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Desegregation

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What Is Desegregation?

Ending racial segregation was the focus of the Civil Rights Movement both before and after the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education. With important victories in the desegregation of schools and the military, civil rights leaders and groups now focused on other areas. During the Civil Rights Era, people promoting desegregation were often met with violence.

One of the Little Rock Nine, Elizabeth Eckford, is accosted by a mob of whites, led

by Hazel Bryan, during the Little Rock integration crisis.

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Background:Jim Crow Laws

The Jim Crow Laws were state and local laws enacted in the Southern and border states and enforced between 1876 and 1965. These laws negated the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. “Separate but equal” became the standard in the American South. Every aspect of the South was segregated, and African Americans were treated as inferior to white Americans. Because of voting restrictions such as poll taxes and literacy tests, most African Americans could not vote; and others did not vote for fear of retribution. After 1877 the federal government did little or nothing to override these state and local laws; and African Americans were prohibited from exercising their constitutional rights.

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Jackie RobinsonBreaking the Major League Baseball Color Barrier

April 15, 1947

Jackie Robinson became the first African-American player in Major League Baseball. After a very successful career in the Negro Leagues, the Brooklyn Dodgers signed Robinson; he made his major-league debut on April 15, 1947. He was faced with constant racist attacks from fans, opponents, and even his own teammates. Jackie Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, and his uniform number 42 was retired.

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Executive Order 9981President Harry Truman issued Executive Order 9981 on July 26, 1948. This order expanded Executive Order 8802 which established “equality of treatment and opportunity in the Armed Services for people of all races, religions, and national origins.” The order also established a committee to investigate and make recommendations to the civilian leadership of the military to enforce the policy. One of the order’s effects was the elimination of Montford Point as a segregated Marine Corps boot camp. The last of the totally African-American units in the United States military was abolished in September 1954.

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Brown v. Topeka Boardof Education

May 16, 1954

Originally, the district court ruled in favor of the Topeka Board of Education based on the precedent of Plessy v. Ferguson. This meant the Topeka Board of Education won on the grounds of “separate but equal.” Three years later the United States Supreme Court handed down its decision regarding the case. The Supreme Court ruled the education of African-American children in schools separate from white children was unconstitutional.

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Montgomery Bus BoycottDecember 1, 1955 – December 20, 1956

After the arrest of Rosa Parks, the Montgomery Improvement Association organized the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The boycott was an economic and political protest campaign started in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama. The boycott opposed the city’s policy of racial segregation on its public transit system. The ensuing struggle lasted from December 1, 1955, to December 20, 1956, and almost put the bus company out of business. The boycott ended when the United States Supreme Court issued a decision declaring the Alabama and Montgomery, Alabama, laws regarding bus seating by race to be unconstitutional. This event also witnessed the rise of a young, charismatic minister named Martin Luther King Jr.

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This is the bus from which Rosa Parks was removed; that action started the Montgomery Bus Boycott

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Little Rock Nine

The Little Rock Nine were African-American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957. Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus initially prevented the students from entering the racially segregated school. Later, President Dwight D. Eisenhower intervened to allow their admittance. The Little Rock crisis is considered one of the most important events in the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.

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The Little Rock Nine and NAACP President Daisy Bates

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Greensboro Sit-ins

Four African-American students from North Carolina A&T State University, Ezell A. Blair Jr., David Richmond, Joseph McNeil, and Franklin McCain sat at a segregated lunch counter in a Woolworth’s store in Greensboro, North Carolina. Only whites were seated at the counter, and African Americans were required to stand and eat. The students were refused service but were allowed to remain at the counter. Over the next few days, the number of students and protesters grew to almost a thousand. The protest sparked sit-ins and economic boycotts that became a trademark of the Civil Rights Movement.

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Section of the lunch counter, now on display at the Smithsonian Institution

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James MeredithEnrolls at Ole Miss

September 1962

President John F. Kennedy sent more than 5,000 federal troops to protect James Meredith as he registered for classes at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi. Meredith attempted to enter campus on September 20, 1962, and again on September 25. Mississippi Governor Ross R. Barnett blocked his admission. Governor Barnett proclaimed, “no school will be integrated in Mississippi while I am your governor.” The ensuing riots resulted in the deaths of two people. James Meredith ultimately was enrolled in the publicly funded University of Mississippi.

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United States marshals walking James Meredith to class.

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Desegregation ofthe University of Alabama

In June 1963, Alabama Governor George Wallace tried to prevent two black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, from registering for classes at the University of Alabama. This famously became known as the “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door.” Federal marshals, Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, and the federalized Alabama National Guard forced Wallace to step aside.

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Governor George Wallace (second from left) stands in the doorway of the University of

Alabama, preventing Vivian Malone and James Hood from entering.

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Busing

Busing is the practice of integrating schools by assigning students to schools based on the school’s dominant race, rather than the dominant race’s distance from the school. In 1954 the Brown v. Board Supreme Court decision legally ended segregation; however, most schools in the United States remained segregated due to the housing patterns and racial inequalities in neighborhoods. After two Supreme Court rulings in 1971 and 1974, cities nationwide were allowed to enforce mandatory busing to integrate school districts. Since the Brown v. Board decision, cities across the United States instituted new busing programs. However, busing in cities such as Boston were met with much conflict and resistance. Due to largely segregated neighborhoods, Philadelphia and other cities with large minority populations remained segregated into the 1980s. A picture depicting mandatory busing in Boston,

Massachusetts.

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