Desegregating Public Schools

U.S. Post Office issued a stamp in 1999 commemorating the desegregation of schools courtesy https://www.pinterest.com/pin/71353975320065661/.

Brown vs Board of Education marked the desegregation of public elementary schools in the United States.  In 1951, Oliver Brown, along with twelve other parents, filed a lawsuit in a Kansas court fighting the "separate but equal" status of American education.  While he lost the case, in 1954, he filed another suit with the Supreme Court and won.  His daughter Linda was able to attend a white school for the first time (http://alinefromlinda.blogspot.ca/2012/05/brown-vs-board-of-education.html).

In 1957, the cause was further advanced by the integration of Little Rock High by nine brave black students.  A famous photograph showed a student named Ruby, her books in one arm, walking to school surrounded by white parents shooting daggers from their eyes and hate from their lips (http://alinefromlinda.blogspot.ca/2012/09/little-rock-nine.html).

It seemed the integration of American public schools was complete.  However, that was just the beginning.  Many whites protested by fleeing to the suburbs, leaving the blacks in the city core schools.  In the 1970's, the situation reached a crisis point in Boston where they invoked forced bussing, a move that both whites and blacks protested against (http://alinefromlinda.blogspot.ca/2014/09/violence-over-forced-busing-in-boston.html).

In the 1990's, my sister-in-law, Ingrid, taught in a North Carolina high school where the majority of the students were black or Hispanic.  The educational system seemed to be letting them down:  some of her Grade 9 and 10 students could barely read.

Today, the schools in Cleveland, Mississippi remain largely segregated.  D.M. Smith Middle school is predominantly black while Margaret Green Junior High School is almost completely white.  Black students attend the virtually all black East Side High while white students attend the overwhlemingly white Cleveland High.  U.S. District Judge Debra Brown has ordered that the Cleveland school board present a timeline for integration.  Former board member Jim Tims says that integration will not be well received by everyone:  "If they feel threatened, or for some reason race bothers them, then they have an option and they're going to leave the schools.  The question is:  Do you want to have 'integration'?  Or do you want to have white flight?" (http://www.inquisitr.com/3105243/cleveland-mississippi-schools-ordered-to-desegregate-after-51-year-court-battle/).

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/05/17/478389720/after-50-year-legal-struggle-mississippi-school-district-ordered-to-desegregate

Jackie Robinson Pens Protest Letter to Eisenhower

"I was sitting in the audience at the Summit Meeting of Negro leaders yesterday when you said we must have patience.  On hearing you say this, I felt like standing up and saying:  'Oh no!  Not again.'

I respectfully remind you sir that we have been the most patient of all people." (Jackie Robinson)

It was 1958 -- eleven years since the first black man officially played in the National Baseball League; four years since the ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education; three years since Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on an Alabama bus; and one year since the National Guard escorted nine students to Little Rock High.  

Yet, America was still a long way from fulling integrating blacks into white society.  Jackie Robinson, who had integrated professional baseball, had just hung up his number 42 jersey.  He penned a letter to President Eisenhower indicating his frustration with the civil rights movement, which, after making giant strides, had seemed to stall.  

"I was sitting in the audience at the Summit meeting of negro leaders yesterday when you said we must have patience.  On hearing you say this, I felt like standing up and saying:  'Oh no!  Not again.' (www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/jackie_robinson_letter/).  I respectfully remind you sir that we have been the most patient of all people."  He pointed out that Negroes were striving to attain goals that Whites had already been granted over 150 years before.

"17 million Negroes cannot do as you suggest and wait for the hearts of men to change," implored Robinson.  In 1958, Negroes represented about 10 percent of the American population, a significant amount.  Robinson wanted actions, not words, for the Civil Rights Movement to move forward.  

Robinson saw President Eisenhower's attitude of forbearance as encouraging, not discouraging, the segregationists.  He reminded the President about Governor Faubus, who, the previous year, had blocked the school entry of the Little Rock Nine.  

The baseball legend drove his point home by stating:  "would let it be known that America is determined to provide -- in the near future -- for Negroes -- the freedoms we are entitled to under the Constitution."

Note:  For more information about Jackie Robinson, read "You Give Me the Number, I'll Give You the Guts!" at http://alinefromlinda.blogspot.ca/2013/04/april-15.html.

Jackie Robinson (right) meets Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders circa 1950's courtesy http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/publication/2009/01/20090106142542jmnamdeirf0.8552515.html#axzz3l0Ucr18M.

Amasa Coleman Lee Inspiration for Mockingbird's Atticus Finch

"Atticus Finch was further enshrined in the cultural canon through Gregory Peck's portrayal in the Oscar winning 1962 film.  Parents named their children after him.  Law professors assigned the book in ethics class.  The Alabama Law Association erected a monument to him in Monroeville, Ms. Lee's hometown." (http://www.wsj.com/articles/harper-lees-father-the-inspiration-for-atticus-finch-changed-his-segregation-views-1436670661)

http://www.wsj.com/articles/harper-lees-father-the-inspiration-for-atticus-finch-changed-his-segregation-views-1436670661

The image of Gregory Peck's character, Atticus Finch, outside an Alabama jail, confronting an angry mob that wants to lynch the black man whom he represents, is forever etched on the memory of those who saw the movie To Kill a Mockingbird.  The scene is not that far off the mark.  In 1934, Mockingbird author Harper Lee's father, whom she based Atticus on, confronted KKK members in the street, exchanging words with the leader.

Amasa Coleman Lee, born in Alabama in 1880, attended law school and set up a practice in Monroeville.  He married Frances Finch who gave birth to Nelle Harper Lee.  Mr. Lee adored his daughter and tended to indulge her.  

Harper admired her father and the stand that he took on social issues.  IN 1919, Mr. Lee defended two black men charged with a botched robbery and murder.  Even so, the two men were convicted and hanged.  He continued to defend blacks in the 1920's and 1930's, preaching:  "Equal rights for all, special privileges for none."

However, in 1954, with the victory for civil rights in Brown vs Board of Education, Mr. Lee resisted school integration.  He was, nonetheless, part of the Deep South establishment.  Harper was disappointed that her father was agreeing with the status quo.  Her childhood view of him as this larger than life character who fought for the underdog was shattered.

However, by the late 1950's, when Harper was working on her manuscript for To Kill a Mockingbird, her father had a change of heart.  He talked about voting rights for blacks.  The book was published in 1960, selling 2.5 million copies in the first year and remaining on the bestseller list for almost two years.  

In 1962, the movie debuted in theatres.  "Atticus Finch was further enshrined in the cultural canon through Gregory Peck's portrayal in the Oscar winning 1962 film.  Parents named their children after him.  Law professors assigned the book in ethics class.  The Alabama Law Association erected a monument to him in Monroeville, Ms. Lee's hometown." 

The same year, the man who inspired the character passed away.  His daughter outlived him by decades.  Her other book, Go Set a Watchman, which shed some light on her father's initial resistance to integration, was published last month.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jul/11/harper-lee-my-little-sister-alice-finch-lee