School Segregation in relation to Silver Grade School - Coursework Example

Brown vs. Board Introduction During 1950’s, school desegregation was amongst the top concerns throughout the globe particularly in the US, which considered segregation of African-American students studying in schools from white children. The negative consequences concerned with school segregation gave rise to Supreme Court’s decision of introducing ‘modern civil rights movement’, which aimed at elimination of school segregation. The ultimate requirement to end the issue of school segregation across the schools in the US was the formation and smooth execution of the modern civil rights movement. The change meant for reduction and elimination of the concept of ‘school desegregation’ as well as providing equal learning opportunities to all the children in schools was first raised in a landmark case named Briggs v. Elliott (1954) (South Carolina). The case aimed at introducing the African-Americans’ fight for eliminating desegregation to the world with the intention of shifting the behavior as well as the socialization of students away from the very beginning of education. In relation to the above specified context, the case of Briggs v. Elliott (1954) was one of the cases amongst the five cases registered under Brown v. Board of Education (1954), wherein the Supreme Court of the US made a final judgment. This judgment was basically of overturning the issue of racial discrimination and segregation of students in the schools of the US, particularly those based in California (Brown, 2004). Prior to the introduction of the aforementioned case, a majority of the states in the US were categorized into several requirements depending upon the concept of segregation. In this regard, the above information was collected from the scholarly based article ‘Brown v. Board of education and school desegregation: an analysis of selected litigation’. The challenge faced while selecting the particular journal was prioritization, as it was difficult to set the priority of the sources to be used (Brown, 2004). School Segregation in Relation to Silver Grade School One of the schools, wherein prominent cases of racial segregation and child discrimination were recorded, was the Silver Grade School located in California. The school was identified to exercise and obtain registration for educational segregation of African-American and the American students specifically in the preliminary and primary classes. The school raised concerns about an increase in student segregation, wherein similar facilities were being provided to the African-American students as well as the American students but in a different manner. Furthermore, dissimilarities between the two eventually raised the level of student discrimination apart from desegregation, which consequently led towards the rise in emerging the case. In this context, the above data was sourced from the article ‘Segregating California’s future’, wherein difficulty of time allocated for the study is witnessed (Orfield & Ee, 2014). Hence, the aim of the essay is to introduce the core elements behind the rise of the famous Briggs v. Elliott, 342 U.S. 350 (1954) case and the decision taken by the Supreme Court of the US towards fighting and eliminating the issue of ‘racial and educational desegregation’ within the schools of diverse regions of the nation. Justification of Institutional Desegregation within the Case of ‘Briggs v. Elliott (1954)’ The prominent case of Briggs v. Elliott (1954) highlighted the issue of school and racial desegregation in the schools of the US. The case was amongst the first cases, which focused upon the struggle of African-Americans towards the issue of racial desegregation within schools. In 1950’s, racial desegregation in schools led to the establishment of ‘separate but equal doctrine’, which reflected the differences persisted amongst the African-American students with their American counterparts. This gave rise to the development of a wrong attitude amongst the American children and their neglect towards the African students studying with them in the same schools. The various amenities including classrooms, drinking water taps and other valuable infrastructures that were provided to the African-American children in the schools differ from the similar facilities being provided to the American students. An increasing number of schools adopting the criterion of racial desegregation eventually led towards the establishment of Briggs v. Elliott (1954) case, which is duly considered to be one of the strongest cases under Brown v. Board of Education. It is worth mentioning that the case of Briggs v. Elliott (1954) challenged the existence of racial segregation within the schools, especially the ones located around California. In the case, a panel consisting of three judges was formed who found the prevalence of racial segregation amongst the students to be lawfully correct, however, it led towards causing equality amid them and also equalized the presence of inferiority amongst the schools (Orfield & Ee, 2014). However, prior to adjoining the case with the Brown v. Board of Education case, the Supreme Court of the US issued a reverse order mechanism and returned the case back to the district court, demanding a report based on the advancements made in the process of equalization within schools. As soon as Brown v. Board education case was framed, the subordinate court amended its decision and abided by the decision taken by the Supreme Court. Concerning the above-specified context, the district court of California issued a decree and established a law that invalidated the law framed in South California, which considered racial segregation as an important and unconstitutional practice, further requiring the schools around California to adopt the process of desegregation. In addition, the US Supreme Court mandated the schools to conduct desegregation and eliminate application of the existing decree. Thus, the schools present around California were also required to include the units in their textbooks, one being the ‘Black History’, as a part of social studies curriculum. A number of topics would be inculcated in the textbooks, which would be required to develop numerous skills including written communication, development of vocabulary and a strong sense of relationship amongst the African-American and the American students from the preliminary schools (Orfield & Ee, 2014). Involvement of Silver Grade School in School Segregation Silver Grade School was one of the schools, wherein charges of desegregation in the same were witnessed. During this time, the principal of Silver Grade School was Rev. J. A. DeLaine. Delaine also served as minister in the church, from where the students first began their elementary learning and then moved onto separate schools. In the initial stages, African-American schools situated around Clarendon County were primarily focused on providing education to African-American students in schools. However, later, these got transferred into spate classrooms away from the American students. Primarily, the famous case of Briggs vs. Elliot (1954) began with the rising issue of bus services and transportation facilities provided by Silver Grade School. The issue gained a major popularity when the principal of Silver Grade school DeLaine approached the officials of Clarendon County and was unable to secure transportation services for the African-American students. DeLaine was concerned with the rising crisis of buses and the inability of the African-American students to avail bus services, who had to walk several miles in order to reach schools and attend classes (Marshall, 1976). Officials working at the Silver Grade School observed to validate their rejection in the form of making claims affirming that the African-American community whose children studying in schools, were unable to pay collective taxes to the school funds and fees. Furthermore, it was assumed that the Americans should not assist the African-Americans in payment of fees. Consequently, DeLaine launched a campaign based on letter writing regarding the plight of African-Americans in availing bus services. Although a lot of efforts were made by the principal and others to eliminate the issue, however, a least amount of assistance was attained from the officials belonging to school and state educational boards. The unavailability of bus services for the African-Americans led to the creation of urgency amongst their parents, who had to engage themselves in collecting donations from other community members. The constant problems faced by the African-American community eventually created frustration amongst the minor communities who then went on requesting for gaining assistance from the district superintendent. However, it was observed that please was discarded by the concerned authority. The school principal was then aware of the legal proceedings and went on to take legal actions against the school council (Irvin & Irvine, 2007). Initially, the case of ‘Levi Pearson v. County Board of Education’ was filed, which however failed due to certain legal standings. Furthermore, ‘National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’ (NAACP) also supported DeLaine’s efforts, who took a positive leap towards working upon the case efficiently. NAACP was engaged towards ensuring the betterment of people and striving towards their enormous progress and development. Furthermore, the case was aimed at not only providing bus and transportation facilities to the African-Americans, but also towards the initiation and implementation of educational equality within the schools. The year 1950 witnessed the formation of the case of Briggs v. Elliott, which was filed at California’s district court. Few months later, it was observed that the attorney moved on fighting the case with respect to the issue concerning school segregation, apart from demanding equalization of the facilities as well as bus services for the school students. The above information has been collected from the article ‘Book review: Simple justice: The history of brown v. board of education and black America’s struggle for equality’, wherein the challenge of prioritizing data was encountered (Marshall, 1976). Although the hearing court ordered Silver Grade school and other schools located around California to provide equal opportunities to the students and promote equalization, the court ignored the plea towards adopting the process of desegregation within schools. The action taken by the state resulted in the appellants to seek assistance and NAACP filing the case in the Supreme Court of California. This resulted in emerging Briggs case, merging with Brown education Board litigation. The case of Briggs induced an unavoidable response from the people. All the appellants who were associated with the case suffered hardships and faced challenges in retaining their jobs as they became participants of the case. It is worth mentioning that the lack of growth and advancement of brainpower amongst the students of South Californian schools was the prime reason for promoting the desegregation procedure. However, the efforts undertaken by DeLaine and others surely remain a motivational factor for the people to disregard the concept of racial and educational segregation. The outcomes were depressive for those associated with Briggs, however, victory of the case resulted in Brown being a winning side owing to the assistance being provided by NAACP. After awarding the member appellants in the ‘Briggs v. Elliot’ case, the Supreme Court of California ruled an order in favor of the case and demanded the Silver Grade school and other schools in South California to implement the process of desegregation. The above information was collected from the journal ‘Reimagining civil rights and school desegregation in the south after 50 years of the civil rights movement through historical narrative of holly spring in Mississippi’, wherein the challenge concerning accessibility was encountered (Pérez, 2012). Problems Faced For the Initiation of Desegregation in School and Emergence Of Various Acts In the initial stages, the process of desegregation within the schools encompassed number of challenges. In this regard, the political as well as the communist leaders in South California took massive steps against following the process of desegregation. The leaders were opposed to desegregation in the schools. Furthermore, they were involved in delaying the process of desegregation by acting as a ruling party. One of the prominent examples was the cancellation and non-abiding of the public and schools in California towards the process of desegregation. The schools were asked to remain close rather than applying the process of desegregation, which reduced the scope of African-American students to avail the prescribed benefits. Prior to the ruling, that was taken in favor of Briggs v. Elliott case, the Supreme Court of California anticipated major changes and the schools in California were strengthened with the purpose of distorting the differences that persisted between the black as well as the white people. The above data was collected from the article ‘The process of desegregation: a case study’, wherein problems of time and security login were faced (Cohen, 1966). In the year 1951, around 12 school districts were combined into a number of districts, with having the responsibility of moving the student population demographics based on their classes as well as residences. This consequently increased the opportunities for the African-Americans; however, it lowered the scope of black students in the U.S. A number of tactics were also employed by the local authorities such as the school board members and the local government officials who were concerned with obstructing the process of desegregation. A majority of the schools that introduced desegregation process faced massive losses, as the political parties and the government officials urged the Americans to deregister their children from schools. This further resulted in raising the number of enrollments made by the Americans in the schools across California. Most of the black students who were interested in attending schools with the American children were left segregated and isolated. This further extended and reduced the scope of combating in opposite to desegregation (Irvin & Irvine, 2007). The rise of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 boosted the process of desegregation within the schools, which took a big leap towards banning of segregation in such academic institutions. Furthermore, another major step that fueled the process of desegregation was the establishment of ‘Elementary and Secondary Educational Act, 1965. This particular Act remained much concerned about forwarding huge sum of money in the form of offering federal aid to the schools, which would in turn increase the enrollments of several African-Americans. During the late 1960’s, a number of rulings ordered by the courts, making a mandate for the schools that were concerned with the implementation of dual schooling system to adopt and follow desegregation policies. By the end of the year 1970, almost all the schools that were utilizing separate schooling system for the African-Americans and Americans were desegregated. Furthermore, white-private academies got multiplied in huge numbers, an example of which has been taken from the article ‘The impact of desegregation process on the education of black students: a retrospective analysis’, based on which, problems related to accessing published data were encountered (Irvin & Irvine, 2007). Process of Desegregation within the School The process of desegregation was enlightened with the help of focus drawn upon twelve major sections. The twelve steps constituting the desegregation process in the light of California-based Silver Grade School have been comprehensively explained in the following sections. School desegregation can be duly considered as an effective tool to mitigate the negative consequences of racial discrimination that was persistent within different schools from the very beginning of the formation of the same. The process of desegregation adopted by the school i.e. Silver Grade included a number of steps, which finally led towards the formation of integration in the final step. The process of desegregation begins with the step involving ‘single ethnic group districts’, which paid utmost attention on dividing the districts into several ethnic groups. In 1960’s, there existed huge differences amongst the people based on their ethnicity, which was a major distraction for the process of desegregation to perpetuate. Furthermore, the basic reason behind the inability of the process of desegregation to develop itself was the coordination prevailed amongst these ethnic groups. The school discussed above got affected by segregation owing to the minority of African-American ethic groups in comparison with the American groups. There existed only a single way by which this could have been managed. Hence, the school may decide to follow desegregation policies by adopting any of the two stated techniques (Heiberger, 2013). In this regard, one of such techniques could be forming as well as gaining cooperation from nearby districts in relation to the above stated context and creating specific ethnic group with adequate focus on the immigration of minority ethnic groups and establishing a balanced society. It is projected that these practices would significantly change the attitude of the school officials and American communities towards the African-American children and their parents as well. This information was collected from the article ‘A historical analysis of south Holland school district 151 desegregation order: an examination of superintendent decisions based on board actions grounded in the context of prevailing social, political, legal and educational conditions for the period 1967-2010.’ The challenge faced while collecting data from the journal was the unavailability of adequate time and prioritization (Heiberger, 2013). The main problem with the school officials remained in minimum ability of paying collective taxes in a timely manner. The segregated relationship persisted between the districts and the school officials was evident in determining the desegregation procedure, which consequently resulted in lack of pressure creation upon the populaces. In addition, shortage in adequate minority groups amongst the existing majority groups resulted in limiting the scope of desegregation within schools. Hence, the first step in the process of desegregation was aimed at developing the overall leadership qualities among the school officials, who would require cooperation from the majority as well as the minority groups. Furthermore, the school administration must also take a positive leap towards ensuring that it is able to attract minority groups, as a result of which, the African-American children would become an important part on behalf of schools’ administrative board (Irvin & Irvine, 2007). In addition, the district leaders took comprehensive steps towards ensuring that their districts were balanced in terms of ethnic groups. Furthermore, it was ensured that the cooperation amongst the districts is maximized to the maximum possible extent. A South Californian district, comprising of several schools that focused on separate schools concept based on ethnicity, faced rapid advancements in school desegregation, owing to the increasing number of minority groups such as Negros who generally belonged to African-American minority communities. The next stage in the process of desegregation, adopted by the Silver Grade School in South California, was ‘traditional separatism.’ The concept of traditional separatism was largely observed in the 1950’s particularly in Southern Californian districts. Traditional separatism was duly considered to be one of the crucial problems, which hindered the progress of desegregation within the schools. Furthermore, traditional separatism was best observed in the situations wherein the school stated above segregated the students and their respective education based on prevailing linguistic as well as racial differences. In addition, it was argued that the African-Americans were feeling happier in their own schools, rather than engaging themselves in competing with the American majority groups. The rate of dropout for the African-Americans in the schools was very high; however, the school officials made it clear that the separatism was a clear concept as the officials stated that children belonging to the minority communities had the full freedom of leaving the schools, apart from allowing them to join any time they want (Cohen, 1966). The American society strongly believes the existence of separate schools to be appropriate. However, opposed to the previous thinking, the minority groups regarded separation amongst the services to be unfortunate, which was a result of racial differences among them and the American society. Traditional spokespeople were used to represent and share knowledge amongst the communities. However, with the change in time, the minority groups recognized the problems, which consequently led to the initiation of struggle amongst the people. The next stage was the ‘color-blind phase’, which was regarded as an important step in the overall process of desegregation. This phase was mainly concerned with the segregation of ethnic groups based on their color as well as denial of responsibility by the school authorities. A majority of the districts in South California faced an increase in the overall color-blindness phase owing to the increase in demands received from the minority groups. Increasing number of demands amongst the people certainly led towards rising disagreements, requiring the school administration to become more aware of various situations pertaining to the knowledge of ‘color-aware’. Emphasis was laid upon development of ‘color-awareness’, rather than implementation of ‘color-blindness’, consequently leading to a rise in the overall increase in the progress of desegregation. The next step in the process of desegregation was the ‘color-awareness’ and ‘the denial of responsibility’. The emphasis was laid upon confrontations among the communities, which got determined by sharing the responsibilities of the people and the school officials. Furthermore, extreme focus was paid into modernizing concept of ‘color awareness’ in order to develop the roles along with the responsibilities associated with the progress of desegregation. The above information was collected from the scholarly article ‘Brown at 50: Kking’s dream or Plessy’s nightmare?’, wherein lack of computerization appeared as the crucial challenge (Orfield & Lee, 2004). The next stage in the desegregation process was the ‘segregated compensatory education’ being implemented around Silver Grade School as a part of desegregation. Segregated compensation laid stress upon the efforts taken by the school administration committees to address the issues associated with providing the students a much wider scope of educational experience. The most distinguishable attribute pertaining to the compensatory education was that it was applicable to those schools that were dominated by racial and educational segregation. In addition, the compensatory education includes the development of a stronger educational syllabus apart from using latest tools. In addition, compensatory education focused upon establishment of a ‘blue-ribbon’ committee, which comprised of the community leaders belonging to the majority as well as the minority groups, primary meant to deal with the process of desegregation within schools. In addition, the development of a much stronger curriculum would lead towards the development of a much stronger community, enabling the minorities to raise their voices against segregation within schools. The fifth step referred to token desegregation, which was related to the process and the implementation of desegregation in a more comprehensive manner. Furthermore, token desegregation focused upon enrolment of minorities in school, which enabled the African-Americans to take admissions in the schools located in South California This information was gathered from the scholarly article ‘How desegregation changed us: the effects of racially mixed schools on students and society’, in which the problem of confidence was faced (Wells, Holme, Revilla & Atanda, 2005). The next step in the process of desegregation was reckoned to be ‘crisis of decision-making’, which aimed at determining the problems face by the experts while making effective decisions in the process of desegregating schools. The next step in the process of desegregation was commitment, which focused on developing assurance amongst the school authorities. This commitment may be furnished by the school officials to develop the steps concerning desegregation that could be rectified by the communities at any point of time. Furthermore, the school board might develop a step-by-step progress chart towards working on desegregation within schools, which would lead towards an increase in the overall efforts. The next stage was ‘Developing Support’, which seeks to establish a feeling of support’ after a proper decision-making and commitment has taken place. Moreover, the perception of ‘Developing Support’ emphasized working on the progress of support persisted within the staff members belonging to the minority as well as the majority communities, instead of determining the support persisted between African-American and American students. The succeeding step in desegregation process was making the goals operational. The operational goals could be visualized as the development of the students belonging to minority groups towards academic achievement of the students in Silver Grade School. Another goal was to ensure that the minority students in the school were structurally integrated with the social mechanism formulated by the academic institution. The aforementioned information was collected from the scholarly article ‘Institutional changes to support school desegregation: alternative models underlying research and implementation’, wherein problems relating to lack of access due to government rules of internet access were encountered (Chesler, Crowfoot & Bryant, 1978). Conclusion Based on the above analysis and discussion, the concept of segregation within schools could be clearly understood. During 1950’s, segregation was considered as one of the major problems that denoted racial segregation of students in schools situated across the US, particularly within South California. The people belonging to the African-American societies adopted numerous steps for raising voices against the conduct of racial segregation within schools. In this regard, one of such schools that used to employ racial and educational segregation was Silver Grade School, wherein the school authorized demarcating the educational facilities of the African-American students from that of the Americans. However, as the case of ‘Briggs v. Elliott (1954) (South Carolina)’ went successful, it led towards establishing changes by the form of introducing ordering desegregation within the schools. Although the process of desegregation faced lot of difficulties in the beginning, the Civil Movement Act, 1964 was able to implement the process successfully. The school authorities then adopted the process of desegregation by working upon the implementation of several steps that finally led towards attaining integration amongst the African-American and American societies and their children. References Brown, L. T. (2004). Brown v. Board of education and school desegregation: an analysis of selected litigation. Dissertation, 1-225. Chesler, M. A., Crowfoot, J. E., & Bryant, B. I. (1978). Institutional changes to support school desegregation: alternative models underlying research and implementation. Alternative Models, 174-213. Cohen, A. M. (1966). The process of desegregation: a case study. The Journal of Negro Education, 35(4), 445. Heiberger, C. V. (2013). A historical analysis of south Holland school district 151 desegregation order: an examination of superintendent decisions based on board actions grounded in the context of prevailing social, political, legal and educational conditions for the period 1967-2010, Dissertations, 1-294. Irvin, J. J., & Irvine, R. W. (2007). The impact of desegregation process on the education of black students: a retrospective analysis. The Journal of Negro Education, 76(3), 297-305. Marshall, B. (1976). Book review: Simple justice: The history of brown v. board of education and black America’s struggle for equality. Faculty Scholarship Series, 356-360. Orfield, G., & Ee, J. (2014). Segregating California’s future. Civil Rights Project, 1-62. Orfield, G., & Lee, C. (2004). Brown at 50: King’s dream or Plessy’s nightmare? The Civil Rights Project, 1-41. Pérez, D. M. C. (2012). Reimagining civil rights and school desegregation in the south after 50 years of the civil rights movement through historical narrative of holly spring in Mississippi. Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, 28(3), 73-90. Wells, A. S., Holme, J. J., Revilla, A. T., & Atanda, A. K. (2005). How desegregation changed us: the effects of racially mixed schools on students and society. Report, 1-42. Read More