Historical Events

What Events Have Impacted School Segregation?

School Segregation has been an issue from long before the 20th century. After many fights against school segregation, it has never gone away; it has only evolved. Two important events in history that played a big role in shaping school segregation today are The NYC School Boycott of 1964 and the supreme court case of Brown vs Board of Education 1954.

BROWN VS BOARD OF EDUCATION 1954

May 7, 1954, created history. It was a day that will never be forgotten in US history. On this day, the Brown vs Board of Education Supreme Court Case ruled school segregation as unconstitutional and illegal. The previous supreme court case regarding segregation in schools, Plessy vs Ferguson, ruled black and white students should be "separate but equal" meaning they would have the same facilities, but they won't be together in the same schools. However, black and white students never had the same facilities in their different schools; white schools were more advanced compared to predominantly black schools. This lead to the Brown vs Board of Education Supreme Court Case of 1954. Below is a journal entry of an African-American girl written a day after Brown vs. Board declared school segregation as unconstitutional and illegal.

After Brown vs Board declared school segregation as unconstitutional, many children like Natalia were eager to attend a "white" school and a lot of people thought school segregation would no longer an issue. However, school segregation did not go away; in many cases, the problem intensified. One such place was New York City. In 1964, NYC held a school boycott to protest the lack of facilities African-American and Latino students were receiving in their schools. More than 1/2 of the student body at NYC schools were absent on February 3, 1964.

NYC SCHOOL BOYCOTT 1964