Progress In Education

Question 1

Who was Linda Brown?

Answer 1

She was one of many black children in Topeka Kansas, who had to pass their local white school and travel further to the nearest black school

Question 2

What did Linda Brown’s parents do?

Answer 2

The Browns and 12 other parents went to court to fight for their children’ rights to go to their nearest school which was white. They lost because of the Plessy ‘separate but equal’ ruling, as did four other cases in the South.

Question 3

Who was the Brown v Topeka case between?

Answer 3

In 1952, the NAACP bundled all five desegregation cases together and took them to the supreme court as Brown vs Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas.

Question 4

What did NAACP lawyers argue about in Brown v Topeka ?

Answer 4

NAACP lawyers argued that separate was not equal in education, even with equal provision, because segregated schooling made black children feel inferior. They argued that the 14th Amendment
was being broken, because segregation made black children feel unequal.

Question 5

What was the 14th amendment?

Answer 5

Guaranteed equal citizenship rights to everyone born in America.

Question 6

What significant event changed the Brown v Topeka ruling?

Answer 6

By December 1952, the Supreme Court judges had
not made a ruling. They voted to hear more legal advice and try the case again. Before the retrial
began, a pro-segregation judge died. His replacement, Earl Warren, was not pro-segregation and became Chief Justice (which meant he led the group).

Question 7

Supreme court decision in Brown v Topeka

Answer 7

On 17 May 1954, the Supreme Court ruled that life had changed since the Plessy ruling. A good education was vital to progress. Segregated education made black children feel inferior, so was unconstitutional. Separate but equal’ had no place in education and schools had to desegregate.

Question 8

The Supreme Court set no timescale on desegregation. What did this lead to?

Answer 8

In May 1955, a second Supreme Court case based on Brown v. Topeka (called Brown Il) ruled
that desegregation should be carried out ‘with all deliberate speed’. This was deliberately vague to allow time to make changes, but the states had to make ‘a prompt and reasonable’ start.

Question 9

Immediate significance of Brown v Topeka

Answer 9

In terms of civil rights, Brown reversed Plessy, and so sparked off many more desegregation campaigns. Many of these campaigns won legal victories. Brown also had varying effects on the position of black Americans in the South.

Question 10

Changes in the South ( After Brown v Topeka): Southern Border States

Answer 10

The Southern ‘border’ states (those furthest north)
and the District of Colombia desegregated schools in the years immediately following Brown v. Topeka. There were protests about federal intervention, and some petitions not to desegregate, but very little violence. By the end of the 1957 school year, 723 school districts had desegregated, paving the way for desegregation in other areas of life.

Question 11

Changes in the South ( After Brown v Topeka): Deep South

Answer 11

Many school boards said they were making plans to integrate schools but did nothing
Citizens in Mississippi set up a white citizens council (WCC) in July 1954 with the aim of preserving segregation (they used extreme violence)
KKK membership grew and its attacks focused on supporters of civil rights
Many black people felt in a worse position after Brown. They had gained a legal right, but it was clear that it was difficult and dangerous to make it work in practice.

Question 12

Long term significance of Brown v Topeka

Answer 12

The significance of Brown lay in the constant legal pressure for desegregation in the South and the increased awareness of civil rights issues that it produced. People, then and now, are divided over how much Brown helped black Americans.

Question 13

Problems with Brown v Topeka: Integration

Answer 13

Integrating schools, especially in the Deep South, was dangerous. Many students, parents and teachers were hostile. Black students often went to school each day through mobs chanting racist taunts. They and their families were threatened at home as well as at school.
Their education suffered as well as their home lives. Black schools that had given a good education in a supportive environment were shut and many black teachers lost their jobs. Black teachers in integrated schools often faced trouble from white students.

Question 14

Long term effects of Brown v Topeka

Answer 14

Black students - faced hostility when integrating into white schools
Civil rights - Greater awareness of civil rights issues and encouragement for further campaigns
However white hostility meant membership of civil rights groups fell
Desegregation legislation - Ruling overturned Plessy v Ferguson. It could be used to desegregate other places
Desegregation- The south desegregated but integration was patchy. Deep south didnt fully desegregate
Black teachers- Lost jobs when schools were integrated and faced hostility when joined white schools

Question 15

How many Black students applied to Little Rock high school?

Answer 15

75 students applied and the school board chose 25.

Question 16

Out of the 25 students that the School accepted how many students were willing to go and why?

Answer 16

Only 9 were still willing to go as opponents threatened the families of the Black students with the loss of their jobs and with violence

Question 17

What happened on the 3rd of september at Little Rock?

Answer 17

When the school term started on 3 September, Orval Faubus ( the governor of Arkansas) sent 250 state troops to surround the school ‘to keep the peace’, stopping the black students going in. The school board told the black students to skip the first day of school.

Question 18

What happened on the 4th of September 1957 (the 2nd day of the new school year)?

Answer 18

Daisy Bates, the local NAACP organiser arranged for them to arrive together the next day - but one student Elizabeth Eckford missed the message and arrived by bus

Question 19

What happened to Elizabeth Eckford?

Answer 19

She faced the mob of waiting white people, many of them women. She walked up to the state troopers, thinking they would protect her. They turned her back towards the mob that was shouting ‘Lynch her! Lynch her!’

Question 20

The Publicity of the events at Little Rock

Answer 20

On the 4th of September there were over 250 reporters and photographers outside
the school in Little Rock, alerted by the events of the previous day. Photographs of Elizabeth and the mob were in newspapers worldwide. The outrage, inside and outside the USA, was enormous. The Little Rock Nine were famous. The federal government felt the publicity was bad for the USA’s image abroad.

Question 21

Did Eisenhower want to issue a presidential order?

Answer 21

President Eisenhower did not approve of legally enforcing integration. He thought that it would do more harm than good. By this point, the reaction of white people in the South seemed to be proving him right. He was even less happy about the idea of sending ni federal troops to force a state to obey the law. However, as the situation worsened and worldwide publicity increased, he was forced to act.

Question 22

Eisenhower’s Presidential Order

Answer 22

Eisenhower ordered Faubus to remove the state troops from Little Rock and on the 23rd of september he removed the troops.
On the 24th of September Eisenhower signed a presidential order sending over 1000 federal troops to Little Rock (it was so controversial that he went on tv to explain himself)

Question 23

What was the outcome of Eisenhower’s presidential order?

Answer 23

The troops stayed until the end of term, making sure the Little Rock Nine got to and from school and moved between classes in safety. However, the troops could not stop the threats and taunts of white teachers and students. They did not guard the black students’ homes and could not stop hate mail and threatening phone calls.

Question 24

What did Orval Faubus do the next year?

Answer 24

Faubus closed every Little Rock school for the next school year, putting off integration yet again. White parents however forced him to open the schools (integrated) in September 1959.

Question 25

What happened after the events at Little rock?

Answer 25

The WCC grew - They campaigned and petitioned against desegregation. They also threatened the families of children who were signed up to desegregate schools. They even bombed schools
KKK carried out bombings
Political opposition- Senator Harry F. byrd of Virginia demanded massive resistance to desegregation

Question 26

Political opposition after Little Rock: Obvious ways (detailed)

Answer 26

On 25 February 1956, Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia demanded ‘massive resistance’ ot desegregation. He said he would close public schools ni his state that tried to desegregate. No school did.
‘Massive resistance’ was ruled illegal in 1959 by state Supreme Court judges and areas began slow, partial,
integration. Only Prince Edward County in Virginia closed all its public schools. They did not reopen until 1964.
Byrd’s resistance was obvious.

Question 27

Political opposition after Little Rock: Less obvious ways

Answer 27

•
They drew up plans for gradual desegregation, a school year at a time.
•
They allowed only a few black children into each year group.
•
They put black and white students in the same school, but segregated within the school.
•
They introduced ‘testing’ and ‘psychological testing’ that was supposed to decide which children went to
which schools. The tests were then skewed against black pupils.
•
They used the examples of violent resistance, such as mobs and riots outside of schools, as a reason to exclude black students from schools, claiming it was ‘for their own safety’.
•
They desegregated one or two schools in each area, but left the rest segregated.

Question 28

Coping with Opposition to desegregation

Answer 28

The NAACP and CORE sent representatives to work with the families of children involved in the desegregating of schools. They talked about the hostility the children would face and explained that they would be under constant scrutiny. CORE produced a leaflet that applied the rules they had developed for non-violent protest to
school integration.

Question 29

What did Core’s leaflet on integration rules say?

Answer 29

Be clean and neat at all times
Be polite to the teachers and other students
Dont shout at, or fight with anyone no matter how provoked you are
Stick together