Racism and Segregation in USA Schools

How does the issue of intolerance, injustice,

racism and inequity affect schools and society?

Activity• Isms…• Racial line- handout

Who gets a piece of the American “apple pie”?

History of segregation• Fourteenth Amendment prohibited individual states from denying

any citizen his or her fundamental rights, and, further, it extended the right of due process in legal matters.

• 1892, Plessy v. Ferguson challenged the 14th amendment • Early in the 20th century movement to bring about equality to the

segregated Black schools in the south• 17 states mandated segregation by law• 1954- Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court decision

“separate is not equal” Southern apartheid was unconstitutional and illegitimate

• 1954-1964 fight against almost uniformed opposition and resistance to the mandate

• 1960’s- Martin Luther King led hundreds of protests in both the north and the south against segregated conditions

• Congress spent a decade to decide whether or not to cut off funds for schools that defied the Supreme Court’s decision

• 1964- President Kennedy asked Congress to prohibit discrimination in all programs receiving federal aide- 98% of southern Blacks were still in totally segregated schools

14th amendmentAll person born or naturalized in the United

States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law.

History….• Late 60’s and early 1970’s strong movement towards

desegregation-during this period the south moved from almost total racial separation to become the nation’s most integrated region

• In part desegregation was achieved through busing programs

• 1968- Election of Richard Nixon was a turning point leading to the change in position of desegregation and encouraged the Supreme Court to slow down or reverse its desegregation policies

• 1974 law passed against desegregation between city-suburban lines and equalizing funding across school districts

• Carter legacy tried to reinstate more desegregation laws working with desegregating housing with school integration policy but was hampered by Congress

Desegregation through busing• Schools in many parts of the country continued to be segregated by race. • Neighborhoods retained racial imbalances • Boston, schools were constructed and school district lines drawn intentionally to

segregate racially the schools. In the early 1970s, a series of court decisions found that the racially imbalanced schools trampled the rights of minority students

• Racial integration achieved by transporting children by school bus to a school in a different area of the district.

• The "forced" adjective was a derisive term • Court-ordered busing to achieve school desegregation was used mainly in large,

ethnically segregated school systems, including Boston, Massachusetts; Cleveland, Ohio; Kansas City, Missouri; Pasadena, California; Richmond, Virginia; San Francisco, California and Wilmington, Delaware.

• Charlotte, North Carolina (from 1969) and Savannah, Georgia (from 1970) students were often transported many miles from their homes, passing one or more schools before arriving at their assigned campus. The Charlotte and Savannah plans are noteworthy in that most students were affected, and that a majority of blacks as well as whites would not attend their neighborhood school for two decades. (The two plans ended in the 1990s.)

• Proponents of such plans argued that with the schools integrated, minority students would have equal access to equipment, facilities and resources that the cities' white students had, thus giving all students in the city equal educational opportunities. They also pointed out that the United States Supreme Court had found that separate but equal schools are inherently unequal.

Milliken v. Bradley • In a 5-to-4 decision, the Court held that

"[w]ith no showing of significant violation by the 53 outlying school districts and no evidence of any interdistrict violation or effect," the district court's remedy was "wholly impermissible" and not justified by Brown v. Board of Education. The Court noted that desegregation, "in the sense of dismantling a dual school system," did not require "any particular racial balance in each 'school, grade or classroom.'" The Court also emphasized the importance of local control over the operation of schools.

History…• Reagan brought a rapid repeal of the federal

desegregation assistance program and a shift in the Justice Department’s position, opposing desegregation policy- theories that it had not worked and it should be canceled after only a few years

• 1980’s Supreme court started to advocate this position through policy

• Nixon, Reagan and Bush policies succeed in creating a Supreme Court that had a fundamentally different opinion about civil rights.

• Rehnquist Court- positive policies taking race into account for the purpose of creating integration were suspect – lower courts began to forbid voluntary desegregation programs

• 1981- significant federal aid aimed at helping interracial schools succeed ended

Benefits of desegregation• End deeply rooted patterns of illegal separation of

students• Evidence that it changes test scores • Students from desegregated schools benefit in

college-going, employment and living in integrated settings as adults

• Increase human relations• Minorities from integrated schools experience far

greater graduation rates, college-going• Students become bicultural• http://www.civilrightsproject.harvard.edu/researc

h/diversity/cambridge_diversity.php

Brown vs. Board of Education..• 50 years after the US Supreme Court ruled

that segregated schools are “inherently unequal”, schools across the country are still separated by race and class. And the problem is getting worse (Orfield, Harvard Civil Rights Project).

Today….• Number of Black and Latino students in the

nation’s public schools is up 5.8 million• Number of white students has declined by

5.6 million• Low birth rates• Massive immigration• Latino students- 2 million in 1968 has grown

to 6.9 million (245% growth in thirty years)• Black students- 1968 3x more than Latino

but in 1998 there were seven Latinos for every Black student

Today… By 2050 whites will be at 49% and if

whites continue to sustain the educational authority and power then this has huge implications for the nation’s social structure. Population groups are shifting towards the lower achieving group the test scores of Black 17 year olds is at the place of White 13 year olds.

• A study at the Harvard University Civil Rights Project finds that public schools in the USA are re-segregating, leaving a vast gap in resources and opportunities between white and non-white communities.

• The period of growing desegregation coincided with the most dramatic narrowing of the test score gap ever recorded for Blacks and whites.

• In the 1990’s racial gaps in achievement have been growing and the high school graduation of Black students is decreasing.

• 10 % of white children live in poverty while 35% of Black and Latino children live in poverty

• 1/6th of the nation’s Black students are educated in schools and districts that are almost completely non-white

• The country is moving toward a greater inequality and more reinforcement of economic and social privilege

Educational Finance• 1973- US Supreme Court overruled the

judgment of the district court in Texas that had found the inequalities of education finance in that state to be unconstitutional

• The Equal Protection Law does not require absolute equality…

Educational Finance…• However, segregated minority schools are

overwhelmingly likely to have to contend with the educational impacts of concentrated poverty- 50% or more of the student population eligible for free or reduced lunch

• White segregated white schools are almost always middle class

• Legacy of unequal education, income, and the continuing patterns of housing discrimination.

States rebel• Monterey, California

• Chemistry lab with no chemicals• Literature classes with no books• Computer classes where we sit there and talk

about what we would be doing if we had computers

• Classes where students were required to stand or sit on window sills because there were not enough chairs

• Classes without regular teachers where the subs let the students watch movies and “everybody” failed the final exam

Educational Finance• Cost of building new and safe schools for

children in urban settings has been estimated by the General Accounting Office at $100B and $200B if adequate wiring for the internet would be installed.

Educational Finance• In 31 states, districts with the highest

percentage of minority children also receive less funding per pupil than do districts with the fewest minority children

• 25 thousand students served by Head Start up to now will not receive it now

Special Education…• The growth of special education, with a

disproportionate number of Blacks parallels the growth of desegregation (Asa Hilliard, Georgia State University).

Special Education• Blacks are more than three times as likely

as whites to be given short-term suspensions

• They are 67% more likely than whites with emotional or behavioral problems to be removed from school on the grounds of being dangerous.

Special Education…• In the 1970’s African Americans were 16% of

total enrollment but 38% of students identified as mentally retarded.

• More than 20 years later…African American children constitute 17 percent of total enrollment and 33% of students considered cognitively disabled (mentally retarded)

• Nationwide, Blacks are more than three times more likely to be identified ad mentally retarded than whites and more than twice as likely to be labeled as emotionally disturbed..

Special EducationLifetime consequences…• More than half of the African American

students as compared to 39% of the White young adults (who have been in special education) are still not employed three to five years out of school.

• Arrest rate for African Americans with disabilities is 40% as compared to 29% of Whites

School choice…• After the Civil War, Blacks fought for access

of the great “equalizer”, public education• Under slavery, in a practice that continued

with indentured children in post slavery years, it was common for Black children to be “loaned” out as apprentices in exchange for cash to support private tuition of their “owner’s” children. In other words, for at least three centuries, white children of gentry were educated as a direct result of the wages provided by Black children who were deprived education

School Choice• We forget at our own peril that the voucher

movement was, and remains, a movement that abandons public education rather than fights for the rights of all.

• The conservatives pushing vouchers are not committed to better public schools for all. They are seeking to funnel money to private schools.

• Fright and Flight- with the advent of school integration, it is the public schools that are the “threat” with sex education and multiculturalism

School Choice• Choice left to itself will increase

stratification (Gary Orfield)

College opportunities • As high paying factory jobs of the

industrial economy disappear, a college education is critical to ensure a life without poverty… affirmative action has been under attack and race conscious admissions have been take to court

College opportunities• New York City and Chicago populate 10%

of the country’s African American male students who fail to graduate with their entering classmates

• In districts in which white students make up the majority, nearly 80% of the students graduate in four years

College opportunities• Enrollment of minority students at a

number of our most prestigious public universities has dropped alarmingly

• 350 African American freshmen enrolled at the University of Michigan out of an entering class of almost 6,000 students-the lowest number of African Americans in 15 years and a decline from nearly 500 three years earlier

Teaching..• Quality teaching is the key to eliminating

racial and economic achievement gaps…• Teachers lack the training, resources, and

alternatives for dealing with children

How can teachers address racism and white privilege-in their classrooms, personal lives, and educational institutions?

• Washington State- Student play• “Reading Poverty: A critical reading of

work and hunger in the United States”• “Colonialism and Post-Colonialism in the

Democratic Republic of the Congo using Barbara Kingslover’s novel, The Poisonwood Bible”

• “Looking for love and language in Zora Neal Huston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God.”

• Write the truth: fifth graders research how many U.S. Presidents owned slaves and demand that their history textbooks address the issue

• What does it mean to be qualified and how do we measure success. (capitalistic) What if we were to rethink our assumptions in the context of standardized tests and admissions requirements? What would we find?

• White privilege is the other side of racism. We must acknowledge it. It is easier to deplore racism than to admit to the privileges that many of us have because of it. Once we understand how white privilege works we can take steps on a personal and professional level to dismantle it. That which keeps people of color off balance in a racist society is that which gives whites power. We must acknowledge power, leave our comfort zone and work to dismantle that power.

• Any serious effort to reopen the debate about segregation is going to be enormously more difficult than the dismantling of apartheid in the South. Apartheid was so gross and open in its manifestations that it was insustainable within the age that following WWII.” (Roger Wilkins- George Mason University)

• Contemporary political leaders….• Small minded triumphalism• Grew up in isolated worlds of white male

privilege• Have inadequate education for the

responsibilities that they hold

• The demarcation between separate worlds of education are assuming sharper lines. There is a new emboldenment among the relatively privileged to isolate their children as completely as they can from more than token numbers of the children of minorities (Kozol, 2005)

Gary Orfield• “The struggle was never just for

desegregated schools nor was it motivated by a desire on the part of the Black students to simply sit next to white students. It was an integral part of a much broader movement for racial and economic justice.”

Journal…Dare the School Build a New Social Order?

George Counts (1932)Is it a school’s responsibility to construct

society or to reconstruct society? Why or why not?

References• Gary Orfield’s work• Jonathan Kozol’s work• Rethinking Schools