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The Book "Types of Mankind" is Published
White people did anything they could to find "justification' for them being superior to black people. Some people turned to the book "Types of Mankind", which was published in the days of slavery, but people still believed in this book. This book tried to prove that mankind consisted of separate, inferior subspecies. -
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Schools are Segregated
Up untill May 17, 1954 under the Jim Crow Laws, it was common place and legal to segregate schools by race. -
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"Colored Schools" were Terrible
Until otherwise, the Supreme Court ruling on public schools was "Separate, but Equal", however the only part of this motto that was true was the "Separate" part. One school that was especially bad was R.R. Moton High School. Students had to deal with leaks in the ceiling, maggots in their outdoor bathrooms, and even the textbooks were hand-me-downs from white schools. Since the white kids knew their textbooks were going to black schools, they wrote derogatory things in the textbooks. -
The Entire Student Body at R.R. Moton High School went on Strike
Throught the 1940s, the number of African-American people enrolled in R.R. Moton increased so much that the school reached double its maximum capacity. The worst part was that the county refused to erect a second building for the students., If this had been a white school there would be a second building erected without hesitation. -
Parents Filed a Law Suit
On the same day the students went on strike, the parents filed a lawsuit against the Prince Edward County School Board to desegregate public schools. Originally, students were going to demand a new campus, but with advice from the NAACP, or the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, they decided to get integrated schools. -
A New Campus is Opened
Although the campus seemed like a positive thing, it still was terrible compared to white schools. Originally the campus was meant to hold 700 students, but it quickly went way over max capacity. -
Segregated Schools Declared Uncostitutional
On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. However, this did not necessarily mean that segregation in school would end. Most counties knew that they would not be able to keep schools segregated forever, and they eventually gave up, but one country, Prince Edward County, would not let it go. The county used public funds to establish private academies, which could legally accept whites only. -
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Eight Educationless Years for Blacks
Since Prince Edward County had its barely legal private academies established, it closed down all of its public schools, and it took eight years and many marches to make a case against Price Edward County. Eventually the Supreme Court Stepped in to make them open their public schools. -
Schools were Integrated, but Racism Didn't End
Many white people still were racist against blacks, and they sometimes would assault black people while they were on their way to their integrated schools. It got so violent at one point soldiers were ordered to protect black students entering and exiting their schools. -
A Supreme Court Ruling Forced the County to Reopen their Public Schools
Since the sneaky Prince Edward County Board of Education had opened private academies for whites only, no public schools were open. The supreme court took action and forced the board to reopen its schools. -
Black People Still Had Trouble Functioning in Society
White people did everything they could to make it difficult on the black people. One way most southern counties kept black people from voting is by taking advantage of the fact that most black people were poor. They put tax on voting, that was so high, that the polls consisted of mostly white people.
