LEARNING TOGETHER: The Story of America
In a landmark 9-0 decision, legalized segregation in American public schools came to an abrupt end. Black kids were welcome with open arms to all-white schools. (Insert laugh track here.) In the real world, segregationists fought like hell to keep the status quo, especially in the good old land of Dixie. Hooray! Hooray! In Dixie’s land I’ll take my stand to live and die in Dixie. And they took a stand alright, it just wasn’t the right stand. But really, when has the South ever been on the right side of history.
In 1957, when nine brave Black students attempted to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, they were greeted by a violent white mob and the National Guard, who were not there to protect these Black students but to stop them from entering the school. The Little Rock Nine were forced to return home. The president of the United States had to send in his own troops to force white Southerners to step aside and allow nine Black kids to get an education.
The following year, the governor of Arkansas one upped the president by closing all the high schools in Little Rock for an entire year. The Lost Year, as it would be called occurred from 1958-1959. About 3,700 students (Black and white) were denied an education because of the governor’s refusal to integrate the schools. Wow! This was some real deep Southern pride hatred. What was the state’s motto? “Arkansas, white and stupid and that’s how we plan to keep it.”
On a side note, Arkansas is currently ranked (with 1 being the most educated state) number 40. Looks like education is still not a priority in Arkansas. Go Razorbacks! Ironically, pigs are considered smart animals, so there seems to be a disconnect here.
What’s a white family to do when your school system hates Black kids more than taking on its responsibility of educating your white kids? If your family was rich or could afford it, your kids could go to private schools. Remember Brown v. Board of Education didn’t apply to private schools so they could remain proudly segregated, and they did. But poor white kids were out of luck…they grew up to be our current politicians, that would explain a lot. Stupid does as stupid knows.
In other areas of our country, schools that reluctantly allowed Black students into their all-white schools saw the return of only a handful of white students (maybe these were the poor white kids) in their classrooms. One Black student reported that at her formerly predominantly white school there were less than 10 white students.
Black progress in America tends to follow this pattern…one step forward, two steps back… Reconstruction followed by Jim Crow laws, Black Wall Street followed by burning down Black Wall Street, Obama followed by Trump. For a nation that proclaims that it believes in equality and only wishes the best for all its citizens, America has a strange way of showing it.
The only good thing about this moment in our shared history is that it’s hard to imagine this happening today…sorta. Because right now, we have half of our nation (and you know who I’m talking about) wishing to turn back the hands of time to the glorious days when Arkansans proclaimed, “We’d rather be homogeneous and stupid than learn stuff with Black kids.”
OUR HISTORY MATTERS
2-part mini-series
#45
