H & S Chapter 2

Racial desegregation in public schools was a way to overcome feelings of inferiorityfor many children. Although desegregation was once a challenge, it proved to be successful. It improved the chances of black children to attain their dreams and goals and it improved both black and white people socially. Interaction amongst both cultures allowed for all to achieve the American dream: to recieve a good education and have the ability to pursue their individual dreams to become productive citizens in society.

Although efforts to succesfully desegregate schools is over, it was a long road of court decisions and regulations for this effort to become possible. Attorney's for the NAACP had to fight for courts to overturn the equal but separate accomodations founded in the Plessy vs. Ferguson case. In 1954 in the Brown vs Board of Eduation case, the Supreme court finally made the bold statement that separte faciltities are unequal. One year late, the Court stated that black children should be admitted into schools on a nondiscriminatory basis.

Desegregation started off slow. Some states resisited desegregation while other states found ways to avoid it. Civil rights marches in the 1960's was a turning point for acceptance. Congress passed three civil rights laws and two school laws. The 1964 Civil Rights Act permitted the federal government to to cut off funds from school districts that discriminated. The 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act provided federal funds to schools with large numbers of poor children. In 1971, a court decision provided mandatory busing and in 1973, the Court began to require mandatory remedies in cities that had not taken official actions to segregate.

The way in which desegration was handled made a difference on the impact in different places. Blacks gained the most when they were desegrated in early school grades and when they formed a large number of the schools population. Some school districts still showed hostility and resisitance to desegration which made school frightening and dangerous for some black students.

Overall, many Americans can say that desegregation has improved the quality of education received by both black and white students. Desegregation does work and has promoted the goals of the American dream in education.