The Desegregation of Schools as a Major Problem in the USA in the 1950s

The Desegregation of Schools as a Major Problem in the USA in the 1950s

Desegregation was introduced as a solution to solving the problem of

racial segregation. In order to clearly understand what this involves

we need to define what racial segregation is. As the word segregation

implies racial segregation therefore, it is discrimination on the

basis of race shown through separation from each other, usually in the

area of the providing services. However we are going to focus on the

area of education in schools.

The NAACP which stands for the National Association of the Advancement

of Colored People was a group consisting of both white and black

lawyers who would challenge segregation system and testing the law and

persuading the Supreme Court to support their ideas to desegregate

schools. The most famous was the May 17th 1954 Linda Brown vs. Topeka

case, this case was a major break through Thurgood Marshall who was

the Legal Director of the case was the person who ended segregation in

public schools. Also at the time they had Chief Justice Warren who

made all nine judges give a unanimous decision for the schools to

desegregate and drove the decision forward. Schools might have

desegregated faster if Justice Frankfurter didn’t say “desegregation

should be done with all deliberate speed” this saying contradicts

itself, and thus sent out a message to schools that they should take

their time to desegregate when it is needed. Instead of issuing that

statement he could have convinced the nine judges to do more.

With the Supreme Court in favour of desegregation of schools it was up

to the Congress to pass a law against segregation, howe...

... middle of paper ...

... parents that the school is going to be

desegregated and it’s their choice if they want to move their children

to a private school, another school which hasn’t desegregated or let

their children stay at the school they are at. They also tried to go

against the law to prevent desegregation

The schools still tried not to accept black students and the schools

were always trying to find loop holes. It still took 10 years for

schools to desegregate.

Desegregation was a major problem because of the white supremacy

groups trying to prevent it from happening. They did this in different

ways, like preventing black students from entering white schools, some

of the school boards told parents to move their children to other

schools that had not been desegregated which led to the process of

desegregation taking along time.