“I want us to think seriously about living in a society where some people are privileged but others are not, and we take it as a matter of course that this is the way it is.”
-Terrence Roberts, one of the Nine
-Terrence Roberts, one of the Nine
Jim Crow Laws, Late 1800s-1964
Jim Crow Laws allowed "separate but equal" facilities. The facilities were rarely equal.
"I looked over to see the shiny chrome fountain the white people used. I didn't want to go to our fountain marked 'Colored.' It was the old dusty one located in an isolated part of the store, where I was afraid to go even with Mother."
- Melba Pattillo, one of the Nine
- Melba Pattillo, one of the Nine
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, 1954
Many African-American students walked past fancy whites-only schools on their way to run-down schools. Some parents sued their local school boards for sending children to far-away schools, saying it violated 14th amendment rights. Six cases were combined as Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas.
Psychologist Kenneth Clark published studies showing effects of school segregation on African-American children:
"A sense of in-born inferiority will follow many like an unwelcome shadow throughout their lives."
The case was argued by Thurgood Marshall, an NAACP lawyer and future Supreme Court Justice. The Supreme Court ruled that "separate but equal" was just masking inequality.
"We conclude in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."
Psychologist Kenneth Clark published studies showing effects of school segregation on African-American children:
"A sense of in-born inferiority will follow many like an unwelcome shadow throughout their lives."
The case was argued by Thurgood Marshall, an NAACP lawyer and future Supreme Court Justice. The Supreme Court ruled that "separate but equal" was just masking inequality.
"We conclude in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."
The Blossom Plan
In May 1955, the Little Rock School Board adopted the Phase Program Plan of gradual desegregation, named the Blossom Plan, after the Little Rock school superintendent.
"They were going to start with the high school and trickle down."
-John McCullars, a teacher at Central in 1957, looks back
-John McCullars, a teacher at Central in 1957, looks back