Why is the ability to read and write a statement about freedom?

People who are white have always been free or had the ability to go to school and get an education. However, people of color have been slaves, which means that they were not free. During part of the 1900's, if you were a person of color you were a slave. If you were a slave you did not have the option to go to school, normally. If the children of color could not go to school, how were they going to learn how to read and write? They became adults who couldn’t read the newspapers they saw other people reading. They grew up and never even learned how to write their own name.
If you are a free person, you have the opportunity to get an education on reading and writing. There was a time when people of color did not have that opportunity, and the lucky few who did never took advantage of it.

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