School Integration: Brown Vs. Board Of Education Case

8 May 2008
School Integration “When children can play together, as black and white children do, I see no reason why it would poison them to go to school together” (Flournoy). This statement by Flournoy was one of the leading thoughts in the road to school integration. While all African Americans fought for integration, some went through harsh treatment, violence, and a difficult struggle when trying to integrate schools. Integrating schools was an important role in the path to desegregation. It cleared the way for desegregation throughout the whole country. The violence they had to overcome in order to fight for school integration was extremely harsh. It is surprising they kept fighting when constantly they were shut down by white
protestors and forced to try all over again. The schools that black children attended were in horrible condition, and the buildings were dilapidated and dangerous. There were few text books, and the ones they did have were worn out and out of date. Even with the teachers being underpaid, the schools still did not have the money for school supplies, after-schools activities, lunches, and sports equipment. No matter how much the parents argued, the black families still had to send their children to all-black schools that were in bad condition and miles out of their way. Many black families continued to fight for a better education for their children, mainly because they believed a good education would help them receive better jobs and gain influence in American society.
When the Brown vs.
Board of Education case was brought about the Supreme Court, they were presented the question “Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other ‘tangible’ factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority of equal educational opportunities?” During the case, Thurgood Marshall attacked segregation by noting that minority students are made to feel inferior and feelings of inferiority damage self-esteem. With racial integration, the students would have an opportunity to interact with people who are “different” from them and the feeling of inferiority would lessen (Greene). Another belief was that racial integration would help the students become more tolerant of racial differences. The whites disagreed with this, though. They were more resistant to school desegregation than anything else. They absolutely did not want their children going to school with black children (Klarman 23). Although the whites protested, the Supreme Court made a ruling that “in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place” (Reutter 111). The students were then able to attend and be bused to their nearest school, but in most areas, blacks lived in the city and whites lived in the suburbs, so many children continued to attend segregated schools (Morrison
23).
After the Brown vs. Board of Education decision, organizations began to prepare black students for integration. A league of women voters held summer school to help black students overcome the academic gap, and reading clinics were established at the Lincoln School. Students were then assigned to schools according to where they resided, and the demand to integrate public schools grew into a nationwide civil rights movement to eliminate racism (Desegregation of Fayetteville Schools). When they let the black students into school, none of the white students came because their parents made them stay home. White parents protested outside of the schools and when black students came they were told to “get away,” that the school was for white children only. Some black students were even forced off the sidewalks by the white students and forced to sit alone in the lunch room (Morrison19).
Black students faced extreme opposition and risked extreme violence in the fight for integration.
Little Rock 9 then became a “test.” This was the beginning of school integration. On September 23, 1957, Elizabeth Eckford and eight other African Americans attempted to enter Little Rock Central High School. A white protest group outside the school threw stones at cars, assaulted them, and threatened their lives. The Arkansas National Guardsmen watched as the students were assaulted and the guardsmen then turned the students away. The students still did not give up. They went through the side door secretly to register for classes, and protestors found out and exploded into violence. The students were once again forced to leave. They returned the next day protected by the United States Army troops, who President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent. Although the students were now able to attend the school, the violence and protesting did not end. Throughout the school year, the Little Rock 9 faced physical and verbal assaults from white students. Students also faced harsh death threats to them and to their families. Minnijean Brown was expelled for fighting back against the white students who abused and threatened her (School
Desegregation).
The schools in Mississippi had a much more violent struggle. On September 12, 1966, one hundred and fifty black children tried to enter the all-white schools of the town for the first time. By early afternoon, eight children, one adult, and white reporters had been beaten by several groups of angry white men and women. The white protestors were delivered a shipment of metal pipes while awaiting the black students, and then a mob chased down the black children who were on their way to school. There was a group of forty students and adults that marched to the schools to enroll, but several blocks before the school, they were approached by a group of thirty white men with sticks, clubs, ax handles, and metal pipes (Bolton 11). Two of the children were beaten, and an eleven year old girl was threatened with a gun. While the girl lay on the ground begging for her life, another man beat her legs brutally with a metal pipe.
Over a hundred of the black children made it to the school, but there still were many angry protestors outside of the school. When the classes were dismissed, gangs and mobs once again attacked the black children as they were leaving the school (12). Hundreds of Highway Patrol officers were finally sent to stop the “bloodbath” outside the schools. The Highway Patrol was armed with teargas and shotguns, and they were able to arrest thirteen local white men for the attacks on the black youth (16).
The Klu Klux Klan was a huge leading protest group that caused much of the violence in the act of school integration. After the Supreme Court ruled that white Texas Universities could not exclude African Americans from graduate programs and professional programs that they did not have at black colleges, the Klu Klux Klan burned a cross in the front lawn of the U.T. law school. This made it clear that black students were still less than welcome (Shabazz 34).
Three years after Supreme Court ruled that segregation was illegal, many African Americans were still forced to attend separate schools. Some still suffered from “Jim Crow” laws and were forced to use separate public facilities. In the south, city buses, restaurants, hotels, public bathrooms, and public water fountains were still segregated (School Desegregation). It took many years for the black students to be able to attend the integrated schools without facing violence. Even today, there are still black children who are picked on in school just because they are thought of by some students as “different.” The society still has not become fully accustomed to the change. There are still many racist people today who believe their children should not be attending school with black children. This is a problem that will gain progress through time. As time goes along there will be less of a superior race and there will not be children who are thought of by other children as “different”. The African American children went through harsh treatment and overcame brutal violence to get as far in school desegregation as they are today and have made a huge accomplishment for the society.

Works Cited
Reutter, E. Edmund, Jr. Schools and the Law. New York: Dobbs Ferry, 1981
Greene, P. Jay and Nicole Mellow. “Integration Where It Counts.” Retrieved 13 March 2008 .
“School Desegregation.” Retrieved 13 March 2008 < http://pbskids.org/wayback/civilrights/ features_school.html>.
Morrison, Toni. Remember the journey to School Integration. HMCo Children’s Books, 2004.
Bolton, Charles C.. The Hardest Deal of All. Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2005.
Klarman, Michael J.. From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Shabazz, Amilcar. Advancing Democracy. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004.
“Desegregation of Fayetteville Schools.” The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture. Retrieved 19 March 2008 .