Desegregated School Essay

They showed that to get to where they needed to be and make a change, they would have to keeping pushing to make progress. Each student individually helped to take a stand. One example of this was Minnijean Brown standing up for herself while at school. “Minnie had taken this chili and dumped it on this dude’s head. There was absolute silence in the place, and then the help, all black, broke into applause. And the white kids, the other white kids there didn’t know what to do. It was the first time that anybody, I’m sure, had seen somebody black retaliate in that sense” (Facing History and Ourselves). These students that made up the Little Rock Nine set strong examples to the rest of the black community. They helped stand up for their community and strengthen their rights as human beings. To speak out against oppression and injustice. And to fight for what they believe is right, no matter the color of their

The case of brown v. board of education was one of the biggest turning points for African Americans to becoming accepted into white society at the time. Brown vs. Board of education to this day remains one of, if not the most important cases that African Americans have brought to the surface for the better of the United States. Brown v. Board of Education was not simply about children and education (Silent Covenants pg 11); it was about being equal in a society that claims African Americans were treated equal, when in fact they were definitely not. This case was the starting point for many Americans to realize that separate but equal did not work. The separate but equal label did not make sense either, the

The Little Rock Nine was a group of nine African American students who enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Their enrollment was very controversial and sparked many protests, and was then followed by the Little Rock Crisis, in which the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Orval Faubus, the Governor of Arkansas. They then attended after the involvement of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Protest against injustice is deeply rooted in the African American experience. The origins of the civil rights movement date much further back than the 1954 Supreme Court ruling on Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka which said, "separate but equal" schools violated the Constitution. From the earliest slave revolts in this country over 400 years ago, African Americans strove to gain full participation in every aspect of political, economic and social life in the United States.

Michigan’s students perform near the bottom in national rankings and are on a downward trajectory (Higgins). This is partially a result of curricula throughout the state of Michigan failing to put students in a position to succeed. Many school districts and teachers struggle with developing curricula and lesson plans given time and budget constraints; this is especially prevalent in low-income and minority school districts where teachers are younger and less experienced (French). A prime example of curricula hurting student achievement is a story told at a Michigan ISD assessment and improvement representative meeting of schools “teaching” by having students copy words out of the dictionary as the teacher did not have the skills/capacity/time to create a better lesson. Alarmingly, this type of experience is common as “there’s no support, you’re woefully unprepared, and you’re totally isolated. You’re trying to put these lesson plans together at 10 o’clock at night, and you have to be up at 5 getting prepped. You’re making this curriculum up as you’re going it alone.” (French). All of this in the face of ever changing state standards forcing teachers to constantly change their curricula.

With an increase in rigor in classrooms throughout the United States, there is often the question of its effects for students in low income schools. In addition to the school setting, rigor is also a key factor in quality education. But, will rigor have an impact on these students in high poverty areas? Or will this increased rigor lead to added frustration? In recent years, it has been found that if the level of rigor is increased in the classroom, students of all backgrounds will show improvement on standardized tests. However, due to achievement gaps in low income schools, in comparison to more affluent schools, the level of rigor will require adjustments to meet the needs of the population.

If the Little Rock Nine wasn't integrating then the press / media would have nothing to share with the world. The media mostly ask questions like “What do you think about going to school at Central High?” and “How the students treating you there?”. When the media shared the information about the Little Rock Nine somehow the segregationists found out where Melba lived and threatened to kill her, trying to scare her from going to Central High, to keep power. The Little Rock Nine gave the media something to write about and to share Nationwide, which made others appreciate what the Little Rock Nine was going

Chapter 21 Question 2: What key issues and events led the federal government to intervene in the civil rights movement? What were the major pieces of legislation enacted, and how did they dismantle legalized segregation?

For example, Melba Patillo was kicked, pounded, and even had acid thrown in her face. There was also an occurrence when white students burned an African American effigy in an empty lot across the school. Gloria Ray was pushed down a staircase and the Little Rock Nine were not allowed to take part in extracurricular activities. Minnijean Brown got expelled in February 1958 for getting even with the attackers. The students were not the only ones who faced harassment. When Ray’s mother refused to take her daughter out of the school, she was fired from her job with the State of Arkansas (3, pages 4-5). The only senior of the Little Rock Nine, Ernest Green, was the first African American graduate at Central High School (1, page

During the late nineteen fifties, the Supreme Court made a shocking ruling in a case called Brown v. Board of Education that created an uproar all across the country: segregation in schools was now illegal. Blacks and whites were finally allowed to learn together and were enthusiastic to receive a higher quality education in better schools. However, not everyone was in favor of this new law. Governor Orval Faubus of Little Rock, Arkansas, repudiated the new desegregation law and called the National Guard to ward off nine African American students from enrolling themselves in what used to be an all white high school on September 4, 1957 (Anderson 2). This historical event was known as the Little Rock Nine and was notable because the nine African

According to Massey and Denton (1988), residential segregation “is the degree to which two or more groups live separately from one another, in different parts of the urban environment”(282). Now this is a pretty general definition, but it gives basic but good insight as to what residential desegregation is talking about. In this paper, I will mostly be focusing on residential segregation as it relates to the black and white populations in relation to one another, although I will be referencing some other races briefly to create a better understanding of concepts or ideas.

The state and town passed laws and ordinances as the school year drew near in order to keep the school from integrating. Even the state governor refused for the desegregation process to happen without resistance. Some blacks also opposed the desegregation for fear of future repercussions. The nine brave students, however, refused to be stopped.

For decades now, there have been educational problems in the inner city schools in the United States. The schools inability to teach some students relates to the poor conditions in the public schools. Some of the conditions are the lack of funds that give students with the proper supplies, inexperienced teachers, inadequate resources, low testing scores and the crime-infested neighborhoods. These conditions have been an issue for centuries, but there is nothing being done about it. Yet, state and local governments focus on other priorities, including schools with better academics. It is fair to say that some schools need more attention than other does. However, when schools have no academic problems then the attention should be focused