Solved by verified expert:Read the article, “Ending School Segregation in the US.” Why is the event described in the article taught in schools today? What are the lasting lessons that we can learn from studying this event? Support your response with textual evidence.
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Separate but Equal no Longer: Ending
School Segregation in the U.S.
By USHistory.org on 04.24.17
From the late 19th century to the 1950s, racial segregation laws known as Jim Crow laws were enforced in Southern
states. It was typical to see signs separating people by race marked as “colored” or “white” such as the one pictured
here. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
The Pledge of Allegiance declares the people of the United States as “one nation,” and
“indivisible.” But early in the 20th century, the country existed as two nations in one.
The Supreme Court ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) wrote into law that America had two
separate societies: one black and one white. It was permitted to keep the people apart, the ruling
said, as long as the two were considered equal.
Jim Crow laws
States across the North and South passed laws creating schools and public facilities for each race.
These regulations, known as Jim Crow laws, reestablished authority of white people. Their
power had diminished during the Reconstruction era after the Civil War, when slaves were freed
and Southerners forged a new identity.
Across the land, blacks and whites dined at separate restaurants. They bathed in separate
swimming pools, and drank from separate water fountains.
In the fallout of World War II, America wanted to demonstrate to the world that free
democracies were better. Communist dictatorships, such as Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union, were
failing, it pointed out.
The search for equality
But America’s segregation system exposed its hypocrisy. Change began brewing in the late
1940s, when President Harry Truman ordered the end of segregation in the military, and Jackie
Robinson became the first African-American to play Major League Baseball. But the wall built
by Jim Crow laws seemed impossible to overcome.
The first major battleground was in the schools. It was very clear by the mid-1900s that southern
states had expertly built separate educational systems. These schools, however, were never equal.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), led by Thurgood
Marshall, the great-grandson of a slave, sued public schools across the South. It said that the
promise of “separate but equal” schools had been broken.
States with laws keeping schools segregated never gave equal amounts of money to their black
and white schools. Teachers in white schools were paid better wages, school buildings for white
students were maintained more carefully, and money for school supplies was more abundant in
white schools. States normally spent 10 to 20 times on the education of white students as they
spent on African-American students.
Brown v. Board of Education
The Supreme Court finally decided to rule on this subject in 1954 in the landmark Brown v.
Board of Education case.
The verdict was unanimous against segregation. “Separate facilities are inherently unequal,” read
Chief Justice Earl Warren’s opinion.
Warren worked tirelessly to achieve a 9-0 ruling. He feared any disagreement might provide a
legal argument for the forces against integration — that is, bringing white and black students
back together. The united Supreme Court sent a clear message: schools had to integrate.
The North and the border states quickly complied with the ruling, but the Brown decision was
not appreciated in the South. The Court didn’t force states to integrate right away — just local
governments to comply as soon as possible.
Ten years after Brown, fewer than 10 percent of Southern public schools had integrated. Some
areas did not comply at all.
The ruling did not address how white and black people still used separate restrooms, bus seats or
hotel rooms. Jim Crow laws stayed the same. But cautious first steps toward an equal society had
been taken.
It would take a decade of protest, legislation and bloodshed during the civil rights movement of
the 1960s before America got close to truer equality.
Ending School Segregation in the U.S.
Writing Prompt: Read the article, “Ending School Segregation in the US.”
Why is the event described in the article taught in schools today? What are
the lasting lessons that we can learn from studying this event? Support your
response with textual evidence.
Suggested Steps:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Read the article.
Consider the answers to the questions.
Use the RACE graphic organizer to organize your thoughts.
Construct a paragraph using the RACE writing including textual
evidence (see textual evidence notes for assistance with how to
include this information) from the article and answers to the question.
5. Check for capitalization, punctuation, and grammar.
…
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