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95-522: Despite the Supreme Court's ruling of 1954 in the Brown v. Board of Education case striking down segregated school systems , in the mid-1960s Mississippi still maintained separate and unequal white and "colored" school systems. On average, the state spent $ 81.66 to educate a white student compared to only $ 21.77 for a black student. Mississippi was one of only two states in the union that did not have

190-593: A Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) activist, proposed the organization sponsor a network of Freedom Schools, inspired by examples of the concept used previously in other cities. In the summer of 1963, the county board of education in Prince Edward County, Virginia had closed the public schools rather than integrate them after having been sued in a case following Brown vs. Board of Education , and so Freedom Schools emerged in their stead. In September, 1963, about 3,000 students participated in

285-701: A boycott of the New York City public schools in what was the largest civil rights demonstration of the 1960s, and up to 100,000 students attended alternative Freedom Schools. The Mississippi Freedom Schools were developed as part of the 1964 Freedom Summer civil rights project , a massive effort that focused on voter registration drives and educating Mississippi students for social change. The Council of Federated Organizations (COFO)—an umbrella civil rights organization of activists and funds drawn from SNCC , CORE , NAACP , and SCLC —among other organizations, coordinated Freedom Summer. The project

380-453: A landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segregated schools are otherwise equal in quality. The decision partially overruled the Court's 1896 decision Plessy v. Ferguson , which had held that racial segregation laws did not violate the U.S. Constitution as long as

475-897: A Mohawk Indian reservation ; The Freedom Schools in St. Louis , Missouri and Chicago , Illinois, the Tyree Scott Freedom Schoo l in Seattle, Washington, and the Paulo Freire Freedom School in Tucson , Arizona. The Children's Defense Fund (CDF) operates a nationwide modern Freedom School program. This program is coordinated through the Children's Defense Fund's Black Community Crusade for Children initiative. The CDF Freedom Schools national program operates over 130 summer program sites in 24 states across

570-543: A Stay Out for Freedom protest in Boston opting instead to attend community-organized Freedom Schools. On October 22, 1963, known as Freedom Day, more than 200,000 students boycotted the Chicago Public Schools to protest segregation and poor school conditions, with some attending Freedom Schools instead. Subsequently, on February 3, 1964 in a similar Freedom day protest, over 450,000 students participated in

665-556: A key stumbling block. After Vinson died in September 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed Earl Warren as Chief Justice. Warren had supported the integration of Mexican-American students in California school systems following Mendez v. Westminster . However, Eisenhower invited Earl Warren to a White House dinner, where the president told him: "These [southern whites] are not bad people. All they are concerned about

760-399: A lead agency, Communities In Schools. Atlanta's Freedom University , a modern-day freedom school and only school in the world where all students are undocumented immigrants, offers a tuition-free, liberatory college curriculum that helps undocumented youth access higher education. Brown v. Board of Education Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka , 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was

855-475: A mandatory education law and many children in rural areas were sent to work in the fields and received little education at all. Even the curriculum was different for white and black. As a typical example, the white school board of Bolivar County mandated that "Neither foreign languages nor civics shall be taught in Negro schools. Nor shall American history from 1860 to 1875 be taught." In late 1963, Charles Cobb ,

950-549: A progressive city, was one of the last holdouts for school desegregation. In Moberly, Missouri , the schools were desegregated, as ordered. However, after 1955, the African-American teachers from the local "negro school" were not retained; this was ascribed to poor performance. They appealed their dismissal in Naomi Brooks et al., Appellants, v. School District of City of Moberly, Missouri, Etc., et al. ; but it

1045-593: A signatory of the UNESCO declaration. The United States and the Soviet Union were both at the height of the Cold War during this time, and U.S. officials, including Supreme Court justices, were highly aware of the harm that segregation and racism were doing to America's international image. When Justice William O. Douglas traveled to India in 1950, the first question he was asked was, "Why does America tolerate

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1140-609: A statement that demanded access to public accommodations, building codes for each home, integrated schools, a public works program, and the appointment of qualified blacks to state positions. Freedom School teachers and students remained committed to the Freedom School concept. In early August 1964, plans were being made to continue the Freedom Schools during the upcoming school year, and some volunteer teachers had already agreed to stay. Students decided, however, during

1235-412: Is inherently unequal because of its psychological impact upon the segregated children. To separate [black children] from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely to ever be undone. The Court supported this conclusion with citations—in a footnote, not

1330-600: Is on trial both at home and abroad, ... the extent to which we maintain the spirit of our constitution with its Bill of Rights, will in the long run do more to make it both secure and the object of adulation than the number of hydrogen bombs we stockpile." In 1951, a class-action lawsuit was filed against the Board of Education of the City of Topeka, Kansas , in the United States District Court for

1425-530: Is to see that their sweet little girls are not required to sit in school alongside some big overgrown Negroes." Nevertheless, the Justice Department sided with the African-American plaintiffs. While all but one justice personally rejected segregation, the judicial restraint faction questioned whether the Constitution gave the court the power to order its end. The activist faction believed

1520-674: The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. However, the decision's 14 pages did not spell out any sort of method for ending racial segregation in schools, and the Court's second decision in Brown II (1955) only ordered states to desegregate "with all deliberate speed". In the Southern United States , the reaction to Brown among most white people

1615-586: The Greensboro, North Carolina school board declared that it would abide by the Brown ruling. This was the result of the initiative of D. E. Hudgins Jr., a former Rhodes Scholar and prominent attorney, who chaired the school board. This made Greensboro the first, and for years the only, city in the South, to announce its intent to comply. However, others in the city resisted integration, putting up legal obstacles to

1710-483: The Massive Resistance movement that included the closing of schools rather than desegregating them. For several decades after the Brown decision, African-American teachers, principals, and other school staff who worked in segregated Black schools were fired or laid off as Southerners sought to create a system of integrated schools with White leadership. According to historian Michael Fultz, "In many ways

1805-615: The U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas heard the case and ruled against the Browns, relying on the precedent of Plessy and its "separate but equal" doctrine. The Browns, represented by NAACP chief counsel Thurgood Marshall , appealed the ruling directly to the Supreme Court. In May 1954, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous 9–0 decision in favor of the Browns. The Court ruled that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal," and therefore laws that impose them violate

1900-477: The " Little Rock Nine " after the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School . President Dwight D. Eisenhower responded by asserting federal control over the Arkansas National Guard and deploying troops from the U.S. Army 's 101st Airborne Division stationed at Fort Campbell to ensure the black students could safely register for and attend classes. Also in 1957, Florida's response

1995-645: The 60 years preceding the Brown case, race relations in the United States had been dominated by racial segregation . Such state policies had been endorsed by the United States Supreme Court ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which held that as long as the separate facilities for separate races were equal, state segregation did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment 's Equal Protection Clause ("no State shall ... deny to any person ...

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2090-447: The Court's decision in Brown , but most white Southerners decried it. Many white Southerners viewed Brown as "a day of catastrophe—a Black Monday —a day something like Pearl Harbor ." In the face of entrenched Southern opposition, progress on integrating American schools was slow. The American political historian Robert G. McCloskey described: The reaction of the white South to this judicial onslaught on its institutions

2185-536: The Court's opinion in Brown made no reference to these considerations of foreign policy, there is no doubt that they significantly influenced the decision." In spring 1953, the court heard the case, but was unable to decide the issue and asked to rehear the case in fall 1953, with special attention to whether the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause prohibited the operation of separate public schools for whites and blacks. The court reargued

2280-493: The District of Kansas . The plaintiffs were thirteen Topeka parents on behalf of their 20 children. The suit called for the school district to reverse its policy of racial segregation. The Topeka Board of Education operated separate elementary schools due to a 1879 Kansas law, which permitted (but did not require) districts to maintain separate elementary school facilities for black and white students in 12 communities with populations over 15,000. The plaintiffs had been recruited by

2375-459: The Fourteenth Amendment did give the necessary authority and were pushing to go ahead. Warren, who held only a recess appointment , held his tongue until the Senate confirmed his appointment. Warren convened a meeting of the justices, and presented to them the simple argument that the only reason to sustain segregation was an honest belief in the inferiority of Negroes. Warren further submitted that

2470-572: The Freedom School Conference in early August to not continue the schools. Yet students implemented the leadership and activism experienced during the summer in their own schools. Some students returned to school and demanded better facilities and more courses. Students in Philadelphia, Mississippi , returned to school wearing SNCC "One Man, One Vote" buttons—for which they were expelled. The Philadelphia Freedom Library

2565-666: The Freedom Summer project accepted Cobb's proposal and in March 1964 organized a curriculum planning conference in New York under the sponsorship of the National Council of Churches . Spelman College history professor Staughton Lynd was appointed Director of the Freedom School program. Over the course of Freedom Summer, more than 40 Freedom Schools were set up in black communities throughout Mississippi. The purpose

2660-712: The Lee-Jackson state holiday, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled the closures violated the state constitution, and a panel of federal judges ruled they violated the U.S. Constitution. In early February 1959, both the Arlington County (also subject to an NAACP lawsuit, and which had lost its elected school board pursuant to other parts of the Stanley Plan) and Norfolk schools desegregated peacefully. Soon, all counties reopened and integrated with

2755-464: The Nation." During the segregation era, it was common for black schools to have fewer resources and poorer facilities than white schools despite the equality required by the "separate but equal" doctrine. The Brown Court did not address this issue, however, probably because some of the school districts involved in the case had improved their black schools in order to "equalize" them with the quality of

2850-499: The South moved faster, with more 'deliberate speed' in displacing Black educators than it did in desegregating schools." Texas Attorney General John Ben Shepperd organized a campaign to generate legal obstacles to the implementation of desegregation. In September 1957, Arkansas governor Orval Faubus called out the Arkansas Army National Guard to block the entry of nine black students, later known as

2945-480: The U.S. Supreme Court justices. The 13 plaintiffs were: Oliver Brown, Darlene Brown, Lena Carper, Sadie Emmanuel, Marguerite Emerson, Shirley Fleming, Zelma Henderson , Shirley Hodison, Maude Lawton, Alma Lewis, Iona Richardson, Vivian Scales, and Lucinda Todd. The last surviving plaintiff, Zelma Henderson, died in Topeka, on May 20, 2008, at age 88. The District Court ruled in favor of the Board of Education, citing

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3040-645: The U.S. Supreme Court precedent set in Plessy v. Ferguson . Judge Walter Huxman wrote the opinion for the three-judge District Court panel, including nine "findings of fact," based on the evidence presented at trial. Although finding number eight stated that segregation in public education has a detrimental effect on negro children, the court denied relief on the ground that the negro and white schools in Topeka were substantially equal with respect to buildings, transportation, curricula, and educational qualifications of teachers. This finding would be specifically cited in

3135-657: The United States has an adverse effect upon our relations with other countries. Racial discrimination furnishes grist for the Communist propaganda mills." The brief also quoted a letter by Secretary of State Dean Acheson lamenting that "the United States is under constant attack in the foreign press, over the foreign radio, and in such international bodies as the United Nations because of various practices of discrimination in this country." British barrister and parliamentarian Anthony Lester has written that "Although

3230-409: The actual implementation of school desegregation for years afterward, and in 1969, the federal government found the city was not in compliance with the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Transition to a fully integrated school system did not begin until 1971, after numerous local lawsuits and both nonviolent and violent demonstrations. Historians have noted the irony that Greensboro, which had heralded itself as such

3325-432: The case at the behest of Associate Justice Felix Frankfurter , who used reargument as a stalling tactic, to allow the court to gather a consensus around a Brown opinion that would outlaw segregation. The justices in support of desegregation spent much effort convincing those who initially intended to dissent to join a unanimous opinion. Although the legal effect would be same for a majority rather than unanimous decision, it

3420-653: The case. The brief was unusual in its heavy emphasis on foreign-policy considerations of the Truman administration in a case ostensibly about domestic issues. Of the seven pages covering "the interest of the United States," five focused on the way school segregation hurt the United States in the Cold War competition for the friendship and allegiance of non-white peoples in countries then gaining independence from colonial rule. Attorney General James P. McGranery noted that "the existence of discrimination against minority groups in

3515-529: The cases of Sweatt v. Painter , 339 U.S. 629 (1950) and McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents , 339 U.S. 637 (1950), suggesting that racial segregation was inherently unequal (at least in some settings), which paved the way for Brown . The plaintiffs in Brown asserted that the system of racial separation in all schools, while masquerading as providing separate but equal treatment of both white and black Americans, instead perpetuated inferior accommodations, services, and treatment for black Americans. Brown

3610-523: The circumstances surrounding the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868. It covered exhaustively consideration of the Amendment in Congress, ratification by the states, then-existing practices in racial segregation, and the views of proponents and opponents of the Amendment. This discussion and our own investigation convince us that, although these sources cast some light, it is not enough to resolve

3705-552: The closest neighborhood school in the fall of 1951. They were each refused enrollment and redirected to the segregated schools. The case "Oliver Brown et al. v. The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas" was named after Oliver Brown as a legal strategy to have a man at the head of the roster. The lawyers, and the National Chapter of the NAACP, also felt that having Mr. Brown at the head of the roster would be better received by

3800-637: The country serving nearly 7,200 children. In Michigan the Black Radical Congress in Detroit launched a campaign to create a model based on the Freedom Schools. Philadelphia Freedom Schools is an independent community education initiative operating a modern version of the Mississippi curriculum with an emphasis on academic scholarship, social action and intergenerational leadership. Philadelphia Freedom Schools are organized through

3895-480: The county either had to leave the county to receive any education between 1959 and 1963, or received no education. All private schools in the region remained racially segregated. This lasted until 1964, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Prince Edward County's decision to provide tuition grants for private schools that only admitted whites violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, in

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3990-448: The court must overrule Plessy to maintain its legitimacy as an institution of liberty, and it must do so unanimously to avoid massive Southern resistance. He began to build a unanimous opinion. Although most justices were immediately convinced, Warren spent some time after this famous speech convincing everyone to sign onto the opinion. Justice Jackson dropped his concurrence and Reed finally decided to drop his dissent. The final decision

4085-479: The daughter of local black resident Oliver Brown at the school closest to their home, instead requiring her to ride a bus to a segregated black school farther away. The Browns and twelve other local black families in similar situations filed a class-action lawsuit in U.S. federal court against the Topeka Board of Education, alleging its segregation policy was unconstitutional. A special three-judge court of

4180-558: The development of academic skills. The Academic Curriculum consisted of reading, writing, and verbal activities that were based on the student's own experiences. The Citizenship Curriculum was to encourage the students to ask questions about the society. The Recreational Curriculum required the student to be physically active. In most of the schools, the Citizenship Curriculum focused on two sets of inter-related questions for class discussion: Freedom Schools opened during

4275-529: The district court judge in Gebhart ordered that the black students be admitted to the white high school due to the substantial harm of segregation and the differences that made the separate schools unequal. Under the leadership of Walter Reuther , the United Auto Workers donated $ 75,000 to help pay for the NAACP's efforts at the Supreme Court. The NAACP's chief counsel, Thurgood Marshall —who

4370-541: The education of Southern black children was "almost nonexistent", to the point that in some Southern states the education of black people was forbidden by law. The Court contrasted this with the situation in 1954: "Today, education is perhaps the most important function of our local and state governments." The Court concluded that, in making its ruling, it would have to "consider public education in light of its full development and its present place in American life throughout

4465-874: The enrollment of two black students in what became known as the " Stand in the Schoolhouse Door " incident. Wallace sought to uphold his "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" promise he had given in his 1963 inaugural address. Wallace moved aside only when confronted by General Henry V. Graham of the Alabama National Guard , whom President John F. Kennedy had ordered to intervene. Native American communities were also heavily impacted by segregation laws with native children also being prohibited from attending white institutions. Native American children considered light-complexioned were allowed to ride school buses to previously all white schools, while dark-skinned Native children from

4560-431: The enthusiasm of their students. One volunteer wrote home: The Freedom Schools were conceptualized with both political and educational objectives. Freedom School teachers would educate elementary and high school students to become social change agents that would participate in the ongoing Civil Rights Movement, most often in voter registration efforts. The curriculum adopted was divided into seven core areas that analyzed

4655-414: The equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court did not close with an order to implement the integration of the schools of the various jurisdictions. Instead, it requested the parties re-appear before the Court the following Term to hold arguments on what the appropriate remedy should be. This became the case known as Brown II , described below. Americans mostly cheered

4750-486: The equal protection of the laws"). Racial segregation in education varied widely from the 17 states that required racial segregation to the 16 in which it was prohibited. Beginning in the 1930s, a legal strategy was pursued, led by scholars at Howard University and activists at the NAACP , that sought to undermine states' public education segregation by first focusing on the graduate school setting. This led to success in

4845-399: The exception of Prince Edward County that took the extreme step of choosing not to appropriate any funding for its school system, thus forcing all its public schools to close, although Prince Edward County provided tuition grants for all students, regardless of their race, to use for private, nonsectarian education. Since no private schools existed for blacks within the county, black children in

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4940-472: The facilities for each race were equal in quality, a doctrine that had come to be known as " separate but equal ". The Court's unanimous decision in Brown , and its related cases, paved the way for integration and was a major victory of the civil rights movement , and a model for many future impact litigation cases. The case began in 1951 when the public school system in Topeka, Kansas , refused to enroll

5035-567: The final curriculum outline incorporated material from different origins and consisted of three different sections. The three sections of the Freedom School curriculum were the Academic Curriculum, the Citizenship Curriculum, and the Recreational Curriculum. The purpose of these sections was to teach students social change within the school; regional history; black history; how to answer open-ended questions; and

5130-448: The first element of pedagogy to be established must be the new ideology of the school. After this, teachers must be found who can bridge the gap between identity and alienation, being object lessons for their students both inside and outside the classroom. Finally, the curriculum was designed to explain the objective situation of black people and teach the tools and skills to deal with this reality. The curriculum as described by Churchville

5225-520: The first week of July 1964, after approximately 250 Freedom School volunteer teachers attended one-week training sessions at Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio . The original plans had anticipated 25 Freedom Schools and 1,000 students; by the end of the summer, 41 schools had been opened to over 2,500 students. Freedom Schools were established with the help and commitment of local communities, who provided various buildings for schools and housing for

5320-747: The issue and make recommendations. The commission recommended giving localities "broad discretion" in meeting the new judicial requirements. However, in 1956, a special session of the Virginia legislature adopted a legislative package which allowed the governor to simply close all schools under desegregation orders from federal courts. In early 1958, newly elected Governor J. Lindsay Almond closed public schools in Charlottesville, Norfolk, and Warren County rather than comply with desegregation orders, leaving 10,000 children without schools despite efforts of various parent groups. However, he reconsidered when on

5415-401: The justices joined. The Court's opinion began by discussing whether the Fourteenth Amendment, adopted in 1868, was meant to abolish segregation in public education. The Court said that it had been unable to reach a conclusion on the question, even after hearing a second round of oral arguments from the parties' lawyers specifically on the historical sources. Reargument was largely devoted to

5510-410: The lawsuit by a childhood friend, Charles Scott. Brown's daughter Linda Carol Brown , a third grader, had to walk six blocks to her school bus stop to ride to Monroe Elementary , her segregated black school one mile (1.6 km) away, while Sumner Elementary , a white school, was seven blocks from her house. As directed by the NAACP leadership, the parents each attempted to enroll their children in

5605-591: The leadership of the Topeka NAACP . Notable among the Topeka NAACP leaders were the chairman McKinley Burnett ; Charles Scott, one of three serving as legal counsel for the chapter; and Lucinda Todd . The named African-American plaintiff, Oliver Brown , was a parent, a welder in the shops of the Santa Fe Railroad , as well as an assistant pastor at his local church. He was convinced to join

5700-508: The lynching of Negroes?" Douglas later wrote that he had learned from his travels that "the attitude of the United States toward its colored minorities is a powerful factor in our relations with India." Chief Justice Earl Warren , nominated to the Supreme Court by President Dwight D. Eisenhower , echoed Douglas's concerns in a 1954 speech to the American Bar Association , proclaiming that "Our American system like all others

5795-471: The main text of the opinion—to several psychological studies concluding that segregating black children made them feel inferior and interfered with their learning. These studies included those of Kenneth and Mamie Clark , whose experiments in the 1940s had suggested that black American children from segregated environments preferred white dolls over black dolls . The Court then concluded its relatively short opinion by declaring that segregated public education

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5890-531: The next nine years. When Medgar Evers sued in 1963 to desegregate schools in Jackson, Mississippi , White Citizens Council member Byron De La Beckwith murdered him. Two subsequent trials resulted in hung juries. Beckwith was not convicted of the murder until 1994. In June 1963, Alabama governor George Wallace personally blocked the door to the University of Alabama 's Foster Auditorium to prevent

5985-611: The official delegation and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party went to the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey . In December 1963, during planning for the upcoming Freedom Summer project, Charles Cobb proposed a network of "Freedom Schools" that would foster political participation among Mississippi elementary and high school students, in addition to offering academic courses and discussions. Activists organizing

6080-510: The only case of the five originating from a student protest, began when 16-year-old Barbara Rose Johns organized and led a 450-student walkout of Moton High School . The Gebhart case was the only one where a trial court, affirmed by the Delaware Supreme Court , found that discrimination was unlawful; in all the other cases the plaintiffs had lost as the original courts had found discrimination to be lawful. The Kansas case

6175-411: The only way to truly become a revolutionary was to be born-again; acted on by an outside power which began to rid you of these deficiencies. The schools themselves were based on a simple set of priorities. If education is the indoctrination of the young into an ideological system, then the Freedom School must reeducate black children to reject the dominant ideology and construct a new system. To do this,

6270-493: The problem with which we are faced. At best, they are inconclusive. The Court said the question was complicated by the major social and governmental changes that had taken place in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It observed that public schools had been uncommon in the American South in the late 1860s. At that time, Southern white children whose families could afford schooling usually attended private schools, while

6365-406: The question presented: Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other "tangible" factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities? In answer, the Court held that it did. The Court ruled that state-mandated segregation, even if implemented in schools of otherwise equal quality,

6460-557: The same band were still barred from riding the same buses. Tribal leaders, having learned about Martin Luther King Jr. 's desegregation campaign in Birmingham, Alabama, contacted him for assistance. King promptly responded to the tribal leaders and through his intervention the problem was quickly resolved. In North Carolina, there was often a strategy of nominally accepting Brown , but tacitly resisting it. On May 18, 1954,

6555-507: The school day, classes were often held at night. In schools that maintained traditional school hours, typically in urban areas, citizenship curriculum and traditional academic courses were offered in the morning and special classes such as music, drama, and typing were offered in the afternoon. In many instances, entire school days would be devoted to voter registration efforts. It was imperative for SNCC activists that students would be invested in civil rights activity because this cadre of students

6650-437: The schools faced. In Clarksdale, Mississippi , for instance, the average student attendance during the first week was fifteen, the second week was eight, but at any point during the summer the school may have had in attendance as many as thirty-five students. It was not uncommon for adults to attend class regularly. Instruction was changed based on local conditions. In rural communities where students were expected to work during

6745-474: The social, political, and economic context of precarious race relations and the Civil Rights Movement. Leadership development was encouraged, in addition to more traditional academic skills. The education at Freedom Schools was student-centered and culturally relevant. Curriculum and instruction was based on the needs of the students, discussion among students and teachers (rather than lecturing)

6840-709: The state of the Black Power movement as well as his ideas for the pedagogy of his new Freedom School. He denigrates the ideas of both the cultural and progressive nationalist movements as being facades and without teeth. For him, the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement which called for total and complete revolution both here and everywhere on earth, was the most accurate and true to its principles. They identified both intragroup and intraindividual issues facing black people in America and

6935-682: The subsequent Supreme Court opinion of this case. The case of Brown v. Board of Education as heard before the Supreme Court combined five cases: Brown itself, Briggs v. Elliott (filed in South Carolina ), Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County (filed in Virginia ), Gebhart v. Belton (filed in Delaware ), and Bolling v. Sharpe (filed in Washington, D.C. ). All were NAACP-sponsored cases. The Davis case,

7030-471: The two sets of schools [were] comparable." The lower court observed that "colored children in many instances are required to travel much greater distances than they would be required to travel could they attend a white school" but also noted that the school district "transports colored children to and from school free of charge" and that "no such service [was] provided to white children." In the Delaware case

7125-402: The volunteer teachers. While some of the schools were held in parks, kitchens, residential homes, and under trees, most classes were held in churches or church basements. Attendance varied throughout the summer. Some schools experienced consistent attendance, but that was the exception. Because attendance was not compulsory, recruitment and maintaining attendance was perhaps the primary challenge

7220-449: The white schools. This prevented the Court from finding a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause in "measurable inequalities" between all white and black schools and forced the Court to look to the effects of segregation itself. The Court therefore framed the case around the more general question of whether the principle of "separate but equal" was constitutional when applied to public education. We come then to

7315-598: Was "noisy and stubborn", especially in the Deep South where racial segregation was deeply entrenched in society. Many Southern governmental and political leaders embraced a plan known as " massive resistance ", created by Senator Harry F. Byrd , in order to frustrate attempts to force them to de-segregate their school systems. Four years later, in the case of Cooper v. Aaron , the Court reaffirmed its ruling in Brown , and explicitly stated that state officials and legislators had no power to nullify its ruling. For much of

7410-403: Was described as "the palace of the Freedom School circuit." Each Freedom School sent three representatives to the conference to form a youth platform for the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. The student delegates discussed issues related to jobs, schools, foreign affairs, and public accommodations and proffered recommendations for the state party. By the end of the conference, students prepared

7505-419: Was encouraged, and curriculum planners encouraged teachers to base instruction on the experiences of their students. Curriculum development revolved around The Curriculum Conference , which consisted of teachers and directors discussing the type of education that would be taught at the freedom schools. The teachers were to write an outline for their curriculum planning. They were told to keep in mind what life

7600-509: Was essentially a statewide voter registration campaign, and the framers called for one thousand volunteers to assist in the undertaking. Activists made plans to conduct a parallel Democratic primary election , because the systematic exclusion of black voters resulted in all-white delegations to presidential primaries. These efforts culminated in the creation of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party . Both

7695-461: Was expected to remain in the state to enact social change. At the conclusion of the Freedom School term, activists and students organized a student-led conference on August 8, 1964, the day after the funeral of James Chaney , one of the victims in the murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner . The conference was held in Meridian, Mississippi , at the former Meridian Baptist Seminary . The school

7790-503: Was felt that dissent could be used by segregation supporters as a legitimizing counter-argument. Conference notes and draft decisions illustrate the division of opinions before the decision was issued. Justices William O. Douglas , Hugo Black , Harold Hitz Burton , and Sherman Minton were predisposed to overturn Plessy . Fred M. Vinson noted that Congress had not adopted desegregation legislation; Stanley F. Reed discussed incomplete cultural assimilation and states' rights , and

7885-400: Was founded by John E. Churchville in 1964. Over the next few years he began to offer evening classes and eventually converted the library into a school. Upon the founding of this school, he prepared a short set of essays which were published in the book, What Black Educators Are Saying , edited by Nathan Wright Jr. and published in 1970. This essay includes much of Churchville's thoughts on

7980-432: Was inclined to the view that segregation worked to the benefit of the African-American community; Tom C. Clark wrote that "we had led the states on to think segregation is OK and we should let them work it out." Felix Frankfurter and Robert H. Jackson disapproved of segregation, but were also opposed to judicial activism and expressed concerns about the proposed decision's enforceability. Chief Justice Vinson had been

8075-412: Was influenced by UNESCO 's 1950 Statement, signed by a wide variety of internationally renowned scholars, titled The Race Question . This declaration denounced previous attempts at scientifically justifying racism as well as morally condemning racism. Another work that the Supreme Court cited was Gunnar Myrdal 's An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy (1944). Myrdal had been

8170-425: Was inherently unequal, violated the Equal Protection Clause, and therefore was unconstitutional: We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of "separate but equal" has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore, we hold that the plaintiffs and others similarly situated for whom the actions have been brought are, by reason of the segregation complained of, deprived of

8265-476: Was later appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967—argued the case before the Supreme Court for the plaintiffs. Assistant attorney general Paul Wilson—later distinguished emeritus professor of law at the University of Kansas —conducted the state's ambivalent defense in his first appellate argument. In December 1952, the Justice Department filed an amicus curiae ("friend of the court") brief in

8360-444: Was like in Mississippi and the short amount of time that they had to teach the material. The curriculum had to be teacher-friendly and immediately useful to the students, while being based on questions and activities. The primary focus was questions and discussion rather than memorization of facts and dates. Instructions to teachers included: Since the curriculum conference brought together citizens of different backgrounds and origins,

8455-468: Was merely a vehicle for teaching revolutionary truth; the content was mostly irrelevant as it was the analysis which would demonstrate the reality. The school was raided by the FBI on August 13, 1966 on suspicion of harboring militant groups. After the raid, Churchville dropped out of activism. Part of the Freedom School legacy can be seen in the schools that hold the name today: Akwesasne Freedom School on

8550-423: Was mixed. Its legislature passed an Interposition Resolution denouncing the decision and declaring it null and void. But Florida Governor LeRoy Collins , though joining in the protest against the court decision, refused to sign it, arguing that the attempt to overturn the ruling must be done by legal methods. In Mississippi , fear of violence prevented any plaintiff from bringing a school desegregation suit for

8645-594: Was noisy and stubborn. Certain "border states," which had formerly maintained segregated school systems, did integrate, and others permitted the token admission of a few Negro students to schools that had once been racially unmixed. However, the Deep South made no moves to obey the judicial command, and in some districts there can be no doubt that the Desegregation decision hardened resistance to integration proposals. In Virginia, Senator Harry F. Byrd organized

8740-481: Was to try to end political displacement of African Americans by encouraging students to become active citizens and socially involved within the community. Over 3,000 African American students attended these schools in the summer of 1964. Students ranged in age from small children to the very elderly with the average approximately 15 years old. Teachers were volunteers, most of whom were college students themselves. With few exceptions, Freedom School teachers were amazed at

8835-504: Was unanimous. Warren drafted the basic opinion and kept circulating and revising it until he had an opinion endorsed by all the members of the court. Reed was the last holdout and reportedly cried during the reading of the opinion. On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous 9–0 decision in favor of the Brown family and the other plaintiffs. The decision consists of a single opinion written by chief justice Earl Warren , which all

8930-411: Was unique among the group in that there was no contention of gross inferiority of the segregated schools' physical plant, curriculum, or staff. The district court found substantial equality as to all such factors. The lower court, in its opinion, noted that, in Topeka, "the physical facilities, the curricula, courses of study, qualification and quality of teachers, as well as other educational facilities in

9025-679: Was upheld, and SCOTUS declined to hear a further appeal. Virginia had one of the companion cases in Brown , involving the Prince Edward County schools. Significant opposition to the Brown verdict included U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd , who led the Byrd Organization and promised a strategy of Massive Resistance . Governor Thomas Stanley , a member of the Byrd Organization, appointed the Gray Commission , 32 Democrats led by state senator Garland Gray , to study

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