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Long-term Cause: Slavery in America
For over a century whites had owned blacks. Everything they said went and they could do anything they wanted as blacks were seen as an inferior race. As time passed some people began to see how wrong this thinking was. When Abraham Lincoln tried to abolish slavery some states in the South seceded and the Civil War began. -
Short-term Cause: Plessy v. Ferguson
In 1890 after the state of Louisiana passed the Separate Car Act, which required separate railway cars for whites and people of color, a group of citizens black and whites alike came together to form the Citizens’ Committee to Test the Constitutionality of the Separate Car Law. The goal of the Committee was to fight against this act. They convinced a man named Homer Plessy, an octoroon (seven eighths European and one eighth African) to help them. -
Cause: Plessy v. Ferguson (continued)
Even though he was seven-eighths European he was still classified as black under Louisiana law. On June 7th, 1892, he bought a train ticket and boarded a whites-only railway car. He was asked to move to a colored car and when he refused he was immediately arrested. He argued his case in the Criminal District Court for the Parish of Orleans but was ruled against. He then took his case to the State Supreme Court where they upheld Ferguson’s decision. Finally, he appealed to the Supreme Court. -
Cause: Plessy v. Ferguson (Supreme Court Support)
They issued their decision in 1896 as a 7:1 decision that sustained the constitutionality of Louisiana’s Jim Crow laws. In the majority opinion Justice Henry Brown said, “If the civil and political rights of both races be equal, one cannot be inferior to the other civilly or politically. If one race be inferior to the other socially, the Constitution of the United States cannot put them upon the same plane.” -
Cause: Plessy v. Ferguson (Supreme Court Dissent)
The one dissenter, Justice John Marshall Harlan, said, “I am of the opinion that the statute of Louisiana is inconsistent with the personal liberties of citizens, white and black, in that State, and hostile to both the spirit and the letter of the Constitution of the United States.” It was not until the decision in Brown v. Board of Education that systemic segregation under state state law was ended. -
Short-term Cause (triggering event): Brown v. Board of Education
58 years after the landmark decision in Plessy v. Ferguson which supported segregation under the pretense of “separate but equal”, the supreme court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that segregation in the education system was inherently unequal. This was one of the first major blows to legal segregation in America. Unfortunately, despite being such a big blow the wording of the decision was very vague. -
Cause: Brown v. Board of Education (continued)
The supreme court instructed states to begin desegregation “with all deliberate speed” which allowed them to stall desegregation. This limited the effectiveness of Brown v. Board in the beginning. Over time when schools did not desegregate fast enough or refused to desegregate Brown v. Board became more important as many cases were brought to court regarding desegregation and because of Brown v. Board there was now a precedent of the supreme court supporting desegregation. -
Cause: Brown v. Board of Education (continued pt 2
It was also important because it declared that segregation in education, no matter how equal the facilities were, is inherently unequal. The main importance of Brown v. Board was not what it did, but instead the fact that it had supported desegregation. Many court cases following Brown v. Board could now use this decision to aid there arguments. -
Little Rock Nine
Following the 1954 US Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional and encouraged the states to integrate their schools. This was met with opposition by the White population. In 1957, a group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School. They were known as the Little Rock Nine. On the second day of school when the Little Rock Nine tried to enter the school, they were met with a large group of White protesters. -
Little Rock Nine (Continued)
The protesters shouted death threats, threw rocks, and spat at them. The school was also blocked by a line of soldiers from the National Guard mobilized by Governor Orval Faubus claiming that there was "imminent danger of tumult, riot and breach of peace". It wasn’t until President Eisenhower federalized the National Guard with executive order 10730 which ordered them to support the integration and to protect the students that they were finally able to attend the school. -
Short-term Effect: The Lost Year
In the summer of 1958 after the Little Rock Nine began attending Little Rock Central High School, Governor Orval Faubus petitioned the Federal District Court to postpone the desegregation of public schools. He led the court case Cooper v. Aaron once again claiming integration caused "chaos, bedlam and turmoil." This case eventually made it to the Supreme Court where it was denied. -
Period: to
The Lost Year
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Short-term Cause: Cooper v. Aaron
The aftermath of Brown v. Board was messy. Many states and school districts showed little to no signs of attempting desegregation and some states created laws against it despite being ordered by the Supreme Court. However, some districts did attempt and implement desegregation plans, the most notable being, the Little Rock school district with the Little Rock Nine. -
Cause: Cooper v. Aaron (opposition)
One example of a strong gesture of opposition towards segregation is the Arkansas government amending their state constitution and passing a law that no longer made it mandatory for children to attend integrated schools. After five months of the little rock nine attending school, the superintendent of schools along with part of the Little Rock school board filed a suit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, their goal was to suspend integration. -
Cause: Cooper v. Aaron (opposition pt. 2)
They stated that the opposition by their state government, public opinion, and the state legislature created a state of chaos. They requested that integration be postponed for almost 3 years. Their request was granted by the district court, but was thankfully denied by the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. The school board then appealed to the Supreme Court. -
Cause: Cooper v. Aaron (supreme court)
The supreme court denied their appeal in a joint opinion authored by all nine Justices, the only time on record that this occurred, stating that it was “constitutionally impermissible under the Equal Protection Clause to maintain law and order by depriving the black students of their equal rights under the law.” -
Cause: Cooper v. Aaron (supreme court pt. 2)
They then stated that that since “the Supremacy Clause of Article VI made the US Constitution the supreme law of the land and Marbury v. Madison (1803) made the Supreme Court the final interpreter of the Constitution” the decision in Brown v. Board was part of the law and that it trumped any state laws that contradicted it. -
Effect: The Lost Year (Closing the Schools)
In response to this decision, he later signed acts that enabled him to close any public schools on September 1958. With this new power, he closed all four public high schools in Little Rock. This year became known as the Lost Year. The closing of schools meant that black and white students alike would not be able to attend school. There was only one way to stop this law. The law required a public referendum by Little Rock citizens within 30 days to approve or to veto Orval Faubus’ Law. -
Effect: The Lost Year (TV Schooling)
During these 30 days the schools were closed. In order to make sure that students didn’t get too far behind if the schools were reopened, a few local TV stations and some teachers created “TV Schooling.” The irony of this was that while the schools were closed because the school board was trying to desegregate, through this “TV Schooling” black students got the same education and the same teachers as white students. -
Effect: The Lost Year (Referendum)
Faubus addressed the citizens of Little Rock over television to explain his plan if they voted in favor of his closing the schools law. He told them he planned on changing the public schools into private schools to educate black and white students separately in order to gain support for his closure of the schools. He eventually won the referendum by a three-to-one margin. -
Short-term Effect: The Lost Year (Ending the Lost Year)
Unfortunately for him and his supporters on September 29th when all school faculty were given a restraining order preventing them from doing anything that changed the integrated status of the schools. Furthermore another court decision banned private schools from using public school teachers, essentially shutting down Forbus’ plan. Finally on August 12 under a new school board the schools were reopened. -
Long-term Effect: Segregation today
To this day Segregation exists in schools even though it was ruled unconstitutional in 1954 by the ruling of Brown v. Board which declared that State-sanctioned segregation of public schools was a violation of the 14th amendment and was therefore unconstitutional. Because of this ruling segregation has evolved it is no longer because of specifically segregated schools, but instead because of things such as school districts, housing, and an increase in minority populations. -
Effect: Segregation today (continued)
Often times school districts will be created around different populations. Such as a majority black population being in one district and a majority white population being in a different one. Inequality in segregated schools is still there with majority black schools being the underfunded and worse schools compared to majority white schools.
