The Desegregation of Schools as a Major Problem in the USA in the 1950s Segregation was always one of the layers of "the economically rising" America. It was the despicable separation of black and white people. This way of life really contradicted the "all men are created equal with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness", commitment which is contained in the US declaration of Independence. However in the 1950s, segregation stepped over its boundaries with the Brown Vs Board of Education case. This crucial legal case reached the Supreme Court in 1954. Linda Brown, in an appeal brought by her father tried to attend a local white school instead of going to an all black school nearly a mile away. Efforts to obtain legal authority for her to go to her local school were not successful. During this period of time, America also had a global issue to deal with called the Cold War, which was against the USSR. The war in fact would have benefited African Americans because the segregation issues made America look like an uncivilized country, so it would mean them destroying segregation to continue a good and prosperous reputation. However, the USA being capitalists and the USSR being communists would have been a disadvantage. The reason for this is because the USSR despised the political and economic system and people would have accused African Americans of being communists because they wanted equality. The USSR would also have used propaganda to show the world how America has contradicted herself by using the name "Land of the Free" when such issues as segregation existed in the country. In result, global issues worke... ... middle of paper ... ...ted to prevent desegregation from happening but were disappointed again by the outcome. America had always had a problem with their superior country turning into a "salad bowl". The contrast in colors would have made it difficult to turn it into a "melting pot" which they would have preferred. Looking through religious views, white Americans made themselves look like animals messing around with Gods creations. Internationally, the 1950s were an embarrassment for white Americans but for black people, it was an experience of pain and traumatic events leading to a victorious battle. The desegregation did take a long period of time to be accepted but was eventually so successful that it started off the civil rights movement for people like Martin Luther King who had believed in gaining desegregation throughout all America!
Through out history education has been a topic of many concerns. Historically Black Colleges and Universities were established to try and provide freed slaves education they were not able to obtain. For African Americans in the 20th century attending school was a burden. The children had to withstand long walks to get to their designated schools, being denied classes that the white students had in their schools, outdated books and hand me down classroom materials. African Americans all across the United States fought for their kids rights to get a good education, education provided to white only schools. There was a period of time schools were able to legally deny a student acceptance into their institutions based solely on the color of their skin. Many African Americans tried and majority of them got denied. Students at all levels were being denied, from Pre-K all the way up to college. After many attempts to integrate schools parents of the children being denied education just like the white kids, they realized it would be easier to just build their own schools.
The first big development of the ‘50s came almost immediately at the turn of the decade, when the Supreme Court essentially overturned the verdict reached in the Plessy vs. Ferguson trial of 1896. Thanks to the NAACP lawyers the Supreme Court made three decisions regarding civil rights which not only showed that at times the government was on the blacks side, but also almost completely overturned the ‘separate but equal’ idea that had been followed for 54 years.
During the civil rights struggle in the late1950s it became apparent that those who supported segregation would go to any length in order to maintain the status quo. Until then, many whites in the 1940s believe blacks were content with the way things were (Shmoop). For the first time, the nation would come face to face to the reality of the violence that African Americans faced on a daily basis. The Brown v. Board of Education decision was a major victory for the civil rights movement. It showed momentum for desegregation in the Jim Crow south. After school integration, it was only a matter of time before Jim Crow laws would be challenged and overturned everywhere.
“IT IS NO ACCIDENT that the pivotal Supreme Court decision launching the modern civil rights movement was an education case -- the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka ruling. IN MANY WAYS, the drive to end segregated education and to put African American and white children in the same classrooms was the most radical and potentially far-reaching aspect of the civil rights movement” (ww.civil rights.com). And since this time the faces of the classroom have changed and been redefined. Students of all races, language backgrounds and learning abilities create a classroom of learners like never before. But, often the impact of the 1954 ruling was questioned because many wondered were all students in a better position now? It wasn’t until 2002 under NCLB that schools now mandated all schools must prove that infact all students were offered the same education. “Under the 2002 law, states are required to test students in reading and math in grades 3–8 and once in high school. All students are expected to meet or exceed state standards in reading and math by 2014” (www.k12.com). Unfortunately,
One attempt made to correct this failure was the permanent desegregation of all public schools across the country. In the celebration of the Brown v. Board of Education all public schools were integrated with both races. Before this integration there were all white and all black schools. This was in favor of the idea of “separate but equal”. But, it was proven by the “woeful and systematic under funding of the black schools” things were separate but rarely equal. (Source 9) As a solution to this,it was decided that a fully integrated society began with the nation’s schools. (Source 9) Two years after one of the first integration of schools at Little Rock, Effie Jones Bowers helped desegregate the nearby school, Hall High School. The students were put into an all white school like at Central High School. According to one of the students, they were faced with vio...
The 1960’s were one of the most significant decades in the twentieth century. The sixties were filled with new music, clothes, and an overall change in the way people acted, but most importantly it was a decade filled with civil rights movements. On February 1, 1960, four black freshmen from North Carolina Agriculture and Technical College in Greensboro went to a Woolworth’s lunch counter and sat down politely and asked for service. The waitress refused to serve them and the students remained sitting there until the store closed for the night. The very next day they returned, this time with some more black students and even a few white ones. They were all well dressed, doing their homework, while crowds began to form outside the store. A columnist for the segregation minded Richmond News Leader wrote, “Here were the colored students in coats, white shirts, and ties and one of them was reading Goethe and one was taking notes from a biology text. And here, on the sidewalk outside was a gang of white boys come to heckle, a ragtail rabble, slack-jawed, black-jacketed, grinning fit to kill, and some of them, God save the mark, were waving the proud and honored flag of the Southern States in the last war fought by gentlemen. Eheu! It gives one pause”(Chalmers 21). As one can see, African-Americans didn’t have it easy trying to gain their civil rights. Several Acts were passed in the 60’s, such as Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965. This was also, unfortunately, the time that the assassinations of important leaders took place. The deaths of John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr., all happened in the 60’s.
At the heart of the problem was segregation. Segregation is the act of separating a certain person or faction from the main group. In America’s case segregation was practiced on minorities such as African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asians. The full force of segregation was brought down on African-Americans. Segregation was based on shear hatred of blacks by white Americans. The majority of them derived their hatred for African-Americans from their parents. This hatred was applied to all aspects of black people’s lives, they couldn’t do the most mundane activity without some sort of segregation. Everything from water fountains to public schools were under the influence of segregation.
Have you ever heard about segregation? What affects it had in our Civil Rights Movement? Segregation had it’s biggest impact in the separation of the American people by color and race. Many children had to go to different school because of their color, this was the beginning of the Jim Crow Laws which led to Plessy V. Ferguson and ending with Brown V. Board of education. Although the decision did not succeed in fully desegregating public education in the United States, it put the Constitution on the side of racial equality and galvanized the nascent civil rights movement into a full revolution.
In the final decades of the 20th century, education has continued to evolve in order to meet society's demands. The transformation of society has created numerous problems in the educational system. These problems consist of the segregation of races, religions, social classes, and politics. In the earlier part of the 20th century, African-Americans were segregated within schools. They were placed into lower-class school systems with little extra-curricular activities, limited resources, and lower quality teachers.
In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Brown vs. The Board of Education that schools needed to integrate and provide equal education for all people and it was unconstitutional for the state to deny certain citizens this opportunity. Although this decision was a landmark case and meant the schools could no longer deny admission to a child based solely on the color of their skin. By 1957, most schools had began to slowly integrate their students, but those in the deep south were still trying to fight the decision. One of the most widely known instances of this happening was at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. It took the school district three years to work out an integration plan. The board members and faculty didn't like the fact that they were going to have to teach a group of students that were looked down upon and seen as "inferior" to white students. However, after much opposition, a plan was finally proposed. The plan called for the integration to happen in three phases. First, during the 1957-1958 school year, the senior high school would be integrated, then after completion at the senior high level, the junior high would be integrated, and the elementary levels would follow in due time. Seventeen students were chosen from hundreds of applicants to be the first black teenagers to begin the integration process. The town went into an uproar. Many acts of violence were committed toward the African-Americans in the city. Racism and segregation seemed to be on the rise. Most black students decid...
Over the past four-hundred plus years, racism has plagued the history of American society. The idea that one person is inherently better than another because of the color of their skin has always been present from our founding to today. During the rise of the Civil Rights movement in the mid 1900’s, racism was repeatedly being dealt blows by those brave enough to stand up for the rights they felt belonged to citizens of all shapes and colors. One important event that led to progress for people of color was the desegregation of the schooling systems. From young girls walking into all-white schools to black men being selected to participate in different academies, the Civil Rights movement to desegregate schools was influential in how progress
Today we can look back and oversee the changes and development in Education. Segregation throughout the education system has shaped the system to what it is today. Discrimination is the practice of preferential treatment, or denying equal treatment to someone due to his or her demographic characteristics. Racial discrimination and segregation has impacted the education system since 1865 up until present day. Not only did schools face racial segregation, but also sex segregation and social class status segregation. Education was a privilege to have and something that had to be earned by the people. By looking back, history has shown how far we have overcame regarding segregation in the education system. Due to people showing a consistent fight
The rise of Jim Crow led to increased racial tension. Although Jim Crow was very famous in the South, Jim Crow also took place in the North. As the migration of African-Americans to the North grew stronger, whites looked to segregate public places such as restaurants, hotels, theaters, as well as other public venues (Boyle 78). For example, Ossian Sweet attended Wilberforce University, which was right outside of Xenia, Ohio. The city had once been proud of this college that was for African-Americans but now due to the rise of Jim Crow, they refused to let the college use any of the town’s facilities or services (Boyle 79). This is just one example of how whites segregated from African-Americans. Another place where segregation occurred was in schools. The Plessy v. Ferguson decision ruled that there could be segregation if the segregated facilities were equal. Segregated schools were very popular in the South but also took place in the North. The problem with this was that the schools were nowhere near equal. African-Americans had very poor school facilities and materials, so they were not getting the same education as the white children, which continued the superiority of the white race. African-Americans looking to attend college also faced ...
It was an ongoing issue even after the slaves were emancipated and the amendments 13, 14 and 15 were added to the constitution. “...struggles to secure federal protection of these rights continued during the next century.”(“American civil rights movement.”Clayborne Carson). Due to the fact that abolishing racial inequality was a difficult task, there were Civil Rights leaders that led the Civil Right Movement in the 1960’s. The term “De Facto Segregation” means racial segregation in public schools, which was a major issue that arrived during this time period. Slaves were freed, meaning that they were given to (or at least were supposed to) the same rights as the whites. Due to Jim Crow laws, people with colored skin were equal but separated from the whites. There was different seating in public transportation, different restaurants, different bathrooms, etc. Colored people were given the same rights but white people refused to share anything in public with them, including school. This became a major issue and at one point was brought to the Supreme Court. In the Brown v. Board of Education case, judge Marshall stated that “...separate school systems for blacks and whites were inherently unequal, and thus violate the "equal protection clause" of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”(“History-Brown v. Board of Education Re-enactment” United States Courts). The court declared that having segregated schools was unjust. In 1964, the Civil Rights Act was passed, a law that prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex or race when hiring, promoting or firing people. In 1965, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights law, prohibiting any racial discrimination in voting. America seemed to be on the right path during this time and equality was on its way, luckily with help from certain leaders the process was
America’s school system and student population remains segregated, by race and class. The inequalities that exist in schools today result from more than just poorly managed schools; they reflect the racial and socioeconomic inequities of society as a whole. Most of the problems of schools boil down to either racism in and outside the school or financial disparity between wealthy and poor school districts. Because schools receive funding through local property taxes, low-income communities start at an economic disadvantage. Less funding means fewer resources, lower quality instruction and curricula, and little to no community involvement. Even when low-income schools manage to find adequate funding, the money doesn’t solve all the school’s problems. Most important, money cannot influence student, parent, teacher, and administrator perceptions of class and race. Nor can money improve test scores and make education relevant and practical in the lives of minority students.