Modern Segregation

Nowadays, segregation in America isn’t as popular as it once was during the Jim Crow Era, on the other hand, there are dramatic changes in segregation between the past and the present . Today, Public facilities are no longer separating people by race; segregation is usually economically wise, and children are allowed to attend schools of their will as long as they have the ability, or the money. A superior, or inferior race no longer exist in this nation. But is segregation really over, as President Kennedy declared some fifty years ago?

NO! Segregation is not over; it still exists in places throughout the United States, but in different ways. There are people, either consciously or subconsciously separating themselves from others that are different. For example, black and white students that attend the same school sit at different tables at lunch, or tend to stick with what is familiar with them and that is often time their color. It is sad to even say that the Civil Rights Activist fought for integration, and it was their top priority for equality, but people are still separating themselves because of some insecurities.

I believe the main reason of why some people think they’re worse than others is from the cause of stereotypes, such as people of different race possess different brains! These kinds of beliefs has been long since proved to be wrong by scientist, though a lot of people still choose to believe it. I think they are doing this because they want excuses for not trying. In my school, when teachers ask some students a question, they simply reply “I don’t know? If you want to know why, then it is because that I am (this race), and so I am SUPPOSED to be stupid!”
This is the effect of modern segregation, the impact it had on kids’ brain can change their life, tremendously!

-Kevin
Revised by Amanda

The Civil Rights Movement

It has taken many years for African-Americans to gain equality that was rightfully given to them in the US Constitution and they have overcome many obstacles. I will start my summary after The American Civil War ended(with a little about the civil war) and will end in the late nineteen-sixties because that was the high-point of the Civil Rights Movement. The Civil War was the war between The Confederacy which were the southern-eastern states and The Union which were the northern-eastern states; there was also the border states, the border states were the five states that were between the North and the South they also had soldiers join The Confederacy and The Union. The Union won after four years of war and 620,000 casualties.

After The Civil War between 1865 and 1870 three new amendments were added into the US Constitution, the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments are known as The Reconstruction Amendments. The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery and forbids involuntary servitude. The fourteenth amendment gives Americans equal rights and make it so that a state cannot take away an Americans "life, liberty, or property". The Fifteenth Amendment is that no state can take away someone's right to vote no matter their race, color or if they were a slave. From 1865 to 1887 was the Reconstruction Period was when America was putting itself back together after The Civil War. It was also when the northern states enforced the three new amendments. During the Reconstruction, the South made black codes that wasn't very different from before The Civil War, for example African-Americans had to have work contracts and if you ran away from work you will be a "fugitive or labor" and a "negro catchers" would be paid five dollars to bring you back, also your years pay would be taken away if this happened which wasn't very much to begin with. Troops (and some abolitionists) were sent to stop the black codes. After the troops withdrew from 1887. After that the South still had many problems and blamed most of them on the blacks. The Redeemers also put poll taxes and counted votes incorrectly to make African Americans powerless and it denied them the rights given to by the US Constitution

The US Supreme Court made a decision in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson was as long as something is "separate but equal" it's okay by law(legal) and now there was an excuse for keeping the races separated and White Americans superior . After this the southern states did not hold back in how much the segregated the races. They made the Jim Crow laws, the Jim Crow Laws were laws that favored White Americans and left the minority races at a disadvantage, usually money and educationally wise. The races were segregated in many places and ways, such as schools, restrooms, drinking fountains,at work, in neighborhoods, hospitals, stores and public transportation. For about a hundred or so years Jim Crow Laws were practiced throughout the South until around the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. These years were the peak of the Civil Rights Movement.

The Civil Rights Movement is when Civil Right activists fought for equal rights among the races. During the peak of the Civil Rights Movement activists worked hard to make and prove that all races were equal and none was inferior. "Brown v. Board of Education" was in 1954, it was the case in which the US Supreme Court declared that ''separate was not equal'' and the integration of public schools in the nation. The Little Rock Board of Education were the first to obey the order and were to integrate Central High school in Little Rock, AK in 1957. There was a rough start with the nine students and the citizens of little were not too quick to agree with the law as hoped, the Little Rock Nine(that is what the first nine African-American students were nicknamed) even had an armed escort follow them from class to class. There were also sit-ins, sit-ins are when someone sits somewhere as a way to protest. One famous sit-in was when four college students sat at a segregated Woolworth store's counter to protest Woolworth's all white policy. The Freedom Riders were people wanted to desegregate buses, bus terminals including the restrooms and fountains in them. They would travel across the South and have white activists in the back of the bus and black activists in the front of they would sit next to each other. This is not all that that happened in The Civil Rights Movement but its what led to it and what led to it and some things that were a part the the movement.

(Copy righted!) A Timeline From the End of Civil War to Today

-1865: The Civil War ended. The North won, and they created the 13th,14th, and 15th amendment, and enforced it throughout the whole nation, especially for the South.
-1876 to 1965: The Jim Crow Laws were established in the South to get around the 13th,14th, and 15th amendments, to continue to enable segregation.
-1896: In the case Plessy V.S. Ferguson, the argument "Separate but equal" was at last approved by the Supreme Court. This case establishes basic race relations in America.
-1935: Baltimore Court rules Donald Murray must be admitted to white law school, which upset a lot of White people .
-1938: Supreme Court rules Lloyd Lionel Gaines must be admitted to the University of Missouri Law School, and it earned more disapproval from the White people .
-1950: Supreme Court rules in Sweatt v. Painter and McLaurin v. Oklahoma that segregation of law school program is unconstitutional.
-1954: Plessy v. Ferguson's "separate but equal" doctrine is over-turned by Brown v. Board of Education.
-1955: Second Brown decision calls for school desegregation.
-1957: Arkansas governor Faubus calls out National Guard to prevent nine black students from entering Little Rock High School. -- President Dwight Eisenhower sends 1,000 paratroopers to restore order and escort the black students to class.
-1960: Four students stage a sit-in a in Greensboro, North Carolina Woolworth's department store after being refused service at the all White's lunch counter because they were black.
-1962: James Meredith, a black student, enrolls at the University of Mississippi, creating huge conflict in the south.
-1963: Alabama governor George Wallace attempts to prevent the desegregation of public schools. - John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
-1965: James Meredith is shot during his Walk Against Fear.
-1971: In Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, Supreme Court decides courts can order busing to desegregate schools.
-2010: Today, segregation is very rare, though still exist everywhere in the world.
-Kevin He

Civil Right Timeline 1861-1963

1861-1865-The American Civil War took place. The southern American states(the Confederacy) wanted to recede from the northern states(the Union), the 5 main reasons being:

- State versus federal rights

-The growth of abolitionists and the abolition movement

-The election of President Abraham Lincoln

-Social and economical differences

-The controversy between Slave and Non-Slave states

The Union won the war and the Confederacy had to stay a part of the USA and comply with the US law.

January 31, 1965, Congress passed the 13th Amendment that freed all the slaves and making It so that you cannot make someone work for you involuntary.

June 18, 1966-Congress passed the 14th Amendment that said anyone who was born or is a citizen of the US have equal rights and privileges and none off the states can take away it's citizens 'rights, liberties, and property' without the laws jurisdiction.

February 26, 1869-Congress passed the 15th Amendment stating that every American citizen has the right to vote and that the US and any of the states can take away their rights no matter their race, color, or if they if they were a slave or an indentured servant.

1865-1877-The Reconstruction Period in America was the US putting itself back together after the Civil War. During The Civil War, America was torn in two groups The Union(the North) and the Confederacy(the South). After the Union won the Confederacy had to obey the new laws that the Supreme Court passed. The Reconstruction Period was the time in which America was putting the two groups back together to form a "A more perfect union" and to get the South to follow the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments

1896-The Supreme Court decided to keep segregation in America. This case in which this decision was made "Plessy v. Ferguson", on the terms "separate but equal"

For around the next 100 or so years from 1865 through the 1960's African-Americans were separated from white Americans. They had different bathrooms, schools, neighborhoods, buses, drinking fountains,and stores among other things. African-Americans were second class throughout Americas southern states. There were spoken and unspoken laws separating colored races and the white races. There was also a line between the races that White Americans did not like to be crossed.

May 17, 1954-The US Supreme Court issued Brown v. Board of Education the desegregation of the Americas' public schools.

May 24, 1955-The Little Rock School Board of Education in Arkansas agreed to the courts commands to gradually integrate their public schools.

December 1955-November 1956-The Montgomery Tennessee Bus Boycott was when 50,000 African-American boycotted public buses in protest to desegregate public transportation in Montgomery. The boycott lasted 381 days, 90% of Africans-American took part in the boycott, and lowered the public bus revenue by 80%. The boycott was a success.

September 1, 1957-Nine students were registered into Central high School in Little Rock, AK and were to start school on Sept. 1st but were unable to, because the governor at the time Gov. Faubus sent the Little Rock National Guard to blockade the African-American students from entering the school. The nine students names were Ernest Green, Elizabeth Eckford, Jefferson Thomas, Minniejean Brown, Thelma Mothershed, Terrence Roberts, Melba Beals, Carlotta Walls LaNier, and Gloria Ray Karlmark. They were to be known as the Little Rock Nine

September 24, 1957-President Eisenhower on Mayor Woodrow Mann's request sent 101 Airborne Division of the US Army to protect the Little Rock Nine from the protesters/mob of in front Little Rocks Central High School.

September 25, 1957-The Little Rock Nine entered Central High with an armed escort.

May 27, 1958-Earnest Green was the first African-American student to graduate from Central High.

February 1 1960-Four African-Americans college students sat at a segregated Woolworth counter to protest the stores exclusion of African-American. This inspired other important sit-ins.

May 4, 1961-The Freedom Riders left Washington DC on an excursion to New Orleans. The reason of the Freedom Riders and the Freedom Rides was to integrate bus passengers traveling on the inter-state and desegregate bus terminals including the water fountains and restrooms in them.

May 2, 1963-The Children's March took place(D-day). The Children of Birmingham, Alabama marched from Saint Baptist Church to be arrested and to "fill up the jails". Children from ages as young four were a part of the crusade. The children were hosed with water, attacked by dogs, and were overcrowded in the Birmingham jail. The efforts of this movement was to desegregate and change Birmingham's discrimination laws.

A Summary From Reconstruction to Today

To gain a better understanding of segregation, I think a time line of events starting from the end of the Civil War to now would help, because they all lead from one to the other. Beginning from the end of the Civil War, 1865, where the North won, a period called Reconstruction began. The North was trying to reconstruct both sides back into a whole nation, so they enforced three amendments throughout the whole nation, though especially for the southern states, and the South had to accept it due to their defeat. The 13th Amendments abolished slavery and prohibited involuntary servitude . The 14th Amendment gave equal rights among all U.S. citizens. The 15th Amendment made it so everyone, no matter of their differences, race, color... all deserves the right to vote. The South went mad, but they had to listen to it.

After the supervisors from the north left the south, thinking that the reconstruction was a success, the South became rebellious. They came up with state laws that made black and white people to have different rights. Such as the black codes, poll taxes, ability to read the contract for voting, and more. All of these state laws were very unfair and favored only one side, which was the White.

The period of time from 1865 to 1965 was very painful for black people that lived in the Southern states; for some time it was similar with slavery, or even worse; as African-Americans were not allowed to quit their place of work, and were paid considerably much lower than their white co-workers. After the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the case of Plessy V.S. Ferguson, segregation grew enormously. African-Americans and White Americans were separated in nearly every way(e.g. schools for only black or only whites, drinking fountains, public transportation, most stores in general, playgrounds, neighborhoods, and socially among other things). These segregation laws were made by the southern states that once were The Confederacy and were called Jim Crow laws.

This type of living continued for another 100 years, but on May 2, 1963, the black people finally decided to take actions! A crowd in Alabama was inspired by Martin Luther king, containing both black adults and students, to protest about segregation. The method that they were using to convince the government was to meet violence with non-violence. A lot of them were arrested, but with a smiles on their face. They knew that they were doing the right thing, and they would win this time, and finally have freedom. This event lasted for quite a long time, but at last it caught President Kennedy’s attention. On June 11, 1963, the president declared the end of segregation (it still continues today, but less frequent and in a different form).

Integration began, but very slowly. Schools started to accept black students, restaurants began to be for both black and white as well…

Today, it is a common phenomenon to see black and white together, laughing and joking with each other. Though imagine that relationship 100 years ago, probably impossible!

-Kevin He

Class Report

From the discussions I had in class, I personally think that the statistics that I looked at were very wrong, but since the statistics were based on surveys, it really isn't favoring anybody on purpose. There were a few statistics that surprised me a lot, such as: high school graduates often live longer than high school dropouts, and that most Black and Latino students are at least three grade level behind Asian and White student by the time they reach fourth grade. Though there is one data that stands out to me the most, and it seems to annoy me a lot as well: it is White and Asian student always get better grades than Black and Latino student. This is annoying because it allows a stereotype that was once popular, though now disapproved, to remain convincing among many families. It is that people of different colors are born with different brains! I think this belief is simply ridiculous, because from what I know, this belief has been clarified by modern scientists to be fictitious. So I think that the black and Latino student's academical inferiority has other causes.
I believe that parent is the main influential cause for black and Latino students' inferiority in school. Because when the black and Latino students were still young, they most likely look up to their parent as role models all the time, and learn all of their old and stupid stereotype beliefs, and give up on themselves. So as they grow up, they all become a duplication of the old generation.
-Kevin He