Portland Observer
damaging to Black children. In.
this regard, Kenneth B. Clark, a
Black psychologist and professor
at the City College of New York,
contributed a forceful statement
to the brief. So. here again,
blacks were instrumental in
helping themselves by crushing
the segregated public school
policy through their social scien
tists, psychologists and lawyers
who studied primarily in Black
colleges and universities and
were to bring their knowledge to
bear on the problem. Thus, they
were able to foree on May 17th,
1964 the Supreme Court decision
abolishing legal public school
segregation in the South and the
country.
What did this decision actually
mean in terms of the education of
Black children? For once, it
meant that border states com
plied first because it was easier
for them to do so. Also, with the
exception of Baltimore, the Dis
trict of Columbia and Wilming
ton, Delaware, Black students
comprised a relatively small pro
portion of the student popula
tion. In many instances, careful
step-by-step plans were pre
pared and implemented. Also,
population
shifts
prevented
serious problems, for whites
scurried to the suburban areas to
avoid sending their children to
school with
Black children.
Likewise, free-choice policies in
some communities like Baltimore
left the system pretty much as
segregated
as
before
the
Supreme Court decision.
Many school districts avoided
early
compliance
with
the
Court's decision by using various
subterfuges allowed by its “all
deliberate speed” doctrine. They
delayed desegregation until a
study of methods of complying
was made. Some insisted on an
upgrading of Black teachers.
Others wanted to wait until
building plans were completed.
In some cases, violent actions on
the part of whites were used as
delaying tactics, including the
dissemination of hate literature.
More extreme action took the
form of standing in the school
house door as did Arkansas
Governor Orval Faubus in Little
Rock.
South Carolina devised a pupil
placem ent
law
assigning
students to schools to which they
were "best suited.” Georgia
passed laws making it a felony
for a school official to spend
money for public schools in which
the races were mixed. Mississip
pi amended the state constitution
to provide for the abolition of
public schools. South Carolina
also repealed compulsory school
attendance laws. Alabama dis
continued public schools to avoid
friction or disorder. Prince Ed
ward County, Virginia, in oom
plete defiance of the court, dosed
her schools in I960 and spent 12
million to support a white stu
dents' private academy. I t was
not until May 26th. 1964. ton
years after the Court's decision,
that Supreme Court Justice
Hugo Black directed Prince
Edward County to reopen its
public schools.
As far as higher education was
concerned, most colleges and
universities in southern states
had opened their doors to Blacks
by 1966. And bv 1961. over half
of the 286 tax-supported institu
tions of higher learning in the
South were desegregated. Na
turally, the principle worked in
reverse at all Black colleges. For
instance, one-half of the students
enrolled at Lincoln University
are white and West Virginia
State College has a predominant
ly white student body.
As of 1963. Black Americans
had spent over 30 years in court
litigations m an effort to gain
equality of educational opportun
ity. Obviously, litigation was in
adequate for the sustained resis
tance of whites against desegre
gation or equality of opportunity
for Blacks. What it did reveal,
however, was the weakness of
the Federal Government's com
mitment to support court deci
sions. But a single act by a tired
Black woman was to usher in a
new era. Rosa Parks, a Black
lady, got fed up with the effort
and precipitated the Mont
gomery bus boycott. Conse
quently.
non-violent
direct
action, street demonstrations
and boycotts led by D r. Martin
Luther King, Jr., who was edu
cated at Morehouse, a Black
college, became the order of the
day.
Black education became the
leverage to change the American
social order as students took the
lead in moving from compromis«
in education to one of confronta
tion. Spontaneously, a sit-in was
started in 1960 by four Black
students from North Carolina s
Agricultural
and
Technical
College at Greensboro. Students
sat in at a Woo I worth’s five-and-
ten-cent store and refused to
wave until they were served.
The spontaneity of their action
caught American society off
guard and the movement quickly
spread to other cities across the
nation.
On Easter Sunday in 1960 at
Shaw University in Raleigh,
North Carolina, the Student Non
violent Coordinating Committee
(SNCC) came into being. This
organization was a large, loose
coalition of Black students form
ed to keep Black students
abreast of the movement in an
effort to give support to the
student activists fighting against
segregation and discrimination.
Some 70,000 students in 20
states across the nation partid-
patod in the sit-in campaign. By
the end of 1961, the freedom
Section I I
Thursday, February 17. 1977 Page 7
¡Hen>u^ O.
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