For All Age Groups Combined, Blacks Are Significantly More Likely Than Whites to Be Enrolled in School

Since the end of slavery when prohibitions against blacks learning to read and write were abolished, African Americans have shown a strong thirst for education. This continues today.

New data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that in October 2008, there were more than 11.4 million African Americans enrolled in some level of schooling. This includes young blacks in nursery school all the way up to African Americans in graduate education. Nearly one third of all African Americans over the age of 3 were enrolled in school.

At the same point in time in October 2008, there were 45.4 million whites enrolled in some level of school. But only 24 percent of all whites over the age of 3 were enrolled in school.

Copyright © 2009. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.