Alton Hornsby
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813032825
- eISBN:
- 9780813038537
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813032825.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter focuses on the quest for education by black Atlantans. Like other African Americans who were awarded greater freedoms after the civil war, the black Atlantans recognized the significance ...
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This chapter focuses on the quest for education by black Atlantans. Like other African Americans who were awarded greater freedoms after the civil war, the black Atlantans recognized the significance of education. Recognizing the potent power of education, black leaders made education and learning the top priority of their racial agenda. However, despite these efforts, in the middle of the twentieth century, the black writings, essays, and studies revealed that black education was still separated and unequal. By 1950, the black leaders of Atlanta decided to sue for equality, but not for the elimination of the system of dual schooling. This action was amended in 1952, when African Americans argued that segregated schools were inherently unequal. They asked for a unitary school system but their case was later dismissed for lack of prosecution. After 1954, the Atlanta Board of Education passed a case for abolishing the dual school system but the case was treated by the board with laxity. On January 1958, a lawsuit known as Calhoun v. Latimer was filed, it was decided that the segregation schemes in schools were unlawful. The most significant result of the white reaction to desegregation was white flight. These reactions provided an unintended opportunity for African Americans to become the majority population in the city and for black elected officials to control the government of the city for generations to come.Less
This chapter focuses on the quest for education by black Atlantans. Like other African Americans who were awarded greater freedoms after the civil war, the black Atlantans recognized the significance of education. Recognizing the potent power of education, black leaders made education and learning the top priority of their racial agenda. However, despite these efforts, in the middle of the twentieth century, the black writings, essays, and studies revealed that black education was still separated and unequal. By 1950, the black leaders of Atlanta decided to sue for equality, but not for the elimination of the system of dual schooling. This action was amended in 1952, when African Americans argued that segregated schools were inherently unequal. They asked for a unitary school system but their case was later dismissed for lack of prosecution. After 1954, the Atlanta Board of Education passed a case for abolishing the dual school system but the case was treated by the board with laxity. On January 1958, a lawsuit known as Calhoun v. Latimer was filed, it was decided that the segregation schemes in schools were unlawful. The most significant result of the white reaction to desegregation was white flight. These reactions provided an unintended opportunity for African Americans to become the majority population in the city and for black elected officials to control the government of the city for generations to come.
David G. García
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780520296862
- eISBN:
- 9780520969179
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520296862.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter examines the remarkable aspects of the Soria v. Oxnard School Board of Trustees case, from the 1970 filing on behalf of Mexican American and Black plaintiffs attending Colonia schools, ...
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This chapter examines the remarkable aspects of the Soria v. Oxnard School Board of Trustees case, from the 1970 filing on behalf of Mexican American and Black plaintiffs attending Colonia schools, through the 1974 ruling by Judge Harry Pregerson. Following the case chronologically, the chapter analyzes how this collective effort to end de facto segregation in Oxnard was shaped by and contributed to struggles for desegregation at a national level. It calls attention to the use of historical evidence showing discrimination with intent (de jure) and in effect (de facto), which exposed and disrupted the district's long-denied, persistent dual school system.Less
This chapter examines the remarkable aspects of the Soria v. Oxnard School Board of Trustees case, from the 1970 filing on behalf of Mexican American and Black plaintiffs attending Colonia schools, through the 1974 ruling by Judge Harry Pregerson. Following the case chronologically, the chapter analyzes how this collective effort to end de facto segregation in Oxnard was shaped by and contributed to struggles for desegregation at a national level. It calls attention to the use of historical evidence showing discrimination with intent (de jure) and in effect (de facto), which exposed and disrupted the district's long-denied, persistent dual school system.
Natalie G. Adams and James H. Adams
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496819536
- eISBN:
- 9781496819581
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496819536.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
After the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling, no state fought longer or harder to preserve segregated schools than Mississippi. This massive resistance came to a crashing halt in October 1969 ...
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After the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling, no state fought longer or harder to preserve segregated schools than Mississippi. This massive resistance came to a crashing halt in October 1969 when the Supreme Court ruled in Alexander v. Holmes Board of Education that “the obligation of every school district is to terminate dual school systems at once and to operate now and hereafter only unitary schools.” Thirty of the thirty-three Mississippi districts named in the case were ordered to open as desegregated schools after Christmas break. With little guidance from state officials and no formal training or experience in effective school desegregation processes, ordinary people were thrown into extraordinary circumstances. However, their stories have been largely ignored in desegregation literature. This book explores the arduous and complex task of implementing school desegregation. How were bus routes determined? Who lost their position as principal? Who was assigned to what classes? Without losing sight of the important macro forces in precipitating social change, the authors shift attention to how the daily work of “just trying to have school” helped shape the contours of school desegregation in communities still living with the decisions made fifty years ago.Less
After the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling, no state fought longer or harder to preserve segregated schools than Mississippi. This massive resistance came to a crashing halt in October 1969 when the Supreme Court ruled in Alexander v. Holmes Board of Education that “the obligation of every school district is to terminate dual school systems at once and to operate now and hereafter only unitary schools.” Thirty of the thirty-three Mississippi districts named in the case were ordered to open as desegregated schools after Christmas break. With little guidance from state officials and no formal training or experience in effective school desegregation processes, ordinary people were thrown into extraordinary circumstances. However, their stories have been largely ignored in desegregation literature. This book explores the arduous and complex task of implementing school desegregation. How were bus routes determined? Who lost their position as principal? Who was assigned to what classes? Without losing sight of the important macro forces in precipitating social change, the authors shift attention to how the daily work of “just trying to have school” helped shape the contours of school desegregation in communities still living with the decisions made fifty years ago.
