School integration in the United States
The integration of all American schools was a major catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement and racial violence that occurred in the United States during the latter half of the 20th century.
[11] At first the decision was split with United States Supreme Court Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson believing that Plessy v. Ferguson should stand.
[13] They supported their argument with research from psychologists and social scientists that proved empirically that segregated schools inflicted psychological harm on black students.
Their enrollment was followed by the Little Rock Crisis, in which the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus.
[1] After the decision, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) attempted to register black students in previously all-white schools in cities throughout the South.
Originally at orders of the governor, they were meant to prevent the black students from entering due to claims that there was "imminent danger of tumult, riot and breach of peace" at the integration.
[25] Escalating the conflict, Faubus closed all of Little Rock's public high schools in fall 1958, but the U.S. Supreme Court ordered them reopened in December of that year.
[26] Prominent black newspapers such as the Chicago Defender and the Atlanta Daily World praised the Brown decision for upholding racial equality and civil rights.
[27] Immediately, Brown v. Board of Education proved to be a catalyst in inciting the push for equal rights in southern communities, just as Charles Houston and Thurgood Marshall had hoped when they devised the legal strategy behind it.
In 1971, the Supreme Court in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education approved the use of busing to achieve desegregation, despite racially segregated neighborhoods and limited radii of school districts.
The school superintendent made an agreement with local media not to discuss the event, and attempts to gain information by other sources were deliberately ignored.
The following year, the integration of schools in Hoxie, Arkansas, drew national coverage from Life Magazine, and bitter opposition from White Citizen's Councils and segregationist politicians ensued.
[39] Another way that white families avoided integration was by withdrawing their children from their local public school system in order to enroll them into newly founded "segregation academies".
Vice President Spiro T. Agnew and George Shultz, then secretary of labor, were asked to lead a cabinet committee to manage the transition to desegregated schools.
Federal district court Judge W. A. Bootle ordered the admission of Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter to the University of Georgia on January 6, 1961, ending 160 years of segregation at the school.
The decision by Judge Bootle conflicted with the state's previous enactment of law that stopped the funding of any school who admitted a black student to their establishment.
That night, an angry mob gathered outside Hunter's dormitory, causing significant property damage and gaining media attention for the university and the state.
According to the New Georgia Encyclopedia, "Even Governor Ernest Vandiver Jr., who had campaigned for office on the segregationist slogan "No, Not One," condemned the mob violence, and perhaps as a result of the negative publicity suffered by the state in the national press, conceded that some integration might be unavoidable".
Whether it was from the fear of the state closing the school or moral grounds, officials and professors favored admitting black students on a limited basis at the least.
After the controversial 1956 Sugar Bowl and death of its progressive president Blake R. Van Leer shortly after, Georgia Tech finally made steps towards integration.
Ford Greene, Ralph Long Jr., and Lawrence Michael Williams, the school's first three black students, attended classes on September 27 with no resistance making Georgia Tech the first institution of higher education in the Deep South to integrate peacefully and at its own will.
After a fiery speech from Ross Barnett at an Ole Miss football game that some refer to as "a call to arms", white segregationists flooded the University of Mississippi campus and exploding into riots on September 30, 1962.
The rioters were protesting the presence of James Meredith after he was granted admission to the university from legal battle he won with the help of the NAACP.
In an interview with NPR Bishop Duncan M. Gray Jr., who was there when the violence erupted said,'"It was a horrible thing, and I'm sorry we had to go through that, but it certainly marked a very definite turning point.
Escorted by federal marshals, U.S. Air Force veteran James Meredith was able to register for classes and be the first black student to graduate in 1963.
[34] Sam Oni, knowingly and intentionally, in part applied to Mercer for the purpose of helping to end racial segregation in the southern United States.
According to HISTORY, "Though Wallace was eventually forced by the federalized National Guard to integrate the university, he became prominent symbol of the ongoing resistance to desegregation.
A group of Mexican-Americans in Corpus Christi, Texas, challenged this classification, as it resulted in discrimination and ineffective school integration policies.
[59] In the early 1970s, Houstonians boycotted this practice: for three weeks, thousands of Hispanic students stopped attending their local public schools in protest of the racist integration laws.
[65][66] The growing emphasis on standardized tests as measures of achievement in schools is a part of the dialogue surrounding the relationship between race and education in the United States.
