School integration in the United States

{{Short description|Racial desegregation process}} {{Use American English|date = February 2019}} {{Use mdy dates|date = February 2019}} {{Use shortened footnotes|date=June 2023}} [[File:Integrated classroom at Anacostia High School.jpg|thumb|300px|An integrated classroom in Anacostia High School, Washington, D.C., in 1957]] In the United States, school integration (also known as desegregation) is the process of ending race-based segregation within American public, and private schools. Racial segregation in schools existed throughout most of American history and remains an issue in contemporary education. During the civil rights movement school integration became a priority, but since then ''de facto'' segregation has again become prevalent.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/research/k-12-education/integration-and-diversity/brown-at-62-school-segregation-by-race-poverty-and-state |title = Brown at 62: School Segregation by Race, Poverty and State — the Civil Rights Project at UCLA}}</ref>

School segregation declined rapidly during the late 1960s and early 1970s.<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal|last1=Reardon|first1=Sean|author1-link=Sean Reardon|last2=Owens|first2=Ann|date=2014|title=60 Years AfterBrown: Trends and Consequences of School Segregation|url=https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-soc-071913-043152|journal=Annual Review of Sociology|language=en|volume=40|issue=1|pages=199–218|doi=10.1146/annurev-soc-071913-043152|issn=0360-0572|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Segregation appears to have increased since 1990.<ref name=":5" /> The disparity in the average poverty rate in the schools whites attend and blacks attend is the single most important factor in the educational achievement gap between white and black students.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Reardon|first=Sean F.|author-link=Sean Reardon|date=2016|title=School Segregation and Racial Academic Achievement Gaps|url=https://www.rsfjournal.org/content/2/5/34|journal=RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences|language=en|volume=2|issue=5|pages=34–57|doi=10.7758/RSF.2016.2.5.03|issn=2377-8253|doi-access=free}}</ref>

==Background== {{Main|School segregation in the United States}} ===Early history of integrated schools=== Some schools in the United States were integrated before the mid-20th century, the first ever being Lowell High School in Massachusetts, which has accepted students of all races since its founding in 1831.<ref>{{Cite web |last=LeClair |first=Don |date=2019-09-30 |title=New Database Lowell, MA: High School Students, 1837-1878 |url=https://dbnews.americanancestors.org/2019/09/30/new-database-lowell-ma-high-school-students-1837-1878/ |access-date=2026-02-12 |website=American Ancestors Database News |language=en-US}}</ref> The earliest known African American student, Caroline Van Vronker, attended the school in 1843.

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.<ref>{{cite web |title=What Was Brown Vs Board Of Education? |url=https://www.naacpldf.org/case-issue/landmark-brown-v-board-education/ |website=LDF |access-date=April 20, 2022}}</ref>

After the Civil War, the first legislation providing rights to African Americans was passed. The Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, also known as the Reconstruction Amendments, which were passed between 1865 and 1870, abolished slavery, guaranteed citizenship and protection under the law, and prohibited racial discrimination in voting, respectively.<ref name=autogenerated1>{{cite web|title=Teaching Tolerance | Brown v. Board: Timeline of School Integration in the U.S.|url=http://www.tolerance.org/magazine/number-25-spring-2004/feature/brown-v-board-timeline-school-integration-us|website=Southern Poverty Law Center|access-date=13 October 2016|date=Spring 2004}}</ref> In 1868 Iowa became the first state in the nation to desegregate schools by court order in ''Clark v. Board of School Directors''.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/education/2018/11/19/iowa-civil-rights-history-school-desegregation-muscatine-alexander-clark/1524457002/ | title=How Iowa became the first state in the nation to desegregate schools | website=The Des Moines Register }}</ref> The Iowa Supreme Court was the nation's "only nineteenth century court to hold school segregation unconstitutional."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Martin |first1=Earl |last2=Lovell II |first2=Russell E. |last3=Allbee |first3=Robert G. |last4=Walker |first4=David S. |last5=Cady |first5=Mark S. |last6=Appel |first6=Brent |last7=Parrish |first7=Alfredo |last8=Taylor Jr. |first8=Johnny C. |title=''Clark v. Board of School Directors'': Reflections after 150 Years |journal=Drake Law Review |date=2019 |volume=67 |page=169, 177 |url=https://lawreviewdrake.files.wordpress.com/2019/06/clark-reflections-consolidated.pdf}}</ref>

===The Jim Crow South=== Despite these Reconstruction amendments, blatant discrimination took place through what would come to be known as Jim Crow laws. As a result of these laws, African Americans were required to sit on different park benches, use different drinking fountains, and ride in different railroad cars than their white counterparts, among other segregated aspects of life.<ref name=":4">Cottrol, p. 29.</ref> Though the Civil Rights Act of 1875 prohibited discrimination in public accommodations, in 1896 the Supreme Court ruled in the landmark case ''Plessy v. Ferguson'' that racially segregated public facilities such as schools, parks, and public transportation were legally permissible as long as they were equal in quality.<ref name=":4"/> This separate but equal doctrine legalized segregation in schools.

===Black schools=== {{Main|Black school}} This institutionalized discrimination led to the creation of black schools—or segregated schools for African-American children. With the help of philanthropists such as Julius Rosenwald and black leaders such as Booker T. Washington, black schools began to establish themselves as esteemed institutions. These schools soon assumed prominent places in black communities, with teachers being seen as highly respected community leaders.<ref name=":0">Fairclough, p. 248.</ref> However, despite their important role in black communities, black schools remained underfunded and ill-equipped, particularly in comparison to white schools. For example, between 1902 and 1918, the General Education Board, a philanthropic organization created to strengthen public schools in the South, gave only $2.4 million to black schools compared to $25 million given to white schools.

==Legal action== Throughout the first half of the 20th century, there were several efforts to combat school segregation, but few were successful. A rare success story was the Berwyn School Fight in Pennsylvania, in which the NAACP and Raymond Pace Alexander helped the Black community reintegrate local schools.<ref name=":32">{{Cite journal |last=Canton |first=David |date=2008 |title=A Dress Rehearsal for the Modern Civil Rights Movement: Raymond Pace Alexander and the Berwyn, Pennsylvania, School Desegregation Case, 1932-1935 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27778832 |journal=Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies |volume=75 |issue=2 |pages=260–284 |issn=0031-4528 |jstor=27778832}}</ref>

In the early 1950s, the NAACP filed lawsuits in South Carolina, Virginia, and Delaware to challenge segregation in schools.<ref>{{Cite web |orig-date=February 27, 2024 |date=October 27, 2009 |title=Brown v. Board of Education |url=https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/brown-v-board-of-education-of-topeka |access-date=April 13, 2024 |website=History.com}}</ref> At first the decision was split with United States Supreme Court Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson believing that ''Plessy v. Ferguson'' should stand. He was replaced by Earl Warren who differed in opinion on the case,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Fred M. Vinson Court (1946-1953) |url=http://supreme.justia.com/supreme-court-history/vinson-court/ |access-date=April 13, 2024 |website=Justia}}</ref> and in a unanimous 1954 decision in the ''Brown v. Board of Education'' case, the Supreme Court ruled segregation in public schools unconstitutional. The NAACP legal team representing Brown, led by future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, argued that racially separate schools were inherently unequal, as society as a whole looked down upon African Americans and racially segregated schools only reinforced this prejudice.<ref>Cottrol, pg. 122.</ref> They supported their argument with research from psychologists and social scientists that proved empirically that segregated schools inflicted psychological harm on black students.<ref name="Cottrol, pg. 123">Cottrol, pg. 123.</ref> These expert testimonies, coupled with the concrete knowledge that black schools had worse facilities than white schools and that black teachers were paid less than white teachers, contributed to the landmark unanimous decision.<ref name="Cottrol, pg. 123" />

==Initial responses to school integration== The '''Little Rock Nine''' was a group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. 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. They attended after the intervention of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. After the Little Rock Nine, Arkansas experienced the first successful school integrations south of the Mason–Dixon line.<ref name=arkansasintegration>{{cite news|url=https://news.uark.Sedu/articles/9136/before-little-rock-successful-arkansas-school-integration|title=Before Little Rock: Successful Arkansas School Integration|publisher=University of Arkansas|date=September 10, 2007|access-date=September 13, 2020}}</ref> In 1948, nine years before the Little Rock Nine, the University of Arkansas Law and Medical Schools successfully admitted black students.<ref name=arkansasintegration /> Public schools integrated in the Arkansas cities of Charleston and Fayetteville in 1954 as well.<ref name=arkansasintegration /><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.swtimes.com/sports/20180213/barclay-charleston-saw-little-integration-resistance#:~:text=On%20Aug.,in%20the%20state%20in%201954.|title=Barclay: Charleston saw little integration resistance|first=Leland|last=Barclay|publisher=Southwest Times Record|date=February 13, 2018|access-date=September 13, 2020|archive-date=April 4, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404160152/https://www.swtimes.com/sports/20180213/barclay-charleston-saw-little-integration-resistance#:~:text=On%20Aug.,in%20the%20state%20in%201954.|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The U.S. Supreme Court issued its historic ''Brown vs. Board of Education'' ''of Topeka, Kansas'', 347 U.S. 483, on May 17, 1954. Tied to the 14th Amendment, the decision declared all laws establishing segregated schools to be unconstitutional, and it called for the desegregation of all schools throughout the nation.[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. In Little Rock, Arkansas, the school board agreed to comply with the high court's ruling. Virgil Blossom, the Superintendent of Schools, submitted a plan of gradual integration to the school board on May 24, 1955, which the board unanimously approved. The plan would be implemented during the fall of the 1957 school year, which would begin in September 1957.

By 1957, the NAACP had registered nine black students to attend the previously all-white Little Rock Central High, selected due to their grades and attendance. Called the "Little Rock Nine", they were Ernest Green (b. 1941), Elizabeth Eckford (b. 1941), Jefferson Thomas (1942–2010), Terrence Roberts (b. 1941), Carlotta Walls LaNier (b. 1942), Minnijean Brown (b. 1941), Gloria Ray Karlmark (b. 1942), Thelma Mothershed (1940–2024), and Melba Pattillo Beals (b. 1941). One black student, Minnijean Brown, was expelled for retaliating against the bullying and harassment she received.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Andrews |first=Kehinde |date=26 November 2020 |title=Minnijean Brown-Trickey: the teenager who needed an armed guard to go to school |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/nov/26/minnijean-brown-trickey-little-rock-nine |access-date=April 13, 2024 |website=The Guardian}}</ref> Ernest Green became the first black student to graduate from Central High in May 1958.

When integration began on September 4, 1957, the Arkansas National Guard was called in to "preserve the peace". 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. However, President Eisenhower issued Executive order 10730,<ref>{{Cite web |date=October 4, 2023 |title=Executive Order 10730: Desegregation of Central High School (1957) |url=https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/executive-order-10730}}</ref> which federalized the Arkansas National Guard and 1,000 soldiers from the US Army and ordered them to support the integration on September 23 of that year, after which they protected the African American students. The Arkansas National Guard would escort these nine black children inside the school as it became the students' daily routine that year.<ref>{{cite web |title=Executive Order 10730: Desegregation of Central High School (1957) |url=https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/executive-order-10730 |website=Our Documents |date=September 29, 2021 |publisher=National Archives and Records Administration |access-date=April 20, 2022}}</ref>

===Criticism=== thumb|300px|Protest of the integration of schools in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1959 Despite the federal ruling in ''Brown v. Board of Education'', integration was met with immediate opposition from some people, especially in the south. In 1955, ''Time'' magazine reviewed the status of desegregation efforts in the 17 Southern and border states, grading them from "A" to "F" as follows:<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,865193,00.html|title=National Affairs: REPORT CARD|date=1955-09-19|magazine=Time|access-date=2017-09-26|language=en-US|issn=0040-781X}}</ref><ref>Jones, pp. 46-57.</ref>

{| class="wikitable" ! !Grade !State |- | rowspan="2" |'''A''' |A | * Missouri |- |A- | * West Virginia |- | rowspan="2" |'''B''' |B+ | * Kentucky * Oklahoma |- |B- | * Maryland |- | rowspan="3" |'''C''' |C+ | * Arkansas * Texas |- |C | * Delaware * Tennessee |- |C- | * North Carolina |- | rowspan="2" |'''D''' |D+ | * Virginia |- |D | * Florida |- |'''F''' |F | * Alabama * Georgia * Louisiana * Mississippi * South Carolina |}

A policy of "massive resistance" was declared by Virginia Senator Harry F. Byrd and led to the closing of nine schools in four counties in Virginia between 1958 and 1959; those in Prince Edward County, Virginia, remained closed until 1964.<ref>{{cite web|title=Integration: 1954 to 1963|url=http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/history/integration-to-1963.html|website=Infoplease.com|publisher=The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia|access-date=13 October 2016|date=2012}}</ref>

Supporting this policy, a majority of Southern congressmen in the U.S. House of Representatives signed a document in 1956 called the Southern Manifesto, which condemned the racial integration of public institutions such as schools.<ref>Lassiter, p. 1</ref>

In 1957, in accordance with massive resistance, Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas called upon the Arkansas National Guard to prevent nine black students from attending the newly desegregated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.<ref>Ogletree and Eaton, p. 280</ref> In response, President Dwight D. Eisenhower dispatched federal troops to safely escort the group of students - soon to be known as the Little Rock Nine - to their classes in the midst of violent protests from an angry mob of white students and townspeople.<ref>Ogletree and Eaton, p. 281</ref> 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.<ref>[https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/little-rock-school-desegregation Little Rock School Desegregation]</ref>

===Praise=== Prominent black newspapers such as the Chicago Defender and the Atlanta Daily World praised the Brown decision for upholding racial equality and civil rights.<ref name=":1">Cottrol, p. 185.</ref> The editors of these newspapers recognized the momentous nature and symbolic importance of the decision.<ref name=":1" /> 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.<ref name=":2">Cottrol, p. 186.</ref> Less than a year after the Brown decision, the Montgomery bus boycott began—another important step in the fight for African-American civil rights.<ref name=":2" /> Today, ''Brown v. Board of Education'' is largely viewed as the starting point of the Civil Rights Movement.<ref name=":3">Romano, p. xiv.</ref>

By the 1960s and 70s, the Civil Rights Movement had gained significant support. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited segregation and discrimination based on race in public facilities, including schools, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibited racial discrimination in voting affairs. 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. By 1988, school integration reached an all-time high with nearly 45% of black students attending previously all-white schools.<ref name="autogenerated1" />

==Implementation== thumb|250px|School desegregation in the southern states from 1953 to 1976 <small>Note that "integrated school" is defined as a school with at least one white and one black student, thus underestimating the extent of de facto segregation</small> ===Brown II=== After ''Brown vs. Board of Education'' ruled that school segregation was unconstitutional, the implementation of desegregation was discussed in a follow-up Supreme Court case termed ''Brown II''.<ref>Cottrol, p. 184.</ref> Though the NAACP lawyers argued for an immediate timetable of integration, the Supreme Court issued an ambiguous order that school districts should integrate with "all deliberate speed."<ref name=":1" /><ref>Ogletree and Eaten, p. 279</ref>

===Integration in response to ''Brown''=== On August 23, 1954, 11 black children attended school with approximately 480 white students in Charleston, Arkansas. 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 process went very smoothly, followed by a similar action in Fayetteville, Arkansas, the same fall. 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.<ref name="First Stand">{{cite web|last1=Appleby|first1=David|title=Hoxie - The First Stand|url=http://newsreel.org/video/HOXIE-THE-FIRST-STAND|access-date=4 January 2018}}</ref> Although integration allowed more Black youth access to better-funded schools, in many areas the process also resulted in the layoffs of Black teachers and administrators who had worked in all-Black schools.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=McCullum |first1=Kristan |title="They will liberate themselves": Education, Citizenship, and Civil Rights in the Appalachian Coalfields |journal=History of Education Quarterly |date=November 2021 |volume=61 |issue=4 |pages=449–447 |doi=10.1017/heq.2021.46|s2cid=240357519 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Grant |first1=Donald Lee |title=The Way It Was in the South |date=2001 |publisher=University of Georgia Press |location=Athens GA}}</ref>

Opposition to integration efforts occurred in northern cities as well. For instance, in Massachusetts in 1963 and 1964, education activists staged boycotts to highlight the Boston School Committee's failure to address the de facto racial segregation of the city's public schools.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Napier |first1=Alyssa |title=The Boston Freedom Schools as Places of Possibility for Reciprocal Integrated Education |journal=History of Education Quarterly |date=February 2023 |volume=63 |issue=1 |pages=84–106 |doi=10.1017/heq.2022.42|s2cid=256417002 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

In 1965, the first voluntary desegregation program—the Urban-Suburban Interdistrict Transfer Program—was implemented in Rochester, New York by Alice Holloway Young.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Parker |first1=Sally |title=RCSD honors an education pioneer |url=https://rochesterbeacon.com/2021/09/29/rcsd-honors-an-education-pioneer/ |access-date=4 March 2024 |work=Rochester Beacon |date=29 September 2021}}</ref>

===Opposition to integration=== Various options arose that allowed white populations to avoid the forced integration of public schools. After the Brown decision, many white families living in urban areas moved to predominantly suburban areas in order to take advantage of the wealthier and whiter schools there.<ref>Clotfelter, p. 96.</ref><ref>Strauss, p. 94.</ref> William Henry Kellar, in his study of school desegregation in Houston, Texas, described the process of white flight in Houston's Independent School District. He noted that white students made up 49.9 percent of HISD's enrollment in 1970, but that number steadily dropped over the decade.<ref name="Kellar, p. 166">Kellar, p. 166.</ref> White enrollment comprised only 25.1 percent of HISD's student population by 1980.<ref name="Kellar, p. 166"/>

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".<ref>Clotfelter, p. 101.</ref> After the 1968 Supreme Court case ''Green v. County School Board of New Kent County'' hastened the desegregation of public schools, private school attendance in the state of Mississippi soared from 23,181 students attending private school in 1968 to 63,242 students in 1970.<ref>Clotfelter, p. 109.</ref><ref>Clotfelter, pp. 8-9, 56.</ref>

The subject of desegregation was becoming more inflamed. In March 1970, President Richard Nixon decided to take action. He declared Brown to be <nowiki>''right in both constitutional and human terms'' and expressed his intention to enforce the law. He also put in place a process to carry out the court'</nowiki>s mandate. 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.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/08/opinion/how-a-republican-desegregated-the-south-s-schools.html|title=How a Republican Desegregated the South's Schools|last=Shultz|first=George P.|author-link=George Shultz|date=2003-01-08|work=The New York Times|access-date=2018-12-05|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

One overlooked aspect of school desegregation efforts is the persistence of structural racism as reflected in the composition of elected school boards. Long after their schools had desegregated, many continued to operate with predominantly white trustees.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=James-Gallaway |first1=ArCasia D. |title=Waco's First Black School Board Trustees: Navigating Institutional White Supremacy in 1970s Texas |journal=History of Education Quarterly |year=2023 |volume=63 |pages=59–83 |doi=10.1017/heq.2022.26|s2cid=252491036 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

===Integration of Southern universities===

====Virginia Tech 1953==== In 1953, Virginia Tech, then known as Virginia Polytechnic Institute or VPI, became the first historically white, four-year public institution among the 11 states in the former Confederacy to admit a black undergraduate, Irving L Peddrew of Hampton. Three more black students were admitted in 1954. All were enrolled in the College of Engineering, as were several other black students admitted to VPI during the 1950s on the legal basis that no black college in Virginia offered an engineering program. At the time Virginia still enforced Jim Crow laws and largely practiced racial segregation in public and private education, churches, neighborhoods, restaurants, and movie theaters and these first black students at VPI were not allowed to live in residence halls or eat in the dining halls on campus. Instead, they boarded with African American families in Blacksburg. In 1958, Charlie L. Yates made history as the first African American to graduate from VPI. Yates earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, with honors, and was hailed as the first African American "to be graduated from any major Southern engineering institute," according to news reports at the time.<ref>{{cite web |title=In memoriam: Charlie L. Yates, Virginia Tech's first African American graduate | News | Virginia Tech |url=https://vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2010/08/081110-coe-yates-memoriam.html |date=August 11, 2010 |publisher=Vtnews.vt.edu |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170810012847/https://vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2010/08/081110-coe-yates-memoriam.html |archive-date=August 10, 2017 |access-date=January 12, 2025}}</ref>

====University of Louisiana at Lafayette 1954==== The University of Louisiana at Lafayette was the first public college in the former Confederacy to integrate its student body. Southwest Louisiana Institute, as it was then known, admitted John Harold Taylor of Arnaudville in July 1954 without incident.<ref>{{cite news |title=Negro Registers At SLI to Study In Engineering |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-advertiser-negro-registers-at/139432813/ |access-date=25 November 2024 |work=The Daily Advertiser |date=22 July 1954}}</ref> By September of that year when the fall semester began, 80 Black students were in attendance and no disturbances were recorded.<ref>{{cite web |title=50 Years Later: The Desegregation of SLI {{!}} University of Louisiana at Lafayette |url=https://louisiana.edu/news/50-years-later-desegregation-sli |website=louisiana.edu |access-date=25 November 2024 |language=en |date=1 September 2004}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Stickney |first1=Ken |title=Black History Month discussion: UL was not as eager to integrate in 1954 as some believe |url=https://www.theadvocate.com/acadiana/news/education/black-history-month-discussion-ul-was-not-as-eager-to-integrate-in-1954-as-some/article_0d78755e-9285-11ec-9146-8bcc1cb53ced.html |access-date=25 November 2024 |work=The Advocate |date=20 February 2022 |language=en}}</ref> SLI became the University of Southwestern Louisiana four years later and today is known as the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

====University of Texas System 1950-1956==== The University of Texas was the subject of the seminal Supreme Court desegregation case of ''Sweatt v. Painter'' which resulted in the UT School of Law enrolling its first two Black students and the school of architecture enrolling its first Black student, both in August 1950.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Timeline|url=https://diversity.utexas.edu/integration/timeline/|access-date=2020-07-06|website=diversity.utexas.edu}}</ref> The University of Texas enrolled the first Black student at the undergraduate level in August 1956.

In Spring 1955, Thelma Joyce White, the valedictorian of the segregated Douglass High School in El Paso, Texas, filed suit against the University of Texas system after her application to Texas Western College was rejected for the 1954–1955 school year.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Apr 4, 1955 Issue {{!}} Texas Observer Print Archives|url=https://issues.texasobserver.org/pdf/%22|access-date=2020-07-06|website=issues.texasobserver.org|archive-date=June 2, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230602010048/https://issues.texasobserver.org/pdf/%22|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=":6">{{Cite web|last=MARTIN|first=CHARLES H.|date=2010-06-15|title=WHITE, THELMA JOYCE|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fwhlu|access-date=2020-07-06|website=tshaonline.org|language=en}}</ref> During the pendency of her case, the United States Supreme Court issued further guidance on the ''Brown v. Board of Education'' decision. In response to the lawsuit and further guidance, the regents of the University of Texas voted to allow Black students to enroll in Texas Western College on July 8, 1955.<ref name=":6" /> On July 18, 1955, the federal judge hearing Ms. White's case ordered the desegregation of Texas Western College.

====University of Georgia 1961==== {{Main|University of Georgia desegregation riot}}

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. Amongst rumors that the school could close with the admittance of the two black students, order was kept by on campus until January 11. That night, an angry mob gathered outside Hunter's dormitory, causing significant property damage and gaining media attention for the university and the state. After the riots, even previously pro-segregation officials condemned the rioters. 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.

====Georgia Tech 1961==== 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. Using the University of Georgia as a model not to follow, Georgia Tech began to plan integration strategies in January 1961. President Edwin Harrison announced in May that the school would admit three of thirteen black applicants for admission the following fall. Harrison noted that "The decision was necessary... to forestall the possibility of federal intervention and to maintain administrative control over the school's admissions". Though the decision was widely accepted by Atlanta communities and groups, precautions were still taken to ensure peace. 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.

====University of Mississippi 1962==== 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. Authoritative officials had been stationed on the campus, but little was done to effectively control the crowd. By morning, two civilians were dead and 160 U.S. Marshals were injured, including 28 who were shot. No rioters and federal officers died in the event.

President John F. Kennedy ordered thousands of federalized Mississippi National Guard and federal troops to the campus as a result of the fatal riots to prevent any more violence and carry out the federal ruling for James Meredith to be able to register at the university. 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. And maybe a learning experience for some people, I think even the ardent segregationists didn't want to see violence like that again"'. Perhaps making this event extremely vital to civil right movement and it aims to change the mentality of segregationists and the movements calls for nonviolence. 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.

====Mercer University 1963==== Mercer was one of the first private colleges in the Deep South to voluntarily desegregate.[32] On April 18th, 1963, Mercer's Board of Trustees voted 13 to 5, with 3 abstentions, to ratify the policy that "Mercer University considers all applications based on qualification, without consideration of race, color of skin, creed, or origin."[33]. This policy change allowed Sam Oni, a twenty-two-year-old student from Ghana, to become the first Black student to attend Mercer University.[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.[35] Sam Oni succeeded despite pressure from segregationists in both the South and the Southern Baptists to keep Mercer racially segregated, including an airplane flying a banner that read "Keep Mercer Segregated" as the Board of Trustees successfully voted to fully integrate.[36]

Of note: Mercer desegregated voluntarily on "moral" grounds, as the private college was Baptist at the time and Sam wished to come to Mercer to study his faith and then return home to preach. More on this interesting aspect of their desegregation available in the article [https://www.jstor.org/stable/40583492 here].

====University of Alabama 1956/1963==== In 1956, Autherine Lucy was able to attend the University of Alabama upon court order after a three-year court battle. According to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, "There were no incidents during her first two days of classes. However, that changed on Monday, February 6. Students mobbed her, initially shouting hate-filled epithets. Lucy had to be driven by university officials to her next class at the Education Library building, all the while being bombarded with rotten eggs". The mobs were mostly able to freely march around campus harassing Lucy due to the police doing little to nothing to stop them. The university suspended Lucy "for her own protection." Autherine Lucy and her legal team filed a case against the university, suing them for allowing the mob to congregate, but was not able to prove that they were responsible for the mob. After losing the case the University of Alabama had legal grounds to expel Lucy for defaming the school.

In 1963, a federal court ruled that Vivian Malone and James Hood could lawfully enroll and attend the University of Alabama. Again, the federal decision caused ripples in the state, causing conflict between the anti-integration state laws and judgements put into action by the federal judges. "In Alabama, the notoriously segregationist Governor George Wallace vowed to "stand in the schoolhouse door" in order to block the enrollment of a black student at the University of Alabama". He eventually did stand in the doorway of Foster Auditorium in an infamous act to preserve the segregationist way of life in the South. 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."<ref>Hatfield, Edward A. "Desegregation of Higher Education." New Georgia Encyclopedia, www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/desegregation-higher-education</ref><ref>Elliott, Debbie. "Integrating Ole Miss: A Transformative, Deadly Riot." NPR, NPR, 1 Oct. 2012, www.npr.org/2012/10/01/161573289/integrating-ole-miss-a-transformative-deadly-riot</ref><ref>"Welcome to the Civil Rights Digital Library." Civil Rights Digital Library, Galileo Initiative, 2013, crdl.usg.edu/.</ref><ref>Editors, History.com. "James Meredith at Ole Miss." History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2 Feb. 2010, www.history.com/topics/black-history/ole-miss-integration</ref><ref>Leffler, Warren K., U.S. News & World Report: [https://www.loc.gov/item/2011660859/ Federalized National Guard troops on the campus of the University of Alabama, June 11, 1963 when African Americans Vivian Malone and James Hood registered for classes] (photo), Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 11 June 1963. Courtesy of Library of Congress</ref><ref>"An Indomitable Spirit: Autherine Lucy." National Museum of African American History and Culture, 16 Feb. 2018, nmaahc.si.edu/blog-post/indomitable-spirit-autherine-lucy.</ref>

===Impact on Hispanic populations=== The implementation of school integration policies did not just affect black and white students; in recent years, scholars have noted how the integration of public schools significantly affected Hispanic populations in the south and southwest. Historically, Hispanic-Americans were legally considered white. A group of Mexican-Americans in Corpus Christi, Texas, challenged this classification, as it resulted in discrimination and ineffective school integration policies. In ''Cisneros v. Corpus Christi Independent School District'' (1970), the Federal District Court decreed that Hispanic-Americans should be classified as an ethnic minority group, and that the integration of Corpus Christi schools should reflect that.<ref>Selinas, p. 929</ref> In 2005, historian Guadalupe San Miguel authored ''Brown Not White'', an in-depth study of how Hispanic populations were used by school districts to circumvent truly integrating their schools. It detailed that when school districts officially categorized Hispanic students as ethnically white, a predominantly African-American school and a predominantly Hispanic school could be combined and successfully pass the integration standards laid out by the U.S. government, leaving white schools unaffected. San Miguel describes how the Houston Independent School District used this loophole to keep predominantly white schools unchanged, at the disadvantage of Hispanic students.<ref>San Miguel, p. 81</ref>

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.<ref>San Miguel, p. 117.</ref> In response to this boycott, in September 1972 the Houston Independent School District (HISD) school board - following the precedent in ''Cisneros v. Corpus Christi Independent School District'' - ruled that Hispanic students should be an official ethnic minority, effectively ending the loophole that prevented the integration of white schools.<ref>San Miguel, p. 185</ref>

==Impact on modern schools== ===Educational implications=== thumb|392x392px|A National Assessment of Educational Progress study showing the gap between reading test scores of white and African-American students Work by economist Rucker Johnson shows that school integration improved educational attainment and wages in adulthood for the black students who experienced integrated schools in the 1970s and 1980s, before schools began to increasingly re-segregate.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Phenicie|first=Carolyn|title=74 Interview: Professor Rucker Johnson on How School Integration Helped Black Students — and How Much More Is Possible When It's Paired With Early Education & Spending Reforms|date=May 27, 2019 |url=https://www.the74million.org/article/74-interview-professor-rucker-johnson-on-how-school-integration-helped-black-students-and-how-much-more-is-possible-when-its-paired-with-early-education-spending-reforms/|access-date=2021-12-14|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Barshay|first=Jill|date=2019-06-03|title=A scholar revives the argument for racial integration in schools|url=http://hechingerreport.org/a-scholar-revives-the-argument-for-racial-integration-in-schools/|access-date=2021-12-14|website=The Hechinger Report|language=en-US}}</ref>

For students who remained in public schools, de facto segregation remained a reality due to segregated lunch tables and segregated extracurricular programs.<ref>Clotfelter, pg. 127.</ref> Today, the pedagogical practice of tracking in schools also leads to de facto segregation within some public schools as racial and ethnic minorities are disproportionately overrepresented in lower track classes and white students are disproportionately overrepresented in AP and college prep classes.<ref>Tyson, pg. 169, 173.</ref><ref>Becker and Luthar, p. 198.</ref>

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. Many studies have been done surrounding the achievement gap, or the gap in test scores between white and black students, which shrank until the mid-1980s and then stagnated.<ref>Berlak, p. 63.</ref><ref>Ferguson, p. 462.</ref><ref>Jencks and Phillips, p. 1.</ref>

===Social implications=== In 2003, the Supreme Court openly recognized the importance of diversity in education, where they noted that integrated classrooms prepare students to become citizens and leaders in a diverse country.<ref>Frankenberg, p. 10.</ref> Psychologists have studied the social and developmental benefits of integrated schools. In a study by Killen, Crystal, and Ruck, researchers discovered that students in integrated schools demonstrate more tolerance and inclusionary behaviors compared to those who have less contact with students from other racial backgrounds.<ref>Frankenberg, p. 17.</ref>

==Related court cases== {{div col}} * ''Roberts v. City of Boston'' (1850) * ''Clark v Board of School Directors'' (1868) * ''Tape v. Hurley'' (1885) * ''Cumming v. Richmond County Board of Education'' (1899) * ''Berea College v. Kentucky'' (1908) * ''Lum v. Rice'' (1927) * Lemon Grove Incident (1931) * ''Hocutt v. Wilson'' (1933) * ''Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada'' (1938) * ''Hedgepeth and Williams v. Board of Education'' (1944) * ''Mendez v. Westminster'' (1947) * ''Sipuel v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma'' (1948) * ''Sweatt v. Painter'' (1950) * ''Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County'' (1952) * ''Gebhart v. Belton'' (1952) * ''Bolling v. Sharpe'' (1954) * ''Briggs v. Elliott'' (1954) * ''Lucy v. Adams'' (1955) * ''Cooper v. Aaron'' (1958) * ''Griffin v. County School Board of Prince Edward County'' (1964) * ''Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education'' (1969) * ''Brown vs Board of Education'' (1954) * ''United States v. Montgomery County Board of Education'' (1969) * ''Coit v. Green'' (1971) * ''Keyes v. School District No. 1, Denver'' (1973) * ''Norwood v. Harrison'' (1973) * ''Milliken v. Bradley'' (1974) * ''Pasadena City Board of Education v. Spangler'' (1976) * ''Runyon v. McCrary'' (1976) * ''Bob Jones University v. United States'' (1983) * ''Sheff v. O'Neill'' (1989) * ''Board of Education of Oklahoma City v. Dowell'' (1991) * ''Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1'' (2007) {{div col end}}

==References== ===Footnotes=== {{Reflist|30em}}

===Sources=== * {{Cite book|title=Unequal by Design: High-Stakes Testing and the Standardization of Inequality|last=Au|first=Wayne|publisher=Routledge|year=2007|isbn=9780203892046|location=New York}} * {{Cite journal|last1=Becker|first1=Bronwyn E.|last2=Luthar|first2=Suniya S.|author2-link=Suniya S. Luthar|date=2002|title=Social-emotional Factors Affecting Achievement Outcomes Among Disadvantaged Students: Closing the Achievement Gap|journal=Educational Psychologist|volume=37 |issue=4|pages=197–214|doi=10.1207/S15326985EP3704_1|pmid=23255834|pmc=3523355}} * {{Cite book|title=Rethinking Multicultural Education: Teaching for Racial and Cultural Justice|last=Berlak|first=Harold|publisher=Rethinking Schools|year=2009|isbn=9780942961423|editor-last=Au|editor-first=Wayne|location=Milwaukee, Wisconsin|chapter=Race and the Achievement Gap}} * {{Cite book|title=After Brown: The Rise and Retreat of School Desegregation|last=Clotfelter|first=Charles T.|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2004|isbn=0691126372|location=Princeton, NJ|author-link=Charles T. Clotfelter}} * {{Cite book|title=Brown v. Board of Education: Caste, Culture, and Constitution|last=Cottrol|first=Robert J.|publisher=University Press of Kansas|year=2004|isbn=9780700612895|location=Princeton, NJ|author-link=Robert J. Cottrol|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/brownvboardofedu0000cott}} * {{Cite book|title=A Class of Their Own: Black Teachers in the Segregated South|last=Fairclough|first=Adam|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2007|isbn=9780674023079|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|author-link=Adam Fairclough (historian)}} * {{Cite journal|last=Ferguson|first=Ronald F.|author-link=Ronald Ferguson (economist)|date=2003|title=Teachers' Perceptions and Expectations and the Black-White Achievement Gap|journal=Urban Education|volume=38 |issue=4|doi=10.1177/0042085903038004006|s2cid=31105065}} * {{Cite book|title=Lessons in Integration: Realizing the Promise of Racial Diversity in American Schools|publisher=University of Virginia Press|year=2007|isbn=9780813926315|editor-last=Frankenberg|editor-first=Erica|location=Charlottesville}} * {{Cite book|title=The Black-White Test Score Gap|last1=Jencks|first1=Christopher|last2=Phillips|first2=Meredith|publisher=Brookings Institution Press|year=1998|isbn=0815746105|location=Washington, D.C.|url=https://archive.org/details/blackwhitetestsc00jenc}} * {{cite journal|last1=Jones|first1=Leon|title=School Desegregation in Retrospect and Prospect|journal=The Journal of Negro Education|date=Winter 1978|volume=47|issue=1|pages=46–57|doi=10.2307/2967099|jstor=2967099}} * {{Cite book|title=Make Haste Slowly: Moderates, Conservatives, and School Desegregation in Houston|last=Kellar|first=William Henry|publisher=Texas A&M University Press|year=1999|isbn=0890968187|location=College Station, TX|url=https://archive.org/details/makehasteslowlym0000kell}} * {{Cite book|title=The Moderates' Dilemma: Massive Resistance to School Desegregation in Virginia|last=Lassiter|first=Matthew|publisher=University of Virginia Press|year=1998|isbn=0813918162|location=Charlottesville, VA}} * {{Cite journal|last1=Ogletree|first1=Charles|author1-link=Charles Ogletree|last2=Eaton|first2=Susan|author2-link=Susan Eaton|date=2008|title=From Little Rock to Seattle and Louisville: Is "All Deliberate Speed" Stuck in Reverse?|url=http://lawrepository.ualr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1150&context=lawreview|journal=University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review|volume=30}} * {{Cite book|title=The Civil Rights Movement in American Memory|last=Romano|first=Renee Christine|publisher=University of Georgia Press|year=2006|isbn=0820328146|location=Athens, Georgia|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/civilrightsmovem00roma_0}} * {{Cite journal|last=Salinas|first=Guadalupe|date=1970|title=Mexican-Americans and the Desegregation of Schools in the Southwest|url=http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/hulr8&div=85&id=&page=|journal=Houston Law Review|volume=8}} * {{Cite book|title=Brown Not White: School Integration and the Chicano Movement in Houston|last=San Miguel|first=Guadalupe|publisher=Texas A&M University Press|year=2005|isbn=1585441155|location=College Station, TX}} * {{Cite book|title=Death of a Suburban Dream: Race and Schools in Compton, California|last=Strauss|first=Emily E.|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|year=2014|isbn=9780812245981|location=Philadelphia}} * {{cite book|last1=Tyson|first1=Karolyn|editor1-last=Carter|editor1-first=Prudence L.|editor2-last=Welner|editor2-first=Kevin G.|title=Closing the Opportunity Gap: What America Must Do to Give Every Child an Even Chance|date=2013|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|isbn=9780199982998|pages=169–180|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v5aQ2GPpa8YC|chapter=Tracking, Segregation, and the Opportunity Gap: What We Know and Why It Matters}}

==Further reading== ===Books=== * {{cite book|title=A Girl Stands at the Door: The Generation of Young Women Who Desegregated America's Schools |year=2018 |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=978-1541697331 |first=Rachel |last=Devlin }} * {{cite book|last1=Jackson|first1=John P.|title=Science for Segregation: Race, Law, and the Case against Brown v. Board of Education|date=2005|publisher=New York University Press|location=New York|isbn=9780814742716|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cYPSiy7Ns1sC}} * {{cite book|last1=Kean|first1=Melissa|title=Desegregating Private Higher Education in the South: Duke, Emory, Rice, Tulane, and Vanderbilt|date=2008|publisher=Louisiana State University Press|location=Baton Rouge, Louisiana|isbn=9780807133583|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w0dOz_V9omsC}} * {{cite book|last1=Klarman|first1=Michael J.|author1-link=Michael Klarman|title=From Jim Crow to Civil Rights : The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality|date=2004|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|isbn=9780195351675|url=https://archive.org/details/fromjim_kla_2004_00_2378|url-access=registration}} * {{cite book|last1=Kluger|first1=Richard|title=Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America's Struggle for Equality|date=2011|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group|location=New York|isbn=9780307546081|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bfCR4bzR_3UC}} * {{cite book|editor1-last=Lomotey|editor1-first=Kofi|title=Encyclopedia of African American Education|date=2010|publisher=SAGE|location=Los Angeles|isbn=9781412940504|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dURVOtUlPKYC}} * {{cite book|last1=Raffel|first1=Jeffrey A.|title=Historical Dictionary of School Segregation and Desegregation: The American Experience|date=1998|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=9780313295027|url=https://archive.org/details/historicaldictio0000raff|url-access=registration}} * {{cite journal|last1=Sutherland|first1=Arthur E.|title=Segregation by Race in Public Schools Retrospect and Prospect|journal=Law and Contemporary Problems|date=Winter 1955|volume=20|issue=1|pages=169–183|url=http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2629&context=lcp|doi=10.2307/1190281|jstor=1190281|url-access=subscription}} * {{cite book|last1=Wallenstein|first1=Peter|last2=Harrold|first2=Stanley|last3=Miller|first3=Randall M. (FRW)|title=Higher Education and the Civil Rights Movement: White Supremacy, Black Southerners, and College Campuses|date=2009|publisher=University Press of Florida|isbn=9780813034447}}

===Articles=== * {{cite news|last1=Hannah-Jones|first1=Nikole|title=Lack of Order: The Erosion of a Once-Great Force for Integration|url=https://www.propublica.org/article/lack-of-order-the-erosion-of-a-once-great-force-for-integration|access-date=17 December 2016|work=ProPublica|date=May 1, 2014}} * {{cite news|last1=Qiu|first1=Yue|last2=Hannah-Jones|first2=Nikole|title=A National Survey of School Desegregation Orders|url=http://projects.propublica.org/graphics/desegregation-orders|access-date=17 December 2016|work=ProPublica|date=December 23, 2014}}

==External links== * [http://www.tolerance.org/magazine/number-25-spring-2004 Teaching Tolerance] - Examines the impact of the court case ''Brown v. Board of Education'' (1954) during the 50th anniversary of the ruling. A website hosted by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). *[http://www.zinnedproject.org/news/michael-hines-on-the-fight-for-black-history-in-schools/ The Fight for Black History in Schools] (w/ Michael Hines), from the Teach the Black Freedom Struggle online series.

Category:Events of the civil rights movement Category:School segregation in the United States