictly segregated. The children look to be about 6-11 years old. Thus it is clearly not a single class. It is notable that most of the children are in the younger cohort. This suggests that only a few of the children are finishing even 6 years of schooling, let alone 8 years often offered in rural primaries. There of the boys wear overalls. This is the time that we first see boys wearing overalls to school. We are not sure when rural boys begn wearing overlls, but for some reason we don't see many at school auntil 1908. This is also the time we begin to see knickers, but all of thes boys are still wearing knee pants. Several boys wear shirts/blouses, all buttoned at the collar. Even the boys wearing overalls have buttined their shirts at the collar.One boy wears a large collar Fauntleroy blouse. Another wears a shirt waisr. Two boys wear Russian blouses. Almost all the pupils are barefoot. although their clothing show different family income conditions.
