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| Brown v. the Board of Education: Success or Failure? |
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Author: Jamie S. Binder, Franklin High School, Baltimore County Public Schools
Grade Level: Middle/High
Duration: 1-2 periods |
Overview:
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Now fifty years old, the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision
is commonly represented as the case that set racial integration in motion in the
United States. But in the mid-1950s, actual student integration was in fact decades
away in most states, and even today it remains an ongoing, complex process. This
lesson illustrates, through six post-Brown court cases, the social and legal realities
that greeted black students who attempted to enroll in traditionally all-white
schools. From Charlottesville, Virginia, to Boston, Massachusetts, local politicians
and parent groups fought the Supreme Court's injunction tooth and nail.
Private schools (funded partially with public revenue) sprung up for the purpose
of preserving an all-white student body. In South Boston, angry white students
threw rocks at newly bussed black students who arrived from their neighborhood
of Roxbury. Eventually, though, additional Supreme Court decisions, demanding
the enforcement of a "unitary" system of public schooling under the
terms of the 14th Amendment, forced resistant communities to comply with the measures
to desegregate America's students. By exploring the legal documents, press
reports, and personal accounts of the era, students will discover the social conditions
that made integration into perhaps the fiercest battle of the Civil Rights movement. |
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