A Brief History of American Segregation in Schools

The Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) legally ended the nationwide practice of segregation in schools, but inequities facing racial/ethnic minorities existed long before that and prevailed long afterwards. An important Supreme Court case that preceded this ruling is worth mentioning: Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) had declared racially segregated schools constitutional as long as they abided by the “separate but equal” philosophy. Neither legislation was really followed, or even adequately enforced in the several decades following their passage; even today there exist real issues related to inequality within education systems.

Noncompliance and resistance to the Brown case ruling was widespread. For instance, some districts closed rather than agreeing to desegregation. Instead they began opening private schools that admitted only white students. Another common form of resistance was white flight – families packed up and moved from within the city and established themselves in the suburbs to avoid having to send their children to public schools with minority children. These suburbs established many discriminatory residential barriers to keep minorities from moving into their neighborhoods. These types of trends in education continue today. According to Fitzgerald, “American schools have experienced a dramatic resegregation since the 1990s, with urban schools 95 – 99 percent nonwhite.” (Fitgerald, 2017, p. 249)

Another issue that continues to haunt the American education system today is the growing academic achievement gap between the rich and the poor. Income inequality has grown over the last forty years, creating a greater gap between students coming from families at both ends of the spectrum. (Reardon, 2014, p. 539) High-income families are able to invest more time and resources in their children’s education than others, and richer children are provided with overall better quality education and socioeconomic opportunities.

Works Cited

Fitgerald, K. A. (2017). Chapter 7: Education. In K. A. Fitzgerald, Recognizing Race and Ethnicity: Power, Privilege, and Inequality. Boulder: Westview Press.

Reardon, S. E. (2014). The Widening Academic Achievement Gap between the Rich and the Poor. In D. B. Grusky, Social Stratification: Class, Race, and Gender in Sociological Perspective. Boulder: Westview Press.

#discrimination #sociology #race #inequality #education