Why did desegregation of schools in usa become a major problem in 1950

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Why did desegregation of schools become a major problem in the USA in the 1950’s?

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Many Southern states were segregated, they followed the supreme courts decision in 1896; ‘Separate but equal’ this meant that they were still segregated but blacks had equal rights. Segregation was the separation of white people from black, some states tried to keep control over black people’s segregation by; ‘Jim crow’ laws which kept black people segregated/separated from white, this involved separate schools, toilets and drinking fountains.

Desegregation had become a problem in the 1950’s, largely because of the racial hatred of white southerners towards blacks, this racial hatred had originated from the attitudes of white people towards black people after slavery was abolished in 1864, many southern states had ‘Jim crow’ laws which discriminated against African Americans.

However, in 1954 the Brown family challenged these laws by suing the city school board for forbidding their 8 year old daughter, who was black, from attending the white school which was nearby, instead Linda Brown was forced to attend the segregated school which was a long distance away. The Brown family’s case was brought to the Supreme Court by the NAACP; they were an organisation which fought for the rights of coloured people. The NAACP won this important case, and the Supreme Court decided to integrate schools, this was the first victory for the Civil Rights Movement. The supreme court decided to outlaw the statement that was made in 1896; ‘separate but equal’, and make this illegal, the supreme courts reasons for this were that black children had been raised as inferior beings within the community and this should change.

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Although the supreme courts decision had been made this caused many problems for the white southerners, many riots broke out as there were still strong racial attitudes within the south. Many white southerners did not want their children in the same classroom as a black child, as a result of the supreme courts decision there was an increased membership of the Ku Klux Klan. This caused a problem for desegregation; if that many people did not want desegregation to go ahead due to racial superiority issues it would be very difficult to desegregate schools.

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