So in order to break out of this cycle Oliver Brown wanted his daughter to go to a school where they get a better education…etc. so that the cycle could continue with positive attributes.
The Supreme Court overruled the local council’s verdict towards the Brown V Topeka case.
This policy was strongly opposed especially in the Southern States where there was not only segregation in schools but also in toilets, fountains and white-only seating on buses. In 1955, A woman named Rosa Parkes travelling in Montgomery refused to give her seat up to a white man when all the white seats had been taken. She was arrested. This is how the Montgomery Bus Boycott started off. Now as the majority of black people did no have cars they usually took the bus so the black community decided to attempt a form of ‘direct action’ and not get on any bus until things were changed.
This is where Martin Luther King came in with the non- violent, non anti- white and organised, united campaign, trying to break the rules of segregation.
In 1957, nine black pupils tried to join Little Rock High School in Arkansas (one of the most backward southern state schools, least ready to change.)
But a huge group of white pupils gathered in front of the school trying to stop them. The State Governor refused to let the black pupils enrol so President Eisenhower sent in his own Federal guard to help the blacks enter the school everyday which reinforced de-segregation.
Due to Little Rock black people had won a momentous victory by their peaceful mass protests because in 1957 President Eisenhower introduced the first Civil Rights Act.
Why had they achieved so little by 1961?
Black people hadn’t achieved very much because the law had changed and white people particularly in southern states did not like the idea of de-segregation so they made it harder on black people.
Black people were allowed to vote but they needed to register firs. Registering was very hard as the white people working at these offices would do a number of things such as; ask obtuse questions or close the office as soon as black people walked in. This prevented black people from voting as they could not even register so racist politicians and judges were elected.
By 1961, there were still no black children in white schools in the state of Alabama, Mississippi or Carolina and progress towards de-segregation was extremely slow. Though there were 2 million black children in the South only 2,600 of those went to integrated schools with whites.
Because the people who ran the states were racist black people didn’t get enough support and weren’t strong enough which meant the progress in eliminating segregation was limited.
