Why did the desegregation of schools become a major problem in the USA in the 1950s?
In 1950s American schools, white and black children were segregated. This meant that they were kept apart and taught separately. Moreover, schools for black children were always less well equipped than schools for white children. This issue was a highly sensitive one at the time, with social and political matters causing a problem for the US Government in the 1950s.
There were several long-term causes for segregation in schools. The legacy of the civil war and fight for slavery in southern states was still rife, and there was animosity between the southern states that fought for slavery, and the northern states which opposed it. The North effectively won the Civil War, and the slavery of black people was abolished. However the effects of the conflict were to be felt many years later as segregation took hold in American schools.
There were also short-term causes for the segregation problems. The re-emergence of the Ku Klux Klan meant that hatred towards black people and the determination to segregate different races in society had massively increased, especially in the Deep South. The KKK took it upon them to publicly lynch, humiliate and beat black people for no other reason than the colour of their skin. This sent shockwaves through the black community but incredibly, the US Government did take action. This only encouraged the KKK, and led to the ‘Jim Crow’ laws. These were a set of laws that caused uproar because they segregated blacks, prevented them from voting by using violence, attacked and ignored blacks, closed the best universities to black citizens, and created discrimination in education and employment. These laws only worsened the problem of segregation in schools, as they insinuated that the disgraceful treatment of blacks was acceptable.
