The Economics of Segregation in education

Poor Schools Good Schools

Poorly Educated students lacking skills Undesirable jobs Decreased AF. Am. voting Poorly Educated students lacking skills Lower wages Poor Schools Increase in pro- segregation law makers Lower taxes Inferior facilities Less $ contributions Segregation laws increase

Resulting in racial discrimination, less opportunity, poorer wages, and removal of competition between whites and African Americans

Common schools of thought supporting School Segregation Pro Segregationist said. . . 1. It was better for African Americans to be with other African Americans. 2. There would be absolute chaos that benefited nobody. 3. Education was the responsibility of the individual states not the federal government. 4. Many African Americans wanted to work within Plessy. 5. The Supreme court isn’t meant to act as a 9 person national school board. 6. If a decision must be made at federal level it should be made in Congress.

Brown Vs Board of Education of Topeka Kansas 1954 Thurgood Marshall argued that … separate was never equal in the world of education. separate but equal in education hurt African Americans. Segregation made African Americans feel inferior leading to a self-fulfilling prophecy. The Separate but equal doctrine violated the African American rights to equal protection and opportunity guaranteed under the 14th Amendment.

Chief Justice Earl Warren and the Supreme Court. . . Agreed!!!!! 9-0 Segregation of students in public schools violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, because separate facilities are inherently unequal. District Court of Kansas reversed.

Southern Response Why are these people so angry?

African Americans needed the Military for protection!

Famous examples of Resistance 1. Not everyone accepted the Brown v. Board of Education decision. In Virginia, Senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr. organized the Massive Resistance movement that included the closing of schools rather than desegregating them. 2. In 1957, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus called out his state's National Guard to block black students' entry to Little Rock High School. President Dwight Eisenhower responded by deploying elements of the 101st Airborne Division from Fort Campbell, Kentucky to Arkansas and by federalizing Faubus' National Guard. 3. Also in 1957, Florida's response was mixed. Its legislature passed an Interposition Resolution denouncing the decision and declaring it null and void. But Florida Governor Thomas LeRoy Collins refused to sign it arguing that the state must follow the Supreme Court's ruling. Tourism and Florida's popular image probably played a role in its muted response. 4. In 1963, Alabama Gov. George Wallace personally blocked the door to Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama to prevent the enrollment of two black students in what became known as the Stand in the Schoolhouse Door. This became the infamous "Stand at the Schoolhouse Door," where Wallace personally backed his "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" policy that he had stated in his 1963 inaugural address.[

Deep South states had the highest proportions of black citizens, and their white neighbors most feared the great loss of power and privilege that desegregation would bring. The Deep South refers to Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and South Carolina.

Well Educated students with skills desirable jobs Increased AF. Am. voting Well Educated students with skills Higher wages Good Schools Decrease in pro- segregation law makers Higher taxes Better facilities More $ contributions Segregation laws removed

Resulting in equal opportunity and increased competition for jobs and wages

"with all deliberate speed," Brown II "with all deliberate speed," In 1955, the Supreme Court heard pleas from states that argued that they needed relief concerning the task of desegregation. The court ruled that schools must desegregate with all deliberate speed. Many Southern states and school districts interpreted "Brown II" as legal justification for resisting, delaying, and avoiding significant integration for years — and in some cases for a decade or more —closing down school systems, using state money to finance segregated "private" schools, and "token" integration where a few carefully selected black children were admitted to former white-only schools but the vast majority remained in underfunded, unequal black schools.