User:Dominique Flores-Bird

History of Segregation in Public Education

The multiple instances of segregation in public education shown throughout history defines the further unjust treatment and unfair biases of people of color. Public schools were provided funding with a noticeable difference between the races. "In 1951, in Clarendon County, for example, the annual average expenditure was $44.32 per black student, compared with an average of $166.45 per white student.” This is stated by Tanya Golash-Boza in "Race and Racisms, A Critical Approach".

Around this time, there were public schools that were utilized towards assimilating cultures to a more white prerogative. In Chapter 6 of "Race and Racisms, A Critical Approach", the text states "Kill the Indian and save the man"(Golash-Boza 210). The context behind this quote is that this is the ideal of many who created these "assimilation camps" a.k.a. public schooling for Native Americans.

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A black segregated elementary school of 1935

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Court Cases

Court cases that justified the segregation between races in public schooling were cases such as, Plessy v Ferguson, and Salvatierra v Del Rio Independent School District. To summarize, the case of Plessy v Ferguson infers on The Separate Cars Act,(which was a law passed in 1890 to segregate railroad passengers) being against the thirteenth and fourteenth amendment rights. To provide some background, an article, "Plessy v Ferguson", states "Plessy was a shoemaker in New Orleans who was considered seven-eighths white and one-eighth black. When on the railway car he identified himself as black (his light complexion made his race "not discernible", he said), he was arrested". This aftermath of this case was ruled the state laws were constitutional and therefore The Separate Cars Act remained.

Another case that caught headway during this time was the case, Salvatierra v Del Rio Independent School District of 1930. this case was made on the grounds that Mexican children were not receiving fair treatment or the same level of education as white children. The result was, “the court decided that segregation was permissible, reasoning that it was not based on race but on language and academic abilities” This made cases such as Mendez v Westminster a huge success for the desegregation of Mexican children. In 1947, the Mendez family opened a Supreme court case based on the fact that their young daughter had been denied access to a public school because of her Mexican heritage. The case circulated around the psychological affects of being the inferior race and it affected the ability of being a good American. This case was won with the judge ruling "A paramount requisite in the American system of public education is social equality. It must be open to all children by unified school association regardless of lineage"

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The well known case of Brown v Board of Education when segregation was found unconstitutional.

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A well known case that changed the trajectory of desegregation was the case of 1954, Brown V Board of Education. This case ruled the "separate but equal" doctrine unconstitutional. Some more information on the formation of this case is provided, "when a public school district in Topeka, Kansas refused to let Oliver Brown’s daughter enroll at the nearest school to their home and instead required her to enroll at a school further away. Oliver Brown and his daughter were black." The family then wrote out a lawsuit with multiple other families affected by this issue. When the lawsuit was won many activists were enlightened and joyous while others thought it lawfully incorrect for the court to create more laws. The basis of the ruling was that all schools must integrate. This led to many public schools closing for the fear of white students having to integrate with black students.

Policies and Practices addressing Inequality in Education

[[ |thumb]] Integrated busing, transportation that encouraged desegregation, was utilized for more students of color to have the opportunity to get a proper public education. As we know location was an large obstacle that hindered the opportunities of people of color at this time. In the short documentary, "The House We Live In" we are told about the inability of races to integrate in location. This affected the access to certain schooling which the act of busing was meant to address. "In 1991, the Supreme Court decided in Dow- ell v. Oklahoma City that schools were not obliged to desegregate. This decision meant that many school districts abandoned desegregation programs." This quote states the importance of these policies because the lack of follow through when it was seen as unnecessary. After it was ruled that there was no more need for racially integrated busing, a form of resegregation was created. A practice that was widely used to address the need for desegregation was protests. From the 1930s-1940s, Mexican Americans held protests in Texas and California for the basic human rights of education. This faced the issues of the desegregation of Mexican children in public schools. The act of protesting had a lasting affect on society and on the protestors themselves. "Black student activism in the 1920s influenced higher education for decades to come. They pushed college administrators to pay more attention to student and alumni perspectives." This text states the importance of the form of protesting for the desegregation of public schooling.

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