The USA Conflict Home and Abroad: 1.2

Question 1

Why did ‘black’ schools suddenly receive more funding from even racist southern states in the early 1950s ?

Answer 1

• state governors hoped to avoid calls for desegregation by making improvements to black education
  [] for example, in South Carolina, the state governor said that he would sooner close public schools than desegregate them, and spent over $100 million on black schooling

Question 2

Give a timeline of the Brown v. Topeka case (1952 - May 1955)

Answer 2

• 1952
  [] NAACP took 5 school desegregation cases that had lost in court and took them to the Supreme Court as Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas
  [] argued that segregation was not equal in education, as (even with equal provision) psychological studied showed that segregated schooling made black children feel inferior and thus the 14th amendment (all Americans are equal and deserve equal rights) was being broken
• December 1952
  [] no ruling made on the case
  []the Supreme Court wanted to hear more legal advice and try the case again (difficulty in reaching verdict shows the strength of the case, as the court typically looked for excuses to deny the case)
  [] before the retrial, the pro-segregation judge died and a more neutral judge, Earl Warren, was his replacement (also made Chief Justice and led the court group)
• 17 May 1954
  [] the Supreme Court overturned Plessy
  [] said “separate but equal has no place in education”
  [] said schools had to desegregate but gave no timescale
• May 1955
  [] Brown II to set a timescale for desegregation
  [] said had to desegregate with “all deliberate speed” and “promptly and reasonably”
  [] this vagueness was supposedly to allow sufficient time for social change, but (deep) southern states used this to drag their feet in terms of desegregation

Question 3

What was the significance of Brown v. Topeka for desegregation ?

Answer 3

• overturned Plessy v. Fergusson
  [] Plessy could no longer be used to justify segregation legally
• sparked off and inspired many other desegregation cases and protests
  [] like the Montgomery Bus Boycott

Question 4

What were the consequences of the Brown v. Topeka ruling in southern BORDER states ?

Answer 4

• opposition via protests and counter-campaigns but no/little actual violence
• by the end of the 1957 school year, 723 school districts had already desegregated
• desegregation was prompt

Question 5

What were the consequences of the Brown v. Topeka ruling in DEEP southern states ?

Answer 5

• extreme white backlash
  [] WCC set up in Mississippi, July 1954 (aims = preserving segregation; used extreme violence and WCCs spread very quickly)
  [] state governors and politicians like Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia called for “massive resistance” to desegregation and threatened to close any schools that tried to desegregate
  [] KKK membership grew drastically
  [] NAACP and civil rights membership fell out of fear of attack
  [] many black families with children as well as people who tried to attend desegregated schools were the victims of racist attacks and threats - some black parents lost their jobs if they sent their children to desegregated schools
  [] protests outside of schools were common and intimidated black children just trying to go to school
• southern school boards said they were making plans to desegregate but did nothing
  [] even 8 years after the first Brown ruling, five southern states hadn’t desegregated at all

Question 6

Describe the long-term significance of Brown v. Topeka in the south

Answer 6

• black students
  [] faced lots of inescapable racism in integrated schools
  [] integrated schools often still had segregated classrooms or cafeterias, leading to isolation or loneliness and the pervasive feeling of inferiority in education
  [] lost the supportive environment of black schools with positive black teachers as role models
  [] often received poorer and less attentive education than white children in their classes
  [] education in black schools was often better for black students than in integrated schools
• black lives
  [] made life much less safe at home, in employment and at school for black children and parents
  [] black children and parents often received threatening calls home, death threats and threats of being fired if they sent their children to integrated schools
• white flight
  [] white people in areas with high black populations moved out so that their children didn’t have to go to integrated schools with high numbers of black children
  [] popularised segregation de facto
• desegregation
  [] southern states dragged their feet to desegregate a LOT
  [] five southern states were still fully segregated by 1960
• desegregation legislation
  [] sparked off many other desegregation campaigns
  [] meant that Plessy couldn’t be used to justify segregation anymore
• civil rights movement
  [] awareness of civil rights in the south grew and legal campaigns for civil rights began to gain more traction
  [] civil rights got more attention from southern media
  [] BUT, membership of civil rights groups fell out of fear of attack or threat from WCCs, the KKK or white racists in general
• black teachers
  [] lost jobs when schools became integrated
  [] black teachers in integrated schools faced racism from white students and colleagues

Question 7

Where was Central High School ?

Answer 7

Little Rock, Arkansas

Question 8

In what year did Central High School in Little Rock try to desegregate ?

Answer 8

1957

Question 9

Describe Central High School’s acceptance of black applicants into the school in 1957 leading up to September 3rd (the first day of the academic year)

Answer 9

• 75 black students applied to the school
• only 25 of the 75 applicants were accepted into the next academic year
  [] small selection shows slowness of desegregation and the dragging of feet
• many white racists in Little Rock, Arkansas threatened parents and children and there was much racist violence
  [] by September 3rd, only 9 students were still willing to attend the school
  [] shows the power of intimidation in slowing the progress of civil rights

Question 10

Who was the state governor of Arkansas in 1957 ?

Answer 10

Orval Faubus

Question 11

How did Faubus oppose integration in Central High in the school year of 1957 ?

Answer 11

• on the first day of the school year (3rd of September) sent state troops to the school to “keep the peace” by not letting the black students enter
  [] the school board told the Little Rock 9 to skip the first day of school
• Daisy Bates, the local NAACP organiser, telephoned the families of the Little Rock 9 to organise arriving to school at the same time for added safety and guarantee of getting in the next day
• Elizabeth Eckford didn’t have a home phone and so arrived alone on September 4th
  [] arrived to a large white mob shouting racist chants and saying “lynch her”
  [] tried to go to Faubus’ state troops for help but they turned her back to the mob and denied her entry to the school
  [] there were many photographers and reporters in the crowd that day who caught all of this and attracted MASS media attention and international outrage regarding the situation

Question 12

Describe how Eisenhower forced Faubus to integrate Central High in the school year of 1957 so that the Little Rock 9 could safely attend

Answer 12

• ordered Faubus to withdraw his state troops
  [] Faubus did this on the 23rd of September (significantly late)
  [] there was still rioting and violence outside of the school, which Faubus instructed the state police to do nothing about
  [] the police chief even withdrew the Little Rock 9 from school on the 23rd, saying it was their fault that the riot was happening
• 24th September
  [] Eisenhower signed presidential order to send over 1000 federal troops to Little Rock to escort the black students to and from school and in between lessons; also federalised Faubus’ state troops
  [] did it via presidential order so he could move quickly and without needing to fight opposition from racist congressmen
  [] the decision to interfere in state politics was so controversial that Eisenhower went on television to explain himself
  [] NOTE: EISENHOWER’S OUTWARD SUPPORT FOR INTEGRATION OF BLACK STUDENTS WAS SIGNIFICANT AS IT SHOWED THE US THAT SEGREGATION WAS NOT SUPPORTED BY ITS PRESIDENT, WHO WAS WHITE AND GREW UP IN THE DEEP SOUTH; signal of social change in presidency and also the seriousness of segregation due to the federal action
• the federalised troops stayed until the end of term to protect the Little Rock 9, but couldn’t do anything about threats and racism inside school or the threatening phone calls and hate mail sent to their houses by WCCs and the KKK

Question 13

Describe how Faubus opposed desegregation after the school year of 1957-May 1958 ended

Answer 13

• closed every Little Rock school for a year
  [] showed the extreme opposition to desegregation
  [] (white) parents eventually forced Faubus to reopen the schools in 1959, which had to be desegregated by law

Question 14

Describe ways in which southern school boards resisted desegregation

Answer 14

• desegregated one or two schools in an area and left the rest
• drew up plans for very slow desegregation, one school year at a time
• only let very few black children in per year group
• segregated within the school
• used the examples of mob violence and riots to deny black children access “for their safety”
• introduced (psychological) testing to determine access to schools and rigged it against black children

Question 15

Describe how organisations like CORE and NAACP helped black children and parents to cope with opposition to integration

Answer 15

• went around to black families with children attending integrated schools to talk to them
  [] gave advice on what to expect in terms of racism and opposition
  [] trained children in non-violence
  [] gave out pamphlets with “rules” for integration, like always being polite, not reacting to racism or violence, being neat and clean always and sticking together