The Penn Center was the first freedman school to be established that began as an experiment to see if African Americans could actually be educated. There are several similarities between the beginnings of African American education and contemporary issues. First of all, there were separate schools. Even though they wanted to see if blacks could be educated, they did not want them in their current white schools so they created a whole different school for them. This is very similar to the “separate but equal” schools that were established during times of segregation. The schools were not necessarily equal because it seemed as if the white schools were usually more updated and all around a better learning space. Early black schools were very small and probably not as nice as some of the white schools. The Penn Center’s pictures of the early cabin in which they were taught indicated that there was not that much space for learning and they were on a very limited budget.

The Penn Center also eventually started teaching skills such as agriculture, carpentry, cobbling, and other fields which could help the locals obtain jobs. This type of schooling is similar to future African American colleges that teach the industrial arts such as the Tuskegee and Hampton Institutes.  The Penn Center developing such a curriculum as well as the establishment of other black colleges were big accomplishments for African American education.

The Penn Center has such a rich sense of African American culture as well as a proud educational history. It is astonishing that it began during the civil war and still exists today to celebrate African American culture and history. There is such a positive feeling associated with the Penn Center where as many colleges, especially with historical campuses do not celebrate the importance of African American history like the Penn Center. Many times they ignore the slavery that assisted in building the campuses as well as the first African Americans that attended those colleges. Often times, African Americans are the minorities at the colleges and they often times feel more disconnected to the campus than other students. Even in modern times, African Americans still deal with racial issues regarding education.

Many schools still deal with segregation that was present during the beginning of African American schools. As urban development continues to grow, there becomes an income divide among neighborhoods, which affects the school districts. Areas that are primarily low income, African Americans, often get stuck with inadequate schools for their children. This is a serious educational problem that shows hints of old issues we thought were had already crossed over.