Austin American-Usman Case

Unfortunately much of the Latino history has been ignored or not written in conventional textbooks, but the reality is that Latinos experienced similar experiences to the ones of African Americans. According to Richard Delgado, “Recent research by reputable historians shows that Latinos, particularly Mexican Americans in the southwest, were lynched in large numbers during roughly the same period when lynching of blacks ran rampart” (583). Moreover, Latinos have also been heavily discriminated within the educational system through segregation. Latinos along with African American were not allowed to attend school with white children and often had schools assigned to them. The purpose of segregating was to, “isolate Mexican American children and to retard their educational process” (Perea 601). Other methods of academically repressing Latinos included retaining them “in first grade for two or three years, which automatically placed them behind their Anglo peers” (Perea 602). Some of the rationale behind segregating children was that stereotypes were prevalent amid educators. Juan F. Perea sites in his article that show that, “teachers viewed their . . . students as lazy and favored Anglo students in . . . leadership roles . . . [that] were necessary to teach Anglos how to control and lead Mexicans” (Perea 602). The previous clearly demonstrates that the educational system sought hinder Latinos in the educational system for the purpose of maintaining a working

Kozol describes conditions the clearly violate the landmark court decision in "Brown vs. Board of Education" (No. 1, SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES, 347 U.S. 483; 74 S. Ct. 686; 98 L. Ed. 873; 1954 U.S. LEXIS 2094; 53 Ohio Op. 326; 38 A.L.R.2d 1180, December 9, 1952, Argued, May 17, 1954, Decided, Reargued December 8, 1953), which supposedly mandated the desegregation of schools in America. Towns close enough to easily integrate face almost total segregation with abysmal conditions in the Black and/or Latino schools and tremendously good resources in the white schools.

It is important to note that Salvatierra won the first initial case however, the school district appealed, and then the case went to the Court of Civil Appeals of Texas. Under the Texas constitution of 1876, under Article seven, section seven it specifies, “Separate schools shall be provided for the white and colored children, and impartial provision shall be made for both.” The Texas State Historical Association described that the plaintiffs argued that although the Texan constitution allowed for

Gary Orfield a professor of Education, Law, Political Science and Urban Planning at the University of California Los Angeles states in the book “Closing the Opportunity Gap”, chapter four of “Housing Segregation Produces Unequal Schools”, “Educational opportunity is directly and deeply connected with housing segregated neighborhoods linked to segregated schools produce unequal education. Where a family lives generally determines the quality of the schools its children attend” (Orfield 40). In many cases minorities attend schools that are generally linked to segregated schools because their

In the long history of the United States, Texas is one of the few states that demonstrated three-way segregation including white, black, and Latinos communities. Generally, segregation influenced all dimensions of the society. In specific, former segregation in Texas has left an immeasurable impact on the state’s culture, economy, geography, and education. Despite the fact that institutional desegregation occurred decades ago, segregation of minorities still exists in modern Texas. In particular, the contemporary implementation of Texas House Bill 588 – as known as the “Top 10 Percent Rule” – indicates the state’s tenacious effort to heal the scars of racial segregation in educational perspective. Practically, the law has not only fostered multiracial public institutions, but also reshaped colleges in a statewide scale.

While the Texas public school system may not be segregated now it took a lot of court cases to get there due to Texas past as a highly segregated state. While this is the route that Texas takes, the United States simply takes the route of creating acts such as Race and National Origin Discrimination. Desegregation has been a troubling issue in not only the Texas public school system but also the United States as a whole. However, they have had to two totally different ways to handle this situation. Under the Texas Constitution separation of races was not wronged. This all change after a very controversial court case, Plessy vs. Ferguson and continued to reform by way of court decisions. The Plessy vs. Ferguson case decided that facilities could be segregated, but they must be “equal”. Texas being the highly racist state that it was at the time found loopholes around this judgment. Many of the schools for “colored” didn’t have enough supplies, outdated textbooks and underpaid and not very well

Kozol describes conditions the clearly violate the landmark court decision in “Brown vs. Board of Education” (No. 1, SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES, 347 U.S. 483; 74 S. Ct. 686; 98 L. Ed. 873; 1954 U.S. LEXIS 2094; 53 Ohio Op. 326; 38 A.L.R.2d 1180, December 9, 1952, Argued, May 17, 1954, Decided, Reargued December 8, 1953), which supposedly mandated the desegregation of schools in America. Towns close enough to easily integrate face almost total segregation with abysmal conditions in the Black and/or Latino schools and tremendously good resources in the white schools.

While segregation is said the have been abolished, we can still see its effects through “second-generation discrimination” (Nieto, 2010). Nieto describes this as unequal access to learning through practices such as inflexible tracking and differentiated curriculum in different classroom and schools. When I first heard this term, it made me think about how neighborhood develop. In the cities I have traveled to I see how different areas of a town can lead to similar cultures and races forming together in specific areas. I feel this ties directly into the previous topic of funding. Every major city I have lived in had the affluent neighborhood and, on the flip side, the poor section of town. Since areas have different income levels, they will contribute to the school districts in different ways. This situation becomes exacerbated over the years as people select where to live with their families and the gap becomes wider and wider. As an Army recruiter, while not

The 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution helped ratify state imposed segregation of black and white. However, at the time of the 14th Amendments inception public schools were governed mostly by private committees that made rules to regulate schools as they saw fit. Due to this, little to no change was seen in the public school system regarding segregation. Since that time the notion of “free common schools” has prevailed and the belief that public schools should exist for all children regardless of sex, age, race, religion, etc.

Is racial segregation in schools coming back from the past to haunt our primary and secondary students? In the essay “Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Educational Apartheid” by Jonathan Kozol talks about how racial segregation is making a comeback and is becoming particularly apparent between low-income urban cities and wealthy upper suburban areas. In this essay, Kozol talks about his visits to these urban schools that aren’t getting much attention. These schools where the majority are kids of color and seem to be lacking resources that other “uptown” schools wouldn’t lack. Throughout the essay he gives the reader statistics of the demography of schools in different areas of the east coast. This really helps the reader understand his point of how racial

Ferguson, segregation in public places became an accepted normalcy in America. Segregation was an inconvenience to black families who had children attending school. Linda Brown was an 8 year old girl who lived in a mixed neighborhood in Topeka, Kansas. She was forced to walk a long distance to get to a school bus that would take her far away to a school intended for only black children, even though there was a school located in her neighborhood. Her father Mr. Brown spoke with the school to see if they would admit his daughter, but they refused to desegregate their white school because according to the current laws, they didn’t have to. Under “separate but equal,” theoretically Linda Brown was receiving an equally opportunistic education as a white child was, so she should have had no need to transfer schools, but in reality this was not the case. Document 7a shows that on average, Southern States spent substantially more on white children’s education than colored children’s. This alone proves that there were inequalities in the education system which broke “separate but equal”. Even if the facilities and supplies were exactly the same for both white and black children, there would still be inequality. That fact that there was a need for separate places for learning psychologically damaged black children because they felt inferior and therefore could not perform at the same academic level. Document 7b, a letter sent by the National Association for the

Given that the state was in the South, it was not surprising that the state instituted racial segregation. In the book, “Before Brown: Heman Marion Sweatt, Thurgood Marshall, and the Long Road to Justice” by Gary M. Lavergne, he discussed the entirety of the Sweatt v. Painter case. Lavergne says of Texas, “There were no provisions for what was called “Negro education” of any kind in the Constitution of 1836.” This would soon change after the Civil War. During Reconstruction, the state revised their constitution to include provisions concerning Black education. It was far from equal as the state only used African-Americans funds to support their education. More likely than not, they were poor so the funding for the school paled in comparison when compared to funding for Whites. Although, revisions in the Texas constitution made public education better for Blacks, however, it did not specify higher education. In fact, after the state gain readmission into the Union, the laws shifted again. What was different this time around was that Texas did not have any obligation to ensure their Black citizens equal education. For instance, in article VII, section 14, it discussed the formation of a Black university but it had stipulations. First, the creation of such school was at the legislature discretion, “when deemed practicable”. Next, the funding of the school was severely limited

This article is the testimony of Gary Orfield who in 1996 testified as a witness for the Caldwell branch of the NAACP. Back in 1980 Orfield was appointed by the Court to create a report on housing and housing policies and practices. Specifically in St. Louis, Missouri, public resources and powers were used to promote segregation. The local government used federal funding to only build subsided housing in segregated areas. The local government also denied its ability to build subsided housing in other places besides the city. For the majority of his testimony Orfield talked about how school segregation affects housing. Orfield argued that schools were being used as tools in housing marketing. As a result, White families would choose to live

The article discusses urban renewal, housing discrimination and disparities in both education and employment within the district. The districts’ schools remained segregated which prompted national attention and ultimately was a violation of the Fifth Amendment. The writer sites the Bolling vs Sharpe case which concluded that due process and equal protection were relevant in the issue of school segregation in the District. The decision also documents segregation was a violation of due process. The battle of racial discrimination in the

As I learn more about the realities of education, there was one issue that sparked my interest and passion – segregation. Though it is difficult to see first-hand, I can definitely see remnants of segregation through comparison of resources available at schools I’ve worked at. My belief that education serves as an accessible tool for social mobility led me to explore the issue of segregation with the perspective of a future educator. Over 50 years ago in the Brown v. Board of Education case, the Supreme Court deemed that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. With this in mind, I was under the impression that schools were not segregated (at least to a far lesser extent). However, I was shocked to learn that segregation in schools