Segregation Education Argumentative Essay

In his article, “Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Educational Apartheid”, Jonathan Kozol points out, whether we are aware or not, how American public schools are segregated. Schools that were segregated twenty-five to thirty years ago are still segregated, and schools that had been integrated are now re-segregating. The achievement gap between black and white students, after narrowing for a few decades, started to widen once again in the early 1990s when federal courts got rid of the mandates of the Brown decision and schools were no longer required to integrate.

FACTS: Linda Brown, an African American third grader applied for admission to an all-white public school, Sumner Elementary, in Topeka, Kansas and was refused by the board of education of Topeka. A class action lawsuit, represented by NAACP lawyers, was filed in 1951 in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas. This case consolidated the four other cases filed in separate states, all having in common African American children denied admission to segregated, all-white public schools based on race.

Board of Education, resulted in the overturning of the “separate, but equal” doctrine under the realization that separation is what took away the equality. In the early 1950s, schools in Topeka, Kansas segregated people by race, leaving Linda Brown and her sister to walk through a hazardous railroad switchyard to get to the bus stop for their school. There was a school closer to where they lived, however, it was an all white school. Linda and her family saw the segregation systems as a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment and took it to court. Federal district courts claimed the segregation was harmful to African American youths, however due to the similar qualities the all-black and all-white schools shared, it was deemed fully constitutional under the “separate, but equal” doctrine. The case was taken to the Supreme Court and the court expressed that even though the schools shared similar facilities, segregated schools could never be equal. As such, the “separate, but equal” doctrine was overruled as it violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This decision resulted in the precedent that any laws that segregated people, no matter how similar their facilities may be, was unconstitutional.(Paraphrased from www.streetlaw.org)

America’s school system and student population remains segregated, by race and class. The inequalities that exist in schools today result from more than just poorly managed schools; they reflect the racial and socioeconomic inequities of society as a whole. Most of the problems of schools boil down to either racism in and outside the school or financial disparity between wealthy and poor school districts. Because schools receive funding through local property taxes, low-income communities start at an economic disadvantage. Less funding means fewer resources, lower quality instruction and curricula, and little to no community involvement. Even when low-income schools manage to find adequate funding, the money doesn’t solve all the school’s

Kozol comments that, “nearly forty years after Brown vs. the Board of Education many of are schools are still separate but no longer even remotely equal.”

In 1951 schools were separated by skin color, or segregated. The Brown v. Board of Education trial was brought to court because a third-grader, Linda Brown, was not allowed to attend the elementary school that was closest to her house. She wa required to take the bus to school across town instead. In the trial the point that “Education for Negroes is almost nonexistent(13).” This is an example of how there were old problems in the Fourteenth Amendment that needed to be changed. Another issue that was brought up in the trial was that, “Segregation… has a tendency to retard the educational and mental development of negro children…(19).” Without the proper education at segregated

A girl by the name of Linda Brown. Just as any school girl, loved being with her friends, and she loved her family. However, Linda’s black skin color restricted her from attending a school that was a few yards away, and forced her to walk miles to the nearest all black school. In outrage, the family fought for their daughter to attend a local white school. Why would she not be allowed to attend a school so close to home? The question became strong enough to begin a movement that would impact the nation.

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

The school that she wanted to go to was only five blocks away (Infoplease). The school board of Topeka instead assigned her to a school that was almost twenty-one blocks away. The Board of Topeka segregated their elementary schools based on the skin color of a person. When the parents of Linda Brown discovered that she was rejected from going to a school that was segregated, they filed a law suit to the Supreme Court (Infoplease).

Segregation is the act of discriminating against others because of their race. The act of Segregating is morally wrong. Racism executes appalling feats. This is because it slows down the development of countries, and brings out the worst in people.

This case started with Linda and Olivier Brown. , Oliver Brown wanted his daughter to attend the nearest school to her neighborhood. The Board of Education made it difficult for him to do this. The Board of Education would not allow her to attend this school because of her race. Linda father did not agree. Being separate was not equal. Linda’s father knew that the white schools were not equal to the white schools; they had more updated equipment, which were in better condition, than colored schools. Separation by color is not equal treatment. Linda Brown’s father wanted the best for her, so he wanted the best-educated school for her. After the principal refused, Oliver went to of the NAACP. National On 1951, more African American parents who children were denied access into white schools, joined to help Mr. Brown and the NAACP start a conclusion in the segregation of schools. Out of all the families now involved in the

The definition of the term “American character”, in general, was in fact plagued during the 1950s. Instead of the believable “picture perfect” definition that American character was portrayed to be, it was really constructed of major struggles between different races. In particular, the significant struggles between blacks and whites. The 1950s was a crucial decade of change for African Americans. The results of the battle for nine African American children to attend Central High School (Little Rock, Arkansas) in 1957 promoted social advance for the permanent desegregation of public school systems. However, even with this nationally recognized social advance, the concept of “American character” varied between blacks and whites due to

The travel to their school was quite lengthy because they had to walk through the Rock Island Railroad Switchyard to catch the bus which then took them to the all-black Monroe School. The Sumner School, which was the all-white school, proved to be much closer to where she lived, so she submitted an application, so she and her sister could attend school closer to them. Due to their race, the application was denied by the Topeka Board of Education. Most public facilities were segregated by race because of the Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court case. This previous Supreme Court case allowed for segregation as long as each race was treated equally under the law. Segregation was previously said to be in violation of the fourteenth amendment, but the court filed segregation under social equality, which was out of the court’s jurisdiction because the court can only rule against legal equality. The Browns felt strongly towards this inequality, so Linda’s father, Oliver Brown, sued the Topeka Board of Education for depriving Linda equal protection of the law which is a requirement of the fourteenth

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.

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