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Show AFTER BROWN: THE CHALLENGE TO ATTAIN AN EQUAL UNITARY EDUCATION SYSTEM Jessica Shulsen a master race (Fisher 1999, 875). The country's mobility and pressure to live up to its ideals slowly started to erode the separate-but-equal doctrine. This erosion can be seen in the Supreme Court's decisions regarding education. African-Americans began to chip away at the doctrine by beginning with higher education. In 1950 Texas had an all-white law school and an all-black law school. The Supreme Court found that the black law school was not equal to the white. A state could not operate a dual system if they were unequal (Fisher 1999, 874). Another important decision in 1950 was McLaurin v. Oklahoma. In this case, Oklahoma had one law school, but they separated the black students. In fact, black students were not allowed to even sit in the same room as the white students while hearing a lecture. The Court found that this violated equal protection because the students were not treated the same (Fisher 1999, 875). Four years later, the separate-but-equal doctrine in education received its final blow. On May 17, 1954 Chief Justice Earl Warren declared, "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal" (Cozzen 1999, 1). Brown v. Board of Education forced America' s public school system to desegregate "with all deliberate speed." However, eliminating segregation did not occur through a single decision. Wiping away years of legalized segregation required the cooperation of Congress and the president. The African-American community was well aware that its members needed support from all three branches of government. Through groups such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), they applied pressure on the President and Congress. The Brown decision by no means meant that the public was ready to obey it. On the contrary, most segregated school districts did everything in their power to resist. The resistance to the ruling included defying court orders, as Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas did in Little Rock. In 1957, President Eisenhower sent in armed troops to allow black students to enter Central High School. When he addressed the public about his actions, he noted what harm the confrontation had done to America's reputation as a world leader. "Our enemies are gloating over this incident," he said (Fisher 1999, 877). The President's bold action illustrated that the Court finally had his support for enforcement. The Supreme Court also gained the support of Congress in 1957. That year Congress passed the first civil rights act since 1875. The legislation created a commission to investigate discrimination. Then in 1960, it strengthened the commission and existing laws on obstruction of court orders (Fisher 1999, 877). Congress passed the most far-reaching civil rights legislation since Reconstruction with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, banning discrimination in not only education, but every arena of public life. Its Title IV provided that desegregation in education be enforced in accordance with Brown. Title VI suspended funds in federally assisted programs if they continued to segregate, while Title VII banned employment discrimination in interstate commerce on the basis of "race, color, religion, sex or national origin." It also created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to enforce the law (Fisher 1999, 877-878). Title VI became more significant with the passage of Secondary Education Act of 1965, which provided substantial grants to school districts. Now states were forced to choose what they wanted more: segregated schools or federal money (Fisher 1999, 878). By 1964 the Supreme Court could declare with confidence that there "has been entirely too much deliberation and not enough speed" in desegregating schools, because it now had the backing of Congress and the President (Griffin v. School Board 1964, 877). This marked a turning point. Thereafter the Court actively intervened to ensure integration, something it could not do until it had such support. Still, things moved very slowly. But the Court could change its focus from segregation to integration and that is exactly what started to happen. A CHANGING COURT AGENDA: FROM DESEGREGATION TO INTEGRATION In 1968, the Supreme Court took another step to accelerate desegregation with Green v. County School Board. After the Brown decision, New Kent County, Virginia, like many other counties, refused to desegregate. Instead, the school board relied upon Virginia statutes, which were enacted to counter the Brown decision. In 1965, an injunctive relief suit was filed, the Board responded by developing a "freedom of choice" plan to desegregate. The plan permitted students to annually choose between the schools, and those not choosing were assigned to the school they had previously attended. After three years of administrating this plan, the result was no white student had chosen to attend the all-black school and 85 percent of all black students in the district were still attending the all-black school (Green v. County School Board of New Kent County 1968). In its decision the liberal, activist Supreme Court made it clear that it no longer wished to hear simply that schools were trying to desegregate; it wanted results. Justice Brennan wrote, that desegregation was not enough; rather integration was needed at once (Fisher 1999, 878). The Court held that it is a school board's burden to develop a realistic plan that would work. A plan that could not produce "prompt and effective disestablishment of a dual system is intolerable" (Green v. County School Board of New Kent County 1968). Second, the Court held that it is the district court's responsibility to assess the effectiveness of the plan while weighing in other alternatives that could be more feasible or effective. In conclusion, the New Kent plan was unacceptable because it had not ended the dual school system; rather it had functioned only to burden the students and their parents with the responsibility that Brown had placed upon the school board (Green v. County School Board of New Kent County 1968). Yet by 1971, there still had been little progress in desegregating public schools. Charlotte-Mecklenburg school sys- 64 |
