In 1951,
thirteen families in the small community of Topeka , Kansas
The practice of
school segregation had become a common and accepted practice in American
society despite many movements in the history of civil rights to stop the separation
of black society from white. The
justification that segregation provided a “separate but equal” setting which
benefited education, the truth was it was a thinly veiled attempt to deprive
African American children of the quality of education that all people need to excel
in the modern world.
The case
continued to gather momentum until it came before the Supreme Court in May of
1954. The decision was stunning and
decisive when it came back 9-0. The
statement of the court was brief, eloquent and to the point stating that "separate educational facilities are
inherently unequal."
Now even such a
definitive statement from the Supreme Court did not end the struggle between
segregationists and those who would end the practice that deprived African
American children of quality education.
In 1957 the Arkansas Alabama
where Governor George Wallace physically blocked black students from entering
the University of
Alabama
Since this landmark decision, there have been other more crafty attempts to
resurrect segregation. But over the
decades, attitudes have shifted to where such views on how our social institutions
are set up are considered old fashioned and uneducated.
The integration
of the schools was an important step in the ongoing struggle to create a truly
equal society and to improve the chances of black children to grow up with the
same opportunities as all other children in this country. As more and more African American children
became well educated, the black population has been able to make a strong
contribution to the culture and to the advancement of knowledge in every
discipline of learning. Further, the
growing educated black population brought about the black middle class which
equalized society from an economic point of view. As African Americans began to participate in
all of the economic opportunities that middle class prosperity afforded them,
the chances for whites, blacks and people of all races and cultures to mix has
been healthy to heal the scars of racism and slowly erase divisions in the
culture.
But maybe the
most important outcome of integration of the schools is the opportunity it has
given for children of all races to learn, play and grow together. As young black and white students have
attended classes, gone to football games and hung out at pep rallies together,
they have become friends. They have had
chances to work together on teams and socialize under many situations and as
that has become the social norm, racism began to evaporate from the hearts of
young America
As a result, youth of modern times look on racism as a
strange and primitive viewpoint from long ago and not in step with an up to
date view of the world. This kind of
true acceptance both by whites toward blacks and by blacks toward whites will
go further to finally end racial separation and intolerance more than any riot
or protest or march or even ruling from the Supreme Court could ever do. And we have Oliver Brown and that small group
of parents from Topeka , Kansas America
0
