The Black History Month part 1: Education

I have been interested in American history. Especially the Black history. Their stories in the past hit me hard because of what they had been through and how they overcame to affirm their position in the United States of America. But unfortunately, there is still racism in our daily life toward Black people and other races different than white. We are celebrating Black history month. So, I would like to spend this week writing about my opinion on Black history and its legacies. I hope that from the view of an immigrant interested in Black history and culture, I can dedicate myself to the previous generation of Black people and to this generation who is still fighting against racism and for equality.

In this first post, I would like to focus on education. Dr. Martin Luther King used to say: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do it.” Racism is something Americans of all generations witnessed. Race was created socially, primarily by how people perceive ideas and faces we are not quite used to. The concept of race as classifying people can be seen as misleading and prejudicial as it’s involved in the quality of human life.

Source: Boston University School of Social Work

Since the first day of building America, slavery has been the root of all racism in America until today. The inhumane treatment, the disapproval of citizenship, and the inequality in everything had put racism into a vicious system of racial discrimination and prejudice. Among the inequality of everything, education is the most severe problem that many significant case landmarks made by the Supreme Court have changed education forever and created more diversity in every school nowadays. It came a long way.

Racism has begun during the days of building America since the time of slavery. While drafting the Declaration of Independence, the term “vehement philippic against negro slavery” was added by John Adams to condemn slavery. But eventually, it was dropped from the official version by the Continental Congress. This led to an open opportunity to expand slavery and racism. Even the Constitution didn’t include the word “slavery.” The Framers ignored it because if including it, slavery would make the Constitution ugly and leave a stain. Fredrick Douglas, an abolitionist, saw that action as a “scaffolding”. He argued that the Framers were trying to hide away their support of slavery to build a structure of a new Union, and once things were done, slavery would be forgotten, and nothing could end it. (Rossum and Tarr, 504)

Beginning with “Separate but equal,” a term based on Jim Crow law. It asserted that African Americans should be equal to the white community. They would have separate swimming pools, eating places, restrooms, and public schools. The concept was supported a lot by the white community.

It all came back to Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, a case that changed the course of history forever and acted as a detonator of a bomb that led to the path of the Civil Right movement in the 20th century. On June 7, 1892, Homer Plessy was arrested for taking a vacant seat in a white-only section on a train from New Orlean to Louisiana. He later filed a lawsuit against Honor John H. Ferguson, claiming that the law violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. It was evident that Plessy was doing the right thing because the Clause stated that a state’s laws must treat everyone in its jurisdiction the same as they treat others. But at that time, there was no way a black man could sit next to a white man without any problem. The Supreme Court held that Plessy v. Ferguson had nothing to do with the 13th Amendment and supported state racial segregation so that African Americans could have the same like white. Justice Henry Brown said. “If the civil and political rights of both races are equal, one cannot be inferior to the other civilly or politically. If one race is inferior to the other socially, the Constitution of the United States cannot put them upon the same plane.” (Rossum and Tarr, 523).

He meant that the 14th Amendment was supposed to establish equality for every race before the laws. But not for African Americans, as he referred to them as “the inferiority.” Judge John Harlan dissent from the decision of the Supreme Court. He called out that the Constitution is “color-blinded” and said that the laws consider man as a man without taking account of the colors when the supreme law of the land protects an individual’s civil rights. It would have been different if all the Justices had the same thought as Justice Harlan. No one should be discriminated against or segregated based on their skin. Plessy v. Ferguson opened the door of segregation in everything. Including education.

Late South Africa’s president once said. “Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.” Indeed, but unfortunately, education is not for everyone there is a barrier of racism that blocks other races different than white. Throughout history, many landmarks led to equality in education today, with more diversity in every school. Each landmark had put a brick on the road to freedom and equality. 

Soon after Plessy v. Ferguson decision, in 1899, Cumming v. Richmond County Board of Education proved that there was no “separate but equal” for African Americans. It was “unequal and separate.” This case happened when Georgia’s school board discontinued the existence of high schools for black students. Instead, they would use more funds and infrastructure for black elementary schools. Meanwhile, there were more high schools for white being built. Seeing the unfair treatment for black students, black taxpayers, and parents filed a lawsuit against Richmond County Board of Education to restrain the board from using money to support white high schools until they did the same to the black students. The case went to the Supreme Court. They ruled that the case didn’t violate the Equal Protection Clause and was not about segregation. They argued that closing white schools would not help black and stressed that an injunction to close the white schools was not the proper legal remedy, as it would not help the black children (Rossum and Tarr, 508). The case reflected a dark side of education at that time in which African Americans couldn’t have a proper education after elementary school. The laws didn’t want African Americans to have more education. 

The 20th century marked the highest point of the Civil Right Movement among African Americans to gain the proper justice for them. They had a long history of racism, and African Americans, through generations, had written a very heroic history that the next generations would never forget. Blood was shed, and lives were lost to sacrifice for freedom, equality, and the future of Americans. 

The landmark of Brown vs. Board of Education changed education history forever. In 1950, Linda Brown, a third grader, was required by law to attend a school for black children in her hometown of Topeka, Kansas. To do so, Linda walked six blocks, crossing dangerous railroad tracks, and then boarded a bus that took her to Monroe Elementary. Yet, only seven blocks from her house were Sumner Elementary, a school attended by white children, which, save for segregation, Linda would otherwise have attended. Her father, Oliver Brown, encouraged by NAACP chief counsel Thurgood Marshall, brought suit against the Topeka school district. The case was named after a lawsuit filed in 1951 by NAACP lawyers against the Topeka, Kansas, school district on behalf of Linda Brown and her family. 

The Supreme Court unanimously decided that separate but equal in school violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. The court also held that segregation affected dreadfully on the education and personal growth of African American students if they got the proper education (Rossum and Tarr, 526). Chief Justice Earl Warren delivered the opinion that separate educational facilities were inherently unequal, and no further discussion on whether segregation violated the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. (Rossum and Tarr, 527) It violated in many ways. 

The decision of Brown v. Board of Education had outplayed segregation in schools. But it upset white people a lot. There was little progression because segregation was still happening in many schools around the country. Three years after Brown v Board of Education, Little Rock Nine, a group of African American high-school students who challenged racial segregation in Little Rock Central High School of Little Rock for white students, Arkansas, became the center of the struggle to desegregate public schools in the South when they were at that high school. Students were warned that their actions might kill them, but with their courage, they still did what they had to do. Governor Orval Eugene Faubus sent state troopers to block the school gate and protect the students (Anderson, 603). The group faced physical abuse and verbal attacks from white students throughout their way to Central High. They kept yelling at the black students with many hateful words and even wanted to attack them physically. White students didn’t want any black students on the campus. Nobody could describe that horrible moment.

Segregation was still a political card being put on the table every time it got involved in school. In Swann v. Charlotte - Mecklenburg Board of Education (1971), once again weighed the existence of segregation after viewing Brown v. Board of Education had not had much impact on the future of school desegregation. In this case, there were still many black students, nearly two-thirds of whom attended the school at least 99% black in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina (Rossum and Tarr, 529). When the case reached the Supreme Court, the decision was made that this was not about segregation and busing was an appropriate remedy for the racial inequality in every school. It had “no rigid guidelines as to student transportation can be given for application to the infinite variety of problems presented in thousands of situations” (Rossum and Tarr, 531).

And now, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis wants to ban the AP Black history course because the course contains political movements that try to abolish prisons and queer theory. However, the course teaches culture, movements, literature, and history. There is no critical race theory (which I will write about later on because there are so many things to say about this). Banning AP Black history is like a way to reject or abolish the legacies of Black people in the past. It is as if they wanted to deny slavery and racism; they wanted to keep the reputation of the white race clean or try to make the white race a supremacist over other races. That is unacceptable. Everyone needs to know what happened in the past, even if it is horrible and hard to accept. But it is history; it is the truth.

In 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King made his famous speech “I have a dream” at the Lincoln Memorial. He dreamed that “one day sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.” After many years, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream finally came true. Nowadays, there is no more segregation in schools. There are more diversities. The dedications of all the people who fought for society’s changes are vast and recognizable by people. They wrote a proud history of fighting back the segregation and racism in America. And from generation to generation, they will never forget their fathers’ path. Nowadays, there is still racism, not about their skin, but about their race. The US is now divided, and people must fight for justice and unite the nation. As the Pledge of Allegiance says, “One nation, under God.”

References

Anderson, K. (2004). The Little Rock School Desegregation Crisis: Moderation and Social Conflict. The Journal of Southern History, 70(3), 603 https://doi.org/10.2307/27648479

Rossum, R. A., & Tarr, G. A. (2020). American constitutional law, Volume Ii: The Bill of Rights and subsequent amendments. Taylor & Francis.