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Impact of the NAACP in the civil rights movement
Topics about segregation in arkansas public schools
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Daisy Lee Gatson was born on November 13, 1914 in Huttig, Arkansas. She never knew her birth parents, John Gatson and Millie Riley, according to a birth certificate that was located in 1962. Rumors about her natural parents explained that Daisy’s mother was murdered after being raped. Her natural father moved away from Huttig shortly after the incident. No formal charges were ever brought against the alleged attackers and no one sought to locate those who harmed her family. She was adopted and reared by her natural father’s best friends, Orlee Smith and his wife Susan Smith, who raised young Daisy until she reached her late teens. Moreover, Bates lineage remained a subject of discussion for many years to come. There was belief that she …show more content…
Not long after Daisy Bates affiliated herself with the popular community associations, becoming a trusted community leader. Bates was chosen for the position of president of the local Little Rock branch of the NAACP in 1952. Two years later, Daisy Bates would use the increasing debates for segregation and desegregation to launch an attack on the Arkansas Public School System’s segregation. With the 1954 Board v. Board of Education ruling mandating school integration, she pursued nine African-American children that she could mentor for the social project. Locating students that she could train for the racial exercise was particular choosing children with strong academic ability able to adapt to strenuous emotional strains. It was at a weekly NAACP meeting, where Bates’ charm and beauty convinced nine Little Rock parents to buy into the proposition of challenging the racist authorities to effectively coerce the Arkansas governor along with the Arkansas Public School System to desegregate its Central High School. The nine students would be withdrawn from their respective schools to enroll in the Little Rock Central High School. The children were instructed by Bates, who viewed these behaviors as tremendous social …show more content…
The children: Ernest Green, Elizabeth Eckford, Jefferson Thomas, Terence Roberts, Carlotta Walls, Minnijean Brown, Gloria Ray, Thelma Mothershed, and Melba Beals arrived at the Little Rock Central High School. Governor Faubus interrupted the successful implementation of racial integration ordering the National Guard 101st Airborne Division to block the one African-American girl who made her way to the steps. Arkansas closed all of its schools for a year. A legal battle brought the situation to a halt for whites supremacist’s children for a
In the 1954 court ruling of Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation of schools was unconstitutional and violated the Fourteenth Amendment (Justia, n.d.). During the discussion, the separate but equal ruling in 1896 from Plessy v. Ferguson was found to cause black students to feel inferior because white schools were the superior of the two. Furthermore, the ruling states that black students missed out on opportunities that could be provided under a system of desegregation (Justia, n.d.). So the process of classification and how to balance schools according to race began to take place.
The case started with a third-grader named Linda Brown. She was a black girl who lived just seen blocks away from an elementary school for white children. Despite living so close to that particular school, Linda had to walk more than a mile, and through a dangerous railroad switchyard, to get to the black elementary school in which she was enrolled. Oliver Brown, Linda's father tried to get Linda switched to the white school, but the principal of that school refuse to enroll her. After being told that his daughter could not attend the school that was closer to their home and that would be safer for Linda to get to and from, Mr. Brown went to the NAACP for help, and as it turned out, the NAACP had been looking for a case with strong enough merits that it could challenge the issue of segregation in pubic schools. The NAACP found other parents to join the suit and it then filed an injunction seeking to end segregation in the public schools in Kansas (Knappman, 1994, pg 466).
Firstly however, before we start, we need to scan the documentation, and see what Elizabeth Eckford's recreation of the day in question events was. The basic story she portrays, is that of her eventful first day at Little Rock High School. Elizabeth was one of 9 black students, specially selected by the colleges authorities, in a bid to banish racism within its high school. The reason Elizabeth was chosen was due to her amazing academic results. So, the plot is set, now we need to start the analysis.
Board of Education, Melba Pattillo Beals will always be known as one of the first black students to go to a white school. Her race have hoped of this for years now, and the Little Rock Nine had made it with the support of the general army. People went as far as to hurt them, resulting as far for the government to support nine black students. This is what it takes to charge forward, or to hit a home run like Jackie Robinson.
In 1954, The Brown vs. The Board of Education decision made segregation in schools illegal. New York City’s attempt to integrate the schools was unsuccessful, leaving them more segregated than before.(Podair 30) By 1966, New York City’s black communities were unhappy with the Board of Education’s control of their school districts because of its repeated unsuccessful attempts at integration. Many white groups, like the Parents and Taxpayers Organization, were also frustrated with the current system and called for “The Neighborhood School.” It was their discontent that motivated the community control of the Ocean Hill Brownsville school district. Because of the city’s civil rights movement and their support from many influential people and groups, the district was granted control .(Podair 82)
In May of 1954, the landmark Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case had declared the racial segregation of American public schools unconstitutional. The Supreme Court had called for the integration of schools, so that students of any race could attend any school without the concern of the “white-only” labels. The public school system of Little Rock, Arkansas agreed to comply with this new desegregated system, and by a year had a plan to integrate the students within all the public schools of Little Rock. By 1957, nine students had been selected by the Nation Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), chosen according to their outstanding grades and excellent attendance, and had been enrolled in the now-integrated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. But, the Little Rock Nine, consisting of Jefferson Thomas, Thelma Mothershed, Carlotta Walls LaNier, Elizabeth Eckford, Minnijean Brown, Ernest Green, Melba Pattillo Beals, Gloria Ray Karlmark, and Terrence Roberts, faced the angered, white segregationist students and adults upon their enrollment at Central High School. Thus began the true test; that of bravery of the students and that of the ethics of the white community.
The decision to integrate Boston schools in the 1970’s created negative race relations and later fueled a political debate that would change schools across the country. Most desegregation efforts in the United States began with the case of Oliver Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka in 1954. The case ruled that segregation on the basis of race was prohibited because it violated citizen’s rights under the Constitution. On June 21, 1974 in the case of Morgan vs. Hennigan, Judge Garret made a ruling that accused the Boston School Committee of engaging in racial segregation. “This ruling later would serve to fuel one of the prominent controversies embedded in our nation’s ongoing struggle for racial desegregation.” The busing policy created extreme acts of violence, invaded personal freedoms, hindered students’ education and
Calloway-Thomas, Carolyn, and Thurmon Garner. “Daisy Bates and the Little Rock School Crisis: Forging the Way.” Journal of Black Studies 26, 5 Special Issue: The Voices of African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement. May, 1996: 616-628. JSTOR. 10 April 2004
Before the decision of Brown v. Board of Education, many people accepted school segregation and, in most of the southern states, required segregation. Schools during this time were supposed to uphold the “separate but equal” standard set during the 1896 case of Plessy v. Ferguson; however, most, if not all, of the “black” schools were not comparable to the “white” schools. The resources the “white” schools had available definitely exceed the resources given to “black” schools not only in quantity, but also in quality. Brown v. Board of Education was not the first case that assaulted the public school segregation in the south. The title of the case was shortened from Oliver Brown ET. Al. v. the Board of Education of Topeka Kansas. The official titled included reference to the other twelve cases that were started in the early 1950’s that came from South Carolina, Virginia, Delaware and the District of Columbia. The case carried Oliver Brown’s name because he was the only male parent fighting for integration. The case of Brown v. Board o...
In 1954, the Supreme Court took a step in history with the Brown V. Board of Education of Topeka by stating that, “In the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’, has no place. Separate facilities are inheritably unequal.” Little Rock, Arkansas a city in the upper south became a location of a controversial attempt to put the court order into effect when nine African American students were chosen to desegregate Central High in Little Rock. How did the Little Rock Nine affect America? Sanford Wexler stated in The Civil Rights Movement:
Also, although Little Rock was seen as a success, as the President was behind the blacks, after the incident was over, Governor Faubus closed all schools in Little Rock until 1959 as he would prefer there to be no schools than desegregated schools. This shows that there was always a way for the whites to get around desegregation without much attention being paid to it.
In her memoir Warriors Don’t Cry, Melba Pattillo Beals describes her experiences as she became one of the first nine black students educated in an integrated white school. She and her friends, who became known as the “Little Rock Nine”, elicited both support and criticism from their family members, friends, community members, military troops, in addition to the President of the United States. Melba’s experiences, while heartbreaking and sobering, highlight the strength to overcome that individuals can have over a system intent on keeping them down.
As president of the NAACP, she fought the school board in a legal battle to let African American children into the large, all-white high school, Central High (Daisy Bates). On multiple occasions, when arriving home, she would find “a rock [that had] shattered the picture window of [her house]” (Williams). White segregationists in Little Rock, Arkansas would frequently do this, aiming to threaten the lives of the people of the NAACP as well as the students that were integrating into Central High. Although her life was threatened, she did not stop fighting for integration and frequently comforted the nine students through the bullying they had to withstand (Daisy Bates). Through thick and thin, Daisy Bates never stopped fighting for what she believed in, even if it meant risking her life.
Jackson’s school behaviors are extremely challenging for the school system to manage. As a result, the school system has been extremely apprehensive of educating Jackson. Despite the apparent behavioral concerns the school justly has with Jackson, it is his right to be educated. I will advocate for Jackson’s rights to be upheld and for the school department to fund an alternative school setting or provide tutoring. Furthermore, Jackson is biracial, issues of race and culture will be acknowledge and valued.
In further explanation, on September 4, 1957 fifteen year old Elizabeth Eckford was on her way to attend her first day at the now desegregated high school in Little Rock, Arkansas. As she arrived 400 people in opposition of this integration were there to harass her. She was also not allowed to enter the school due to the National Guard’s orders under the governor to keep the African American students out. Consequently, this fifteen year old girl was left to be harassed by an overbearing crowd. She had insults thrusted upon her, was yelled