ABSTRACT
The following article, which first appeared in the Harvard Educational Review as part of its seventy-fifth anniversary issue in 2005, argues that the history of education in the United States is also the history of the struggle for equal educational opportunity. These two movements cannot be separated because although the nation has been defined from its very beginning by noble ideals of democracy and fair play, the reality has been quite different for marginalized segments of the population. These marginalized segments include the poor, African Americans, Latinos/as, girls and women, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) communities, and more. As a result, nearly every significant educational movement in the nation has focused on expanding educational opportunities for these and other communities.
