During the period of America’s reconstruction, the word “freedom” is spreading throughout the whole country. It came up with different type freedom such as the right of women, the right to vote and to be officeholder for the African American. The one of the most important freedoms is having an opportunity to be educated. Before the Civil war, the black slaves were illegal to be educated in most southern states and the only people can get education it the white except some poorer white. During reconstruction era, the first state-supported public school was established and the new education system was built up so that everyone can get their chance to learn and became literacy especially for the northern former slaves.

The freedom to be educated for African American was not realized the short term. The right for African American was rejected by the white people in many Southern states. Also, the conflict between white and black in South continues until 1877. Thus, with all the circumstances at this short period, African American could not get their chance to be educated. It need more time to pursue this freedom.

In term of long run, obviously, the dream of freedom to be educated comes true. Everyone realized that “Knowledge is power” and knowledge can change people’s life. With the idea of “everyone should be created equal,” African American gets the education as the same as the white that leads them to became powerful and successful. Nowadays, example for this is American 44th President Barack Obama; he is successful because he gets higher education and achieves his goal.