Another reason to why desegregation of schools was a major problem is the Congress not wanting to lose out in elections - if they allowed segregation, they would lose a significant amount of votes, as the majority of people in America detested the idea of desegregating schools. The Linda Brown vs. Education Board of Topeka case in 1954 raised this issue. Linda Brown, an 11 year old girl, had to ride the bus five miles to an African American school, even though a public white school was only a few blocks away from her. Thurgood Marshall argued in the Brown powerfully, saying that education should be integrated – segregation itself created low self-esteem among black people and made them feel they were being treated less than worthily, as strongly suggested by Dr Clark’s psychology experiment, where black children were psychologically distressed to admit that the brown doll was more like them. Taking this into account, the new Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Earl Warren, agreed with this analysis and gave a verdict in the Brown’s favour. He said that even if both black and white schools had the same facilities, “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal”, meaning that by separating two races you are automatically assuming that one race is better than the other. However, this only applied to Linda Brown – the Congress did not want to make this a national law, due to fear of losing out on votes, so, instead of ordering all schools to desegregate immediately, they said that the changes for desegregating America’s public schools should take place “with all deliberate speed”, not “straightaway” (Justice Frankfurter). In other words, this gave American public schools an excuse not to allow African American students to enrol because they were still thinking the process over, to make sure it is the right thing to do. Through this, the Congress was not losing out on votes from the public because it was clear that desegregation would take a lot of years to be fully accepted by all the schools in America.
The state government did not agree with the federal government, which caused problems for desegregation in schools. The Brown case created an important precedent and was expected to produce major change. It did so in a number of places outside the Deep South, where segregation was at its highest. Northern cities, such as Washington DC, Baltimore and St Louis began to integrate; however, progress was not quick in the Southern states - only 12% of the 6300 school districts in the south had been integrated. The southern government strongly opposed the federal government’s idea of desegregation in schools, as they thought that they were invading the state’s rights to its own laws – they still held on to the segregation and racism towards the African Americans and that they were not worthy of being in the same schools and getting the same standard of education as the White Americans.
Fear of desegregation was also one of the reasons why it became such a major problem. Black children were terrified when they thought about integrating with the white children, as they feared the fact that they would not be welcomed by the white society. For instance, in 1957, after the Brown case, 75 black children had applied to Little Rock Central High School, a southern school in Arkansas, however, 50 were rejected. 16 of the remaining 25 changed their minds when the white community made it clear that they were very hostile to the idea of integrating the black children into white schools. This left just 9 children who were to run the gauntlet of the white hatred. When they arrived at the school, the public was being racist towards them, especially towards Elizabeth Eckford, who had to go through the crowd alone. The public was shouting out messages such as “Lynch her!” and “Tie her to the tree!” – these cruel comments emphasises the hatred towards the African Americans and made them prefer the segregated system rather than being harassed in a desegregated school.
In conclusion, although other factors played a huge role in making desegregation a major problem in the 1950s, such as Congress not wanting to lose out in elections, the disagreements between the state and the federal government and the fear African Americans had at the idea of integrating with the White Americans due to the harassment they expected to get, the view that African Americans are inferior and do not deserve the same equality as White Americans was the root of all of these other reasons; if the Civil war and slavery did not happen, the White Americans would of have considered the African Americans as being equal to them and segregation would not of have taken place because it would of have been seen as unfair. However, because of the Civil War and the slavery years, more and more White Americans were influenced to believe that segregation is the right thing to do in order to prevent the white race from being the same as the African American race. Therefore, because of the racist views inherited over the years, White Americans considered desegregation as a huge problem that will put at risk the status of White Americans in American society.
by
dienmarr (student)
