Download SS Standard 1 Articles Reconstruction

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COBBLESTONE
May/June 2008, Vol. 29, No. 5, pp. 6-9
Copyright © Cobblestone Publishing Company. May/June 2008. All rights reserved. Reprinted with
permission.
Prejudice at the Polls
Gaining the Right to Vote
By Emily Claypool
Stepping inside a voting booth on Election Day is perhaps the most important part of being
an American citizen. But the Constitution does not even address who has--or does not have-the right to vote. The Founding Fathers initially left those decisions up to the state
governments. Over the years, however, a number of amendments to the Constitution have
extended voting rights to include every citizen over the age of 18. Just how did we get from
white-male-landowner suffrage to where we are today? It has been a long and challenging
road.
Property Equals Power
Before the Revolutionary War (1775-1783), the right to vote was restricted to those who
owned property or paid taxes. Since white adult men were the only people allowed to do so,
they usually were the only people who could vote. Some colonies also had religious
restrictions. Catholics and Jews were two religious groups often banned from voting.
After the United States became independent from Great Britain, most states lifted the
landowning restriction on voting rights. The states felt pressure from men who did not own
property but wanted the privilege of voting. Some of these men were soldiers who had fought
in the recent war. It didn't seem fair to deny the right to vote to people who had been willing to
die for their country. The early 1800s were the time of "universal manhood suffrage," or the
right to vote for all white men.
Ironically, while white men's voting rights were broadening, new restrictions were
established for other citizens. Every new state that became part of the Union after 1819 banned
blacks and immigrants from voting. Previously, white male property owners who were not
citizens had been allowed to vote. In New Jersey, which was the only state that had allowed
female landowners to vote, women lost their suffrage.
Twelve states forbade poor people to vote, and 24 states didn't let convicted criminals vote.
Some states also imposed residency requirements on would-be voters and made people take
literacy tests to prove they could read and write English. Only people who could pass these
tests were allowed to vote.
Former Slaves Get the Vote, Sort Of
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After the Civil War (1861-1865) and the
end of slavery, many Northern politicians
believed that former slaves needed the vote to protect their new rights as citizens. The Fifteenth
Amendment to the Constitution (1870) prohibited the states from preventing a man from voting
based on his race or status as a former slave. But even though blacks now had the
constitutional right to vote, white Southerners were still disenfranchising them.
Property qualifications, pre-election registration, residency requirements, and literacy tests
were just a few of the "voting reforms" put in place by certain states to prevent blacks from
voting. These restrictions, and the unwritten threat of physical harm or death, made it difficult
for black Americans to safely exercise their right to vote.
The Suffragists' Struggle
Meanwhile, a number of socially minded women had been active in the fight to abolish
slavery. When African American men were given the vote after the Civil War but women were
not, women began to focus on their own voting rights. Led by Lucretia Mott, Susan B.
Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, these "suffragists" (women who were campaigning for
the right to vote) believed that if all citizens had the right to all the privileges of citizenship, as
stated in the Fourteenth Amendment (1868), then everyone should have the right to vote.
But the federal government did not share their opinion. The U.S. Supreme Court dismissed
the suffragists' argument that the right to vote was based on the definition of citizenship in the
Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. The Court ruled in 1875 that only a Constitutional
amendment could grant women the right to vote.
The women's movement grew and became better organized and better funded in the early
1900s. It developed into a powerful social force, organizing marches in major cities and
protests in front of the White House. But during World War I (1914-1918), many, although not
all, suffragists put aside their own agenda temporarily, as they supported the troops by selling
war bonds and sewing clothes for soldiers. Their patriotic efforts during the war eventually
turned the tide of support in their favor. In 1920, champions for women's suffrage celebrated as
the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified and states were prohibited from denying a person the
right to vote based on gender.
The First Citizens
Native Americans also faced a struggle to ensure both their voting rights and their rights as
U.S. citizens. Until the late 1800s, native people were considered citizens of their own, specific
Indian nations and were not recognized as U.S. citizens.
As in the fight for women's suffrage, Native Americans' participation in World War I turned
the tide for this group. First, in 1919, Congress awarded veterans the right to apply for
citizenship. Then, in 1924, the passage of the Indian Citizenship Act removed any special
applications or conditions and officially recognized native people as U.S. citizens.
A Government Guarantee
As late as the 1960s, black Americans still faced obstacles to exercising their right to vote.
Some Southern states were still using literacy tests and poll taxes to limit voting by African
Americans.
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But 20 years of nonviolent protests during the civil rights movement finally paid off. Two
key pieces of legislation were passed: The Twenty-fourth Amendment to the Constitution
(1964) banned all tax payment preconditions, and the Voting Rights Act (1965) prohibited
literacy tests and sent federal agents to the South to help register black voters. One hundred
years after the end of the Civil War, the federal government began enforcing its laws over local
Southern state laws, to guarantee African Americans the same privileges of citizenship as
white citizens.
Eighteen's the Magic Number
The voting rights story doesn't end there. The Vietnam War (1954-1975) raised awareness
among young people. At that time, the voting age was 21. However, men were required to
register for the Selective Service (the draft) on their 18th birthdays. Many young people
believed that if they were old enough to go to war, they should have the right to vote for the
officials who were making wartime decisions: "Old enough to fight, old enough to vote."
President Lyndon B. Johnson kept this in mind when he asked Congress to propose an
amendment to the Constitution. On July 1, 1971, the Twenty-sixth Amendment was ratified,
officially lowering the voting age to 18.
After more than two centuries of unequal voting rights, all U.S. citizens over the age of 18
finally had the right to vote. Each of these groups--non-landowners, women, Native
Americans, African Americans, and young people--had fought for suffrage. To the individuals
who had endured the conflict, getting the right to vote meant being able to fully exercise the
rights and responsibilities of citizenship. Each of them made sure that future generations would
be represented and would have a voice in their government.
Suffrage is the right to vote.
Disenfranchise means to take away someone's right to vote. People who are enfranchised
have been granted the right to vote.
A poll tax is a fixed fee per person. In the past, people were often required to pay a poll tax
before being allowed to vote.
Emily Claypool is a student at New York University.
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JUNIOR SCHOLASTIC
Feb. 25, 2008, Vol. 110, No. 13, pp. 12+
Copyright © Scholastic Inc. Feb. 25, 2008. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.
One Nation Now?
Journey Through the South After the Civil War Reveals
the Failures of Reconstruction
By Sean Price
In June 1865, the wounds of the Civil War were still raw. The Union and Confederate
armies had stopped fighting just two months earlier, on April 9. Nearly 620,000 soldiers were
dead. Any relief that Americans felt over the war's end had been cut short by news of President
Abraham Lincoln's assassination on April 14.
Americans were restless and unsure about what would happen next. Lincoln's Vice
President, Andrew Johnson, now sat in the White House. Few Americans knew anything about
him. The United States had begun Reconstruction--the effort to rebuild the war-shattered
South and reunify the country. But big questions remained unanswered. Should Southerners be
allowed back as U.S. citizens? What would become of the millions of ex-slaves freed by the
war? Most important, could the victorious North and the defeated South ever become one
nation again?
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(See picture, "Map: Reconstruction.")
A Boston writer named J.T. Trowbridge (1827-1916) wanted to answer those and other
questions. Starting in June 1865, he took a journey through the South. Trowbridge visited
former battlefields, farms, and burned-out cities. He spoke with plantation owners, ex-slaves,
soldiers, and anyone else who could give him insight. Afterward, he wrote a book called A
Picture of the Desolated States; and the Work of Restoration.
Ruin and Recovery
Trowbridge's title was fitting. Most of the fighting had taken place in the 11 Southern states
that had rebelled against the U.S. and formed the Confederacy. "All up and down, as far as the
eye could reach, the business portion of the city bordering on the river lay in ruins,"
Trowbridge reported from Richmond, Virginia, once the Confederate capital. "Beds of cinders
[ashes], cellars half-filled with bricks and rubbish, broken and blackened walls...such was the
scene, which extended over 30 entire [city blocks]. "
During the Civil War, farms had become battlefields and graveyards. Afterward, they
became farms again. Antietam, in Maryland, was the site of one of the war's bloodiest battles.
There, Trowbridge found a farmer's hogs digging up Union and Confederate graves.
"I picked up a skull lying loose on the ground like a cobblestone," Trowbridge wrote. "It
was that of a young man; the teeth were all splendid and sound...I felt a strange curiosity to
know who had been its hapless [unlucky] owner, carrying it safely through 20 or more years of
life to lose it here."
Trowbridge praised the work of the Freedmen's Bureau. It was a government agency set up
to help Negroes--as African-Americans were then called--to adjust to freedom. As slaves, they
had been banned from learning to read and write. So the Bureau set up about 4,000 new
schools for them. "[Students from ages] 6 years to 60 may be seen, side by side, learning to
read from the same chart or book," Trowbridge wrote about a one-room school in Tennessee.
"Perhaps a bright little Negro boy or girl is teaching a whitehaired old man, or bent old woman
in spectacles, their letters."
A Step Backward
Many white Southerners refused to accept that blacks were now free. Any person of color
showing signs of independence--such as asking for wages--risked being violently attacked.
Southerners also resented the many Northerners taking control of their state governments.
The Ku Klux Klan and other terror groups formed throughout the South. Such groups
killed more than 3,000 freed blacks and their white allies. "[Whites] are very sharp with us
now," said one 70-year-old ex-slave in Virginia. "If a man of my color dared to say what he
thought, it would be all his life was worth!"
In Washington, D.C., a group of Southern gentlemen scoffed at Trowbridge's idea that free
blacks would willingly work for pay. "They can't take care of themselves!" one of the men
declared. "They'll starve before they'll work, unless driven to it."
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Unfortunately for African-Americans,
President Johnson--along with many Northern
whites--shared this low opinion of them. Johnson had no interest in granting blacks civil rights
and quickly forgave whites who had been Confederate leaders.
Congress, however, was run by Republicans--the party of Lincoln. They wanted just the
opposite. Congress created laws that protected African-Americans. It also wrote the 13th, 14th,
and 15th Amendments to the Constitution. The Amendments ended slavery, made blacks full
citizens, and gave black men the right to vote. Most white Southerners disliked such measures.
Reconstruction ended in 1877, when President Rutherford B. Hayes pulled the last federal
troops from the South. Without those troops enforcing Reconstruction laws, Southern states
openly oppressed blacks once more. It would take almost a century for black people to win
civil rights in the South again.
"One Nation Now"
When Reconstruction ended, overcoming regional hatreds seemed to be an impossible
problem. One white man in South Carolina told Trowbridge that he had just one feeling toward
Northerners: hatred. "I get up at half-past four in the morning," he said, "and sit up to twelve at
night just to hate 'em."
But Trowbridge found that most Southerners were glad to have war behind them. "It is
astonishing, when you think of it," a former Confederate soldier from Virginia told him.
"Southern men and Northern men ride together in the same trains, and stop at the same hotels,
as if we were all one people--as indeed we are: one nation now...as we never were before, and
never could have been without the war."
Words to Know
• Freedmen: African-Americans who had been released from slavery.
• Ku Klux Klan (KKK): a group formed in 1865 or 1866 by white Southerners. The KKK
used fear and brutal violence to oppose rights for African-Americans. It was re-established in
1915. During the 1960s, the Klan resisted the civil-rights movement.
• Confederate: of the Confederate States of America (South) during the Civil War.
• desolated: made dismal, wretched, lonely, or sorrowful; made unfit to live in.
• Union: of the United States (North) during the Civil War.
Think About It
1. What did the constitutional Amendments enacted during Reconstruction promise?
2. Was it wise for the federal government to withdraw troops from the South in 1877?
What would you have done, and why?
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. . . Reprinted from
ANDREW JOHNSON NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE
(U.S. Dept. of the Interior)
1995, n.p.
ANDREW JOHNSON NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE
"When I was a tailor," President Andrew Johnson told a crowd of supporters in 1866, "I
always made a close fit and was always punctual to my customers, and did good work."
Andrew Johnson never lost an opportunity to remind people of his humble origins. He cited his
own rise from poverty as proof that prosperity was not the exclusive domain of the elite.
Johnson was born in 1808 in Raleigh, North Carolina, the son of a hotel porter who died when
he was 4. Apprenticed to a tailor as a child, he ran off when he was 16 and traveled throughout
the Carolinas and Tennessee. Eventually he settled in Greeneville, Tennessee, a prosperous
Scotch-Irish town. The restless, ambitious young man chose to make his home here most likely
because of Eliza McCardle, the daughter of a shoemaker. The two were married in 1827 in a
ceremony performed by Mordecai Lincoln, a cousin of Abraham Lincoln.
There is an enduring myth that Eliza taught her husband to read. He actually received some
education as an apprentice tailor back in Raleigh. It was the custom for employers to hire
readers for the boys as they worked. Young Andrew asked for books and taught himself as
much as he could. He hired readers at his own tailor shop in Greeneville. Eliza taught him
writing and mathematics and he joined debating clubs. Though he never attended school a day
in his life, Johnson was always a strong proponent of public education. It was a love for words
and a recognition of their power that brought Johnson up from obscurity. He belonged to the
breed of politicians who made their names through the fiery speechmaking that was as much
entertainment as politics in 19th century rural America. Johnson launched his career in his
tailor shop, the local center of political debates. He cultivated a commanding speaking style:
"There was no hurried utterance," wrote an opponent. "He held his crowd spellbound."
State offices took him to Nashville for long months while his family remained in
Greeneville. With almost no time to devote to tailoring, he eventually sold his business, but
kept the building and lot. In 1851 the family moved from the small brick house Johnson bought
in the 1830s to a larger house--the Homestead. By the 1840s he had a 350-acre farm east of
town, along with flour mills and the town lots. "There is no use in buying property," he told his
son Robert, "unless there is a bargain in it."
War brought hardship for the Johnsons. Though the state was under Union rule by 1862-Johnson became military governor--pro- Union East Tennessee was still occupied by the
Confederates. Johnson's sons and sons-in-law were harassed for their Union stand. His
property was confiscated and his house turned into a hospital. Eliza finally managed to escape
through enemy lines to join her husband in Nashville. The family did not come home until
Johnson's presidential term ended in 1869.
By then Johnson's real estate holdings had made him the wealthiest citizen of Greeneville.
A newspaper article described his business sense as "above the average for public men, for in
8
his investments and business relations he
manifests considerable shrewdness and tact."
Johnson died in 1875 with an estate surpassing $200,000; Eliza died six months later. The
Homestead passed to their youngest son, Andrew Jr. Greeneville citizens dedicated the
cemetery monument to their beloved statesman in 1878. One by one the Johnson shop and
houses were acquired by the federal government. Today the buildings and cemetery
commemorate the life and work of a man who assumed the presidency during time of crisis
and helped to restore the Union.
ABOUT YOUR VISIT
Andrew Johnson National Historic Site honors the life and work of the nation's 17th
President and preserves his two homes and grave site. The park is located in Greeneville,
Tennessee. Directions: from I-81 northbound take Exit 23 to U.S. 11E north into Greeneville.
From I-81 southbound take Exit 36 to Tenn. 172 south, then U.S. 321 south into Greeneville.
The park units are open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily; they are closed on Thanksgiving Day, Dec.
25, and Jan. 1. The visitor center has exhibits and the tailor shop that Johnson bought in 1831
and moved to this site. Across the street is the house where the Johnsons lived in the 1830s.
A block and a half up Main Street is the Homestead, where the Johnsons lived beginning in
1851. Ten rooms, furnished with original family possessions, are open to visitors. Less than
half a mile away is the national cemetery where Andrew and Eliza Johnson are buried with
other family members. The marble memorial has likenesses of the Constitution and the Bible;
an American Eagle perches on top.
ACCESS
The visitor center, the 1830s house, and the cemetery are accessible to wheelchairs. The
Homestead is accessible on the basement level and first floor.
RELATED SITES
A representation of Johnson's birth home in Raleigh, North Carolina, is displayed at
Tusculum College. The Nathanael Greene Museum, named for the Revolutionary War hero,
has historical objects and documents from the Johnson era.
ADMINISTRATION
Andrew Johnson National Historic Site is administered by the National Park Service, U.S.
Department of the Interior. The National Park Service preserves more than 360 sites, examples
of the country's natural and cultural heritage. Contact: Superintendent, Andrew Johnson NHS,
P.O. Box 1088, Greeneville, TN 37744.
***
"The Constitution shall be saved and the Union preserved."-- Andrew Johnson, 1860
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JUNIOR SCHOLASTIC
(Vol. 107, No. 13)
Feb. 21, 2005, pp. 12+
Copyright © Scholastic Inc. February 21, 2005. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.
Forty Acres and a Mule
By Tod Olson
• After the Civil War, 4 million former slaves had their freedom--but not much else. What could
be done to help get them on their feet?
Freedom! When the Civil War ended in April 1865, William Matthews and the other slaves
on his master's plantation heard the good news: After a lifetime of bondage, they were finally
free.
(See picture, "Union Soldier Keeping the Peace.")
But there was little time for celebration. The plantation's mistress, Mary Adams, gathered
the ex-slaves together. She bitterly predicted that they would be back working for her within 10
years. Then she banished them from the plantation.
Many of the South's 4 million freed slaves suddenly had no place to live and no way to
support themselves. "No money, no nothin'," Matthews remembered. "Just run loose without
nothin'."
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The North had won the war. The Union
was preserved. But the South lay in ruins, and
now the U.S. government faced a huge problem. How could the South's cities, factories, and
railroads be rebuilt and its rebellious states allowed to rejoin the Union? This problem would
consume the nation during the 12-year period known as Reconstruction.
Getting former slaves on their feet would be a big part of the job. To do this, Congress
created the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. Better known as the
Freedmen's Bureau, its main mission (objective) was to help former slaves.
The Sick and the Poor
Bureau agents set up offices across the South. They encountered huge obstacles, including
the hostility of many Southern whites. One bureau agent in Lexington, Virginia, was assaulted
on the streets, and gangs gathered outside his office at night, daring him to come out.
To make matters worse, Congress hadn't given the bureau enough funding. In some places,
a single agent was responsible for as many as 40,000 former slaves. An agent might go to work
in the morning to find 500 people lined up waiting for help. Some needed emergency supplies;
others claimed that their new employers--many of them former slaveholders--were treating
them unfairly or had physically abused them.
The bureau's most urgent task was helping the hungry and the sick. In the first 15 months
following the war, agents handed out 13 million rations--each with enough corn, flour, and
sugar to feed one person for a week.
The bureau also set up hospitals to treat the former slaves. But the assistance did not last.
Once the hospitals were established, the bureau turned over control to local officials. Southern
white doctors often refused to treat black people.
"Give Us Our Own Land"
Near the end of the war, many slave owners had fled, and the Union Army confiscated
(seized) their lands. Union General William Tecumseh Sherman tried to give some of this land
to former slaves. In January 1865, he issued a war order promising them 40-acre homesteads.
Later, he said the army might also loan each new landowner a mule with which to work the
land, giving rise to a popular saying, "40 acres and a mule."
But in the summer and fall of 1865, President Andrew Johnson pardoned (forgave) most
former Confederates and gave back their property. The Freedmen's Bureau had to order 40,000
angry freed people off the land they'd been given. "Give us our own land, and we take care of
ourselves," said one ex-slave from Mississippi. "But without land, the old masters can hire us
to starve us as they please."
Most former slaves had to go back to work on the plantations of former slave owners, as
Mary Adams had predicted. For farming the land, they were paid $9 to $15 a month, or onefourth to one-half of the crop. Some workers had to sign contracts that kept them in conditions
much like slavery. They were fined for bad language or disobedience, and were not allowed to
leave the plantation without permission.
Education Makes a Man Free
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Although the Freedmen's Bureau failed at
many of its tasks, its agents understood what
education meant to former slaves. Freedman Charles Whiteside, for instance, remembered one
thing his former master told him: "If you lives to be a hundred, you'll still be a slave 'cause you
got no education, and education is what makes a man free!"
The bureau helped start more than 4,300 schools, including the three universities now
known as Fisk, Hampton, and Howard. White teachers arrived from the North to assist in the
effort. "I feel that it is a precious privilege to be allowed to do something for these poor
people," wrote one teacher.
(See picture, "Freedmen's Bureau School.")
Former slaves flocked to the classrooms. Children learned to read and write, then went
home and taught their parents. Young blacks trained to become teachers so that they could start
their own schools. Education would become the Freedmen's Bureau's greatest accomplishment.
Things Fall Apart
In July 1869, Congress closed the Freedmen's Bureau. The bureau's education efforts
continued for three more years, but the end of Reconstruction was near. Reconstruction
programs were expensive, and Southern opposition to them was bitter.
In 1877, the newly elected U.S. President, Rutherford B. Hayes, pulled the last federal
troops out of the South. Reconstruction was over. For Southern blacks, things went from bad to
worse.
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A white terrorist group called the Ku Klux Klan tried to scare blacks and keep them from
voting. Whitehooded Klan members rode through black communities at night, burning homes
and churches, and beating and murdering local residents.
In 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed blacks all the rights of U.S. citizens. But
with the end of Reconstruction, Southern states began passing laws that enforced segregation
(separation by race) in schools, parks, and other public places. Laws even kept blacks from
voting by requiring them to pay poll taxes and pass literacy tests--which were not required of
whites. These would become known as Jim Crow laws, after a minstrel (musical) performer
who was insulting to blacks.
Mixed Results
The Freedmen's Bureau enabled millions of people to survive. But it left millions of blacks
dependent on their former owners for work and security. In the words of one Mississippi
freedman, "The slaves expected a heap from freedom they didn't get."
Words to Know
• freedman: an individual freed from slavery.
• Reconstruction: 1865-1877, the years after the Civil War when the United States
government worked to rebuild and reorganize the Southern states that had seceded from the
Union.
• ration: a fixed amount of food and/or necessary materials given to each person, especially
in times of scarcity.
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CURRENT EVENTS
Dec. 15, 2006, Vol. 106, No. 14, pp. 7+
Copyright © Weekly Reader Corporation. Dec. 15, 2006. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.
Divided by Race
• Should your ethnicity determine your school?
Andy Kurfirst wanted to attend a high school with courses that would best prepare him for
college. His first choice, Ballard High School in Seattle, accepted him. But he didn't get to go
there. Although Andy met Ballard's academic criteria, the school district assigned him to a
school that lacked the courses he wanted. The reason? Andy is white, and nonwhite students
are given preference at Ballard.
Something similar happened to Joshua McDonald in Louisville, Ky. His mom, Crystal
Meredith, wanted him transferred to Bloom Elementary School. The Jefferson County school
district denied the transfer because Joshua is white, and Bloom had met its quota for white
students.
Both school districts use quotas to ensure that their schools reflect the racial diversity of
their communities. Andy's and Joshua's parents say those policies discriminate. Both sued their
school districts, arguing that the policies violate the equal protection clause of the 14th
Amendment, which guarantees all citizens equal treatment. Both boys' cases have made it to
the U.S. Supreme Court. The decision could be the most significant since Brown v. Board of
Education in 1954. In the Brown case, black students sued the Topeka, Kan., Board of
Education for admittance to whites-only schools. The Court ruled that "separate educational
facilities are inherently unequal," thereby making segregation unconstitutional.
Discriminating?
Meredith says education should focus on the students' needs, not their skin color. "I was
really shocked...that [race] would matter more than a child's educational success," Meredith
told The (Louisville) Courier-Journal. "I feel diversity is important, but not at the expense of a
child's education."
Honi Goldman, spokesperson for Meredith's attorney Teddy Gordon, told Current Events
that Jefferson County's policy means kids travel long distances to schools. The faraway schools
aren't necessarily better than the ones in kids' own neighborhoods, she added. Then there's the
expense of busing, which costs the district $80 million a year. That money would be better
spent improving school programs, said Goldman. "Don't [create diversity] at the expense of a
decent education."
Life Lessons
14
Joseph Olchefske, former superintendent
of Seattle Public Schools, has said that
racially balanced schools enhance education because they better reflect the community. "We
clearly believe that diversity...[is] important to our children as they grow up in a multicultural
world," Olchefske told The Seattle Times. In October 2005, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals agreed.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) says it's in the government's interest to ensure
that students are exposed to a diverse school environment that reflects the real world. "If
eliminating...segregated classrooms is a compelling governmental interest, states and school
districts should be permitted to carefully craft measures that flexibly use race as one of several
factors to achieve that goal," the ACLU stated in a court brief.
What Do You Think?
Should schools use racial quotas? Why or why not?
Get Talking
What is affirmative action? What is a quota? Explain that sometimes quotas are used to
achieve racial balance in schools. What other organizations use racial quotas?
Notes Behind the News
The Seattle and Jefferson County school districts use two different quota methods. In
Seattle, the quota is applied to schools that are considered racially imbalanced. In those
schools, nonwhite students are given admission preference over white students. The school
district aims to ensure that each school's student body population remains near the district-wide
ration of 40 percent white students and 60 percent nonwhite students.
The Jefferson County school district in Kentucky uses a more stringent quota system. The
black student population must be between 15 and 50 percent. To maintain its quotas, 60,000
kids have to be bused to school every day, with some students taking two or more buses, Honi
Goldman (spokesperson for the plaintiff's attorney) told Current Events.
Quota systems were created to counteract housing-pattern segregation, in which certain
areas are predominately populated by one ethnicity. Not long ago, however, school districts
separated students based on their race. Following the U.S. Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of
Education decision in 1954, districts began integrating schools.
The most famous case of school integration happened in Little Rock, Ark., in September
1957. On the eve of the first day of school, Gov. Orval Faubus ordered the Arkansas National
Guard to block the entry of nine black students. He said that he was protecting Little Rock
citizens from protesters. Weeks later, after a court injunction, the president's intervention, and
the help of 1,000 U.S. Army soldiers (who escorted them into school), the nine students finally
attended a full day of school.
(See picture, "Eckford, Elizabeth: Entering Central High School.")
15
In 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in
two University of Michigan cases that public
universities could consider an applicant's race in its admissions process as long as other factors
were considered.
The Seattle and Jefferson County cases are the
first Supreme Court cases to consider race at the
grade school level.
Doing More
• Although segregation is typically associated
with the South, at one time segregation could be
found across the United States. Ask students to
find out what facilities (such as schools or
restrooms) were segregated. When did that
situation change, and what prompted that
integration?
• Ask students if they've ever been in a
situation in which they were the ethnic or
religious minority. How did they feel? Have them
write a short story or poem based on such a
situation.
Link It
Dartmouth Civil Liberties Union's affirmative action time line:
www.dartmouth.edu/~dclu/issues/affirmative_action/timeline.htm
U.S. Supreme Court: www.supremecourtus.gov
Words in the News
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kan.
Brown v. Board of Education is one of the most famous U.S. Supreme Court cases. The
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People recruited nearly 200 plaintiffs,
including Oliver Brown, the case's namesake. Brown's daughter Linda was denied entrance to a
Topeka, Kan., elementary school because she was black. The decision overturned the decision
reached in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) that established the "separate but equal" doctrine and
resulted in desegregation.
14th Amendment
The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution grants citizenship to all races. Ratified in
1868, it includes the equal-protection and due-process clauses. Congress required Southern
states to ratify the amendment before they could be readmitted to the Union after the Civil
16
War. Tennessee was the first to do so. The
amendment has since been used to protect
almost all the liberties and rights granted by the Bill of Rights.
Brown v. Board of Education
On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a historic opinion in Brown v.
Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, a case brought by the families of several black students
who were prohibited from attending all-white schools close to their homes. The decision,
which held that racial segregation in public schools is unconstitutional, resulted in the
desegregation of schools across the country. Below are some excerpts from the majority
opinion written by Chief Justice Earl Warren. Read the excerpts, and then answer the questions
that follow.
"Today, education is perhaps the most important function of state and local
governments....In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to
succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education. Such an opportunity, where the
state has undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made available to all on equal
terms....
"The effect of this separation on their educational opportunities was well stated by a finding
in the Kansas case by a court which nevertheless felt compelled to rule against the Negro*
plaintiffs: 'Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect
upon the colored* children. The...policy of separating the races is usually interpreted as
denoting the inferiority of the negro group. A sense of inferiority affects the motivation of a
child to learn. Segregation...therefore, has a tendency to [retard] the educational and mental
development of negro children and to deprive them of some of the benefits they would receive
in a racial[ly] integrated school system.'...
"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
[students forced to attend segregated schools are] deprived of the equal protection of the laws
guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment."
*Negro and colored were terms used in the 1950s and earlier to describe African Americans.
17
SCHOLASTIC NEWS
Feb. 19, 2007, Vol. 75, No. 16, pp. 6+
Copyright © Scholastic Inc. Feb. 19, 2007.
Digging Up the Past
By Elizabeth Carney
• Enslaved Africans' lives at the
plantation from which Frederick
Douglass escaped
The Wye House, a plantation, or
large farm, in eastern Maryland, has
been owned by the same family
since the 1660s. Over time, people
there have witnessed many events
in American history--including the
beginning and end of slavery.
(See picture, "Wye House.")
Now, researchers are looking for
clues about the daily lives of the
enslaved Africans who once lived
and worked on the plantation.
Since the grounds and family
records are well-preserved, the Wye
House offers a unique window into
the lives of people who were slaves.
Wye House
Fighting Slavery
(Credit: Kathleen Lange/AP Images)
Among the Wye House slaves
was Frederick Douglass, who eventually escaped to freedom and became a noted abolitionist and author.
During the early 1800s, as many as 1,000 slaves lived on the plantation. One of them was a child named
Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey. At age 20, he escaped slavery by disguising himself as a sailor and
boarding a train bound for New York, a free state (see GEO Skills). He took the last name Douglass after his
escape.
Douglass told of the horrors of slavery through books, speeches, and a newspaper he published. During
the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln often sought his advice.
Douglass's descriptions of slave quarters and work sheds at Wye House have guided researchers on
where to dig. So far, they have located the foundations of some buildings and some everyday objects, such
as buttons and tools. Researchers hope to use these and other findings to better understand the lives of
African-Americans who once labored at the Wye plantation.
What's That Word?
abolitionist: (ab-uh-lish-uh-nist) noun. A person who worked to end slavery before the Civil War.
18
Map: United States in 1860
(Map by Jim McMahon/MapMan, Scholastic Inc.)
(See picture, "Map: United Statse in 1860.")
19
FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM
Oct. 24, 2002, n.p.
(Fort Worth, TX)
© 2002, KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS. Distributed by KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE Information
Services.
Jim Crow Laws: How the United States
Segregated African-Americans
By Amanda Rogers
Knight Ridder Newspapers
You might have heard people refer to the "Jim Crow era," but never really understood what they meant.
Here's a short overview of that period in our country's history.
Who Was Jim Crow?
He wasn't even a real person, but instead a character in a minstrel show from the 1820s in which
performer Daddy Rice covered his face in charcoal and did a dance that resembled the movements of a
crow.
By the 1850s, the Jim Crow character was a regular in minstrel shows.
What Was a Jim Crow Law?
After the Civil War ended in 1865, the freed slaves quickly began to build their own churches and schools-and rebuild their lives. Many Southern states began passing laws, called Black Codes, that limited the rights
of African-Americans and kept them separate from white people.
The federal government passed the 14th and 15th amendments and the Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and
1875 to legally stop the segregation and the limitation of African-Americans' rights.
After the Compromise of 1877, when Rutherford B. Hayes was elected president after promising to end
Reconstruction in the South, the federal government stopped focusing on trying to protect African-Americans'
civil rights.
That's when the Jim Crow laws began, creating separate societies for blacks and whites.
Many white people believed that they were superior to black people and that the two races should be kept
separate, so they passed Jim Crow laws.
An example is that when black people rode on a train, they sat in the Jim Crow car for blacks only.
African-Americans went to black schools and black churches, ate in black restaurants, stayed in black hotels,
were taken care of separately at hospitals, rode in the back of buses and streetcars, and were even buried in
a different part of cemeteries.
How Long Did This Last?
The U.S. Supreme Court helped perpetuate Jim Crow laws when the court ruled in 1896 that "separate
but equal" facilities for African-Americans were legal.
By 1914, every Southern state had enacted Jim Crow laws.
20
Some of the laws kept blacks from voting by
enforcing grandfather clauses (you could vote if your
grandfather had), poll taxes (making people pay to vote) and literacy tests (you had to be able to read to
vote).
Many blacks in the South moved their families to the North and Midwest, to find employment and escape
segregation.
In 1944, Congress abolished the white primary, which excluded blacks, and the number of black voters
soared. African-Americans flocked to the Democratic Party because of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's
support for fair labor regulations and for impoverished blacks, and first lady Eleanor Roosevelt's support of
civil rights.
In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that "separate but equal" was not legal.
The case was brought against the Topeka, Kan., Board of Education, which sent black children to a school
across town, even though a white school was closer to their home.
The civil rights movement of the next decade brought down the Jim Crow laws, when people like Rosa
Parks refused to sit at the back of the bus and Martin Luther King Jr. used peaceful demonstrations to
demand equal rights for African-Americans. Segregation legally ended with civil rights legislation passed by
Congress between 1964 and 1968.
21
CURRENT EVENTS
April 23, 2007, Vol. 106, No. 24, pp. 7+
Copyright © Weekly Reader Corporation. April 23, 2007. All rights reserved. Reprinted with
permission.
Better Late Than Never?
• Some states apologize for their role in slavery.
How can the United States right the historical wrong of slavery? Some U.S. lawmakers say the country
should start by saying, "I'm sorry." That's pretty much what Virginia did in February when it issued a
resolution expressing "profound regret" for its role in the enslavement of African Americans. Delivered from
the state's capital, Richmond (the former capital of the Confederacy), the resolution calls slavery "the most
horrendous of all depredations of human rights and violations of our founding ideals in our nation's history."
A handful of other states, including Maryland and North Carolina, have been quick to follow Virginia's lead
by passing similar resolutions. Georgia and Missouri may be next in line. But for some lawmakers, saying
sorry isn't so simple. It's been nearly 142 years since the Civil War ended and Congress ratified the 13th
Amendment, abolishing slavery in the United States. Saying sorry now, critics say, just doesn't make sense.
Healing Wounds
Democrat A. Donald McEachin sponsored the bill in the Virginia House of Delegates. He's the greatgrandson of a North Carolina slave who moved to Virginia after the Civil War. For McEachin, the bill is about
healing the wounds of slavery. "We study history to learn from it and while we have much to celebrate in
American history, we also acknowledge some very painful lessons, including...the experiences of African
Americans," he says. He thinks Virginia owes African Americans an apology because they have been the
"victims of state-sponsored racism, governmental policies, and institutions of racism." By making an official
apology, the state has "created an environment for reconciliation and healing," he says.
Tennessee Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Memphis) recently introduced a resolution for a national apology in the
U.S. House of Representatives. He believes it would help improve race relations and bridge current
economic and social inequities between blacks and whites. His resolution states, "African Americans
continue to suffer from the consequences of slavery...through enormous damage and loss...including the loss
of human dignity and liberty, the frustration of careers and professional lives, and the long-term loss of
income and opportunity."
Sorry for What?
Critics say they shouldn't have to apologize for the actions of their ancestors. "I don't think I can apologize
for something I haven't done....While I am sorry for those past injustices, my efforts here have to be to make
sure they don't ever occur again," Georgia's Senate Majority Leader Tommie Williams (R-Lyons) told the
Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott fears that such resolutions could prompt perpetual apologies. "Where do we
end all this? Are we going to apologize for not doing the right thing on Social Security?" he told The New
York Times.
Maryland delegate Patrick L. McDonough (R-Baltimore County) agrees. That's why he voted against his
state's resolution. In addition, he told the Baltimore Sun, the United States has sufficiently apologized for
slavery by fighting the Civil War, passing the Civil Rights Act, and providing "billions in aid" in programs for
African Americans. Besides, he added, "I don't think apologies solve anything. They're just feel-good
superficial measures."
22
What Do You Think?
Do you think states should apologize for slavery?
Words in the News
Thirteenth Amendment
In 1863, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring freedom for
slaves in Confederate States still in rebellion. The 13th Amendment completed the abolition of slavery. It
states, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall
have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."
Get Talking
What role did slavery play in the history of the United States? How might the legacy of slavery affect
African Americans today?
Notes Behind the News
• Virginia timed its apology to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the establishment of the British
settlement of Jamestown, in 1607. The first recorded instance of slavery in North America was at Jamestown
12 years later with the landing of a Dutch ship that sold 20 chained Africans as indentured servants.
• Under the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, signed into law by U.S. President Ronald Reagan, the U.S.
government apologized for the interment of Japanese Americans during World War II. The act provided
reparations of $20,000 to each survivor to compensate for loss of property and liberty during that period.
• Many people argue that the descendants of slaves in the United States should also receive reparations.
Some critics of official apologies for slavery fear that by admitting wrongdoing, the states will open
themselves up to liability issues.
• In 1993, U.S. President Bill Clinton signed a resolution apologizing to native Hawaiians for the overthrow
of the kingdom of Hawaii in 1893 by U.S. naval forces representing sugar planters and financiers.
23
JUNIOR SCHOLASTIC
Jan. 21, 2008, Vol. 110, No. 11, pp. 20+
Copyright © Scholastic Inc. Jan. 21, 2008. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.
The Road to Re-Union
By Sean Price
• In the final month of the Civil War, Northern and Southern leaders made decisions that would save the
Union--and lead America out of some of its darkest days
Characters
John B. Gordon, Confederate General
General Robert E. Lee, Confederate Army commander
*
Jesse Cobb, Confederate soldier
*
Johnny Ringgold, Confederate soldier
*
Cleveland Smartt, Richmond resident
*
Cy Benson, Richmond residents
*
Jeremiah Smith, former slave
Abraham Lincoln, U.S. President
David Porter, Union Navy Admiral
E.P. Alexanders, Confederate General
William Hardee, Confederate General
Joe Johnston, Confederate General
General Ulysses S. Grant, Union Army commander
Ely Parker, Grant's aide
Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of the President
Isaac Arnold, member of U.S. Congress
*
Forrest Taylor, a Southern youth
*
Bushrod Taylor, his father
Prologue narrator
Narrators A-E
Epilogue narrator
24
*Indicates a fictional character. All others were real
people.
Prologue
Prologue Narrator: In the mid-1800s, Northerners and Southerners had differing views on many issues.
The biggest was slavery. Most Southerners were for it, most Northerners against. The South's economy
relied on African-American slaves to pick cotton and other crops. The industrialized North didn't need that
labor. By April 1861, the South had declared its secession from the United States. The Confederate States of
America [CSA] had its own government, with Jefferson Davis as President. But U.S. President Abraham
Lincoln refused to accept a split nation.
The CSA's capital was Richmond, Virginia, just 100 miles south of Washington, D.C. Virginia became a
major battleground. Union armies tried again and again to take Richmond. Each time, Confederate General
Robert E. Lee defeated the Yankees.
But in the end, the industrial North was better equipped to fight a long war. It also had many more
soldiers. In June 1864, Union General Ulysses S. Grant cornered Lee's Army of Northern Virginia at
Petersburg. Lee knew that Petersburg was key to protecting Richmond. Month after month, the standoff
continued. By April 1, 1865, Lee's men were worn down--miserably low on shelter and food. Thousands of
starving soldiers died or left for
home.
(See picture, "Grant, Ulysses
S.: During the Civil War.")
Scene 1
Narrator A: On April 1,
1865, Union troops break
through Confederate lines
at Petersburg.
John B. Gordon: We
can't protect these cities
any longer!
General Robert E. Lee:
I'll tell President Davis. The
troops must head west. We
have a train full of food
waiting for us in Amelia.
Gordon: That's a 40mile march, sir! The men
are starved and weak as it
is.
Grant, Ulysses S.: During the Civil War
Lee: There's nothing
else to do.
General Grant in 1865, during the Civil War. (Courtesy of the Library of
Congress)
25
(See picture, "Lee, Robert E.")
Narrator B: During the march,
exhausted troops search for food.
Jesse Cobb: What are you
doing?
Johnny Ringgold: Looking for
corn.
Cobb: That's a pile of horse
manure!
Ringgold: When horses don't
digest all the corn they eat, it
comes out in the manure. You can
wash it off.
Cobb: Ugh! I'll wait till we get
to Amelia.
Narrator C: But a clerk's error
has sent Lee's food train to the
wrong town. Meanwhile, Grant's
Union army is in pursuit.
Lee, Robert E.
Scene 2
Narrator D: The people of Richmond would rather burn their city down than let the
Yankees take it. Local leaders dump whiskey into the gutters and set fire to tobacco
warehouses. This brings disaster.
26
(See picture,
"Fall of
Richmond.")
Cleveland
Smartt: We have
to get out of here!
Criminals are
drinking whiskey
in the street.
They've become
a drunken mob.
Cy Benson:
Forget the mob!
Flames from
burning
warehouses are
coming this way.
Run!
Fall of Richmond
(Credit: Currier & Ives via Library of Congress)
Narrator E:
On April 3, the Union army enters Richmond. The next day, President Lincoln walks
through the smoldering streets. Former slaves crowd around him.
Jeremiah Smith: You set us free!
Abraham Lincoln: Thank God, not me, for the liberty that you will enjoy from now
on.
Narrator A: Meanwhile, Richmond's whites stare at Lincoln in silence.
Lincoln: We must let people know that we mean no harm.
David Porter: I don't know how. A lot of our boys would like to finish what the Rebs
started and burn Richmond to the ground.
Lincoln: We'll have none of that! These people are to be treated well. They are our
countrymen again.
Scene 3
Narrator B: Lee's army keeps moving westward. But at a village called
Appomattox, Grant traps Lee's starving men.
Lee: I would rather die a thousand deaths than surrender to General Grant. But I
see no other choice.
E.P. Alexander: Some of the men could still slip away and become hit-and-run
fighters.
27
Lee: The Confederacy already tried
that in Missouri. Those fighters became
criminal bands that killed innocent civilians. I'm a Virginian. I won't do that to my home.
Narrator C: Lee meets Grant in Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865.
General Ulysses S. Grant: Your men can go home. But they must promise never
to fight again. Officers can keep their pistols and swords. Personal property will be
respected.
Lee: These are very generous terms.
Grant: Is there anything else? Do your men need food?
Lee: Yes, they would appreciate that.
Narrator D: As Lee leaves, Union cannons boom, and bands play.
Grant: What's this?
Ely Parker: The men are celebrating the Rebs' surrender, sir.
Grant: Stop them! We will not gloat in front of defeated men. There will be time to
celebrate later.
(See picture,
"Map: United
States, 18611865.")
Scene 4
Narrator E:
News of Lee's
surrender causes
profound sadness
in the South and
big celebrations in
the North. But the
war is not over.
Map: United States, 1861-1865
(Map by Jin McMahon/MapMan, Scholastic Inc.)
Mary Todd
Lincoln: What's
wrong?
Abraham Lincoln: There are other Confederate armies out there--from North
Carolina to Texas.
Mary Todd Lincoln: Those ragtag troops can't give the South a victory.
28
Lincoln: Yes, but they could prolong
they have given up.
the war for years. I won't relax until I know
Narrator A: But Lincoln doesn't live to see that day. On April 14...
Isaac Arnold: Mr. President, do you have a moment?
Lincoln: Not now. My wife and I are off to Ford's Theater to see a play.
Arnold: But Mr. President...
Lincoln: We'll talk tomorrow.
Narrator B: During the play, pro-Confederate actor John Wilkes Booth sneaks into
Lincoln's theater box and shoots him. Lincoln dies the next morning. Twelve days
later, Booth dies after a gunfight with soldiers.
Scene 5
Narrator C: General Joe Johnston is in North Carolina, commanding the largest
Confederate army after Lee's.
William Hardee: Sir, 1 have orders from President Davis. You're to march west
and fight the Yankees from Texas.
Joe Johnston: But the war is lost! That would be criminal!
Hardee: Don't think of surrender. The Yankees will kill or enslave us. They blame
us for Lincoln's death.
Johnston: That's nonsense. Lee received favorable terms. I'm not going to get my
men killed just to keep empty hopes alive.
Narrator D: On April 26, Johnston surrenders. At news of this, the other
Confederate armies give up. But Southerners remain bitter toward the North.
Forrest Taylor: Hey, Pa, the Yankees said that I had to swear loyalty to the United
States.
Bushrod Taylor: You took the oath?
Forrest Taylor: We have to in order to become citizens again.
Bushrod Taylor: You have betrayed me, and you have betrayed the South!
Forrest Taylor: But General Lee advised people to do it.
Bushrod Taylor: General Lee? Well, if he says it's all right, it must be.
29
Epilogue
Epilogue Narrator: After the Civil War, the U.S. faced a painful period called
Reconstruction (1865-1877). Despite the efforts of Lee, Johnston, and other respected
leaders, many Southerners would not accept "Yankee rule."
The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution abolished slavery and
guaranteed African-Americans' citizenship and voting rights. But many Southern
whites bitterly refused to acknowledge blacks as equals. Lawless bands, including the
Ku Klux Klan, terrorized or killed Southerners who championed blacks' rights.
The road to reunification proved to be a long and difficult one. But it could have
been far worse if not for decisions made on both sides in April 1865. The generosity of
Lincoln, Grant, and other Union leaders helped ease Southerners' fears. The brave
cooperation of Lee and Johnston soothed Northerners' anger. Together, they laid the
groundwork for rebuilding the United States.
Words to Know
• Ku Klux Klan (KKK): a secret society formed after the Civil War to oppose
reunification efforts, especially African-American rights.
• Rebs: a nickname for Confederate troops used by Northerners; short for Rebels.
Also used: Johnny Reb.
• secession: withdrawal from an organization, such as a political group, region, or
country.
• Yankees: a nickname for Union soldiers.
Chronology: Key Events of the Civil War
1860
Nov. 6: Abraham Lincoln is elected President. He gets no support from Southern
states because he opposes slavery.
Dec. 20: South Carolina secedes from the Union. Ten other Southern states soon
follow, forming the Confederate States of America.
1861-early 1863
The first shots of the war are fired at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, on April 12,1861,
at dawn.
The Confederacy enjoys several key victories. Many Northerners want to end the
war, allowing the Confederate states to remain split from the U.S.
1863
30
Jan. 1: Lincoln's Emancipation
in the Confederate states.
Proclamation declares freedom for slaves
July: Key Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg turn the tide of the war.
1864
Sept. 2: Union General William Tecumseh Sherman captures Atlanta, Georgia, the
South's most important city. This ensures Lincoln's re-election two months later.
1865
Apr. 9: General Ulysses S. Grant accepts General Robert E. Lee's surrender at
Appomattox, Virginia.
(See picture, "Grant and Lee at
Appomattox.")
Apr. 14: Lincoln is shot and
dies the next day. Vice President
Andrew Johnson becomes
President and launches
Reconstruction programs.
Web Watch:Reconstruction
digitalhistory.uh.edu/reconstruc
tion/index.html
Think About It
1. Why did General Johnston
object to continuing the fight
against the North? Might he have
felt differently had Lee not
surrendered?
2. Do you think that Grant's
terms for Lee's surrender were
fair? Why or why not?
Eyewitness
Grant and Lee at Appomattox
"My paramount object is this
struggle to save the Union...If I
(Credit: Currier & Ives via Library of Congress)
could save [it] without freeing any
slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I
could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that."-Abraham Lincoln, President during the U.S. Civil War, 1861-1865
31
READ
Feb. 7, 1997, pp. 4-7
Reprinted by permission from Weekly Reader Corporation. Copyright
(c) 1997 by Weekly Reader Corporation. All rights reserved.
'SEPARATE IS NEVER EQUAL'
Fifty to 100 years ago, if you were black and lived in the South, you might have
walked 3 or 4 miles to school in 100-degree heat. If you stopped to drink from a
"whites only" water fountain, you might have been arrested. For you, using that
fountain was against the law.
If on that long walk home from school, you were struck by a car near a "whites
only" hospital, you could not seek help there. That too was against the law.
For at least 50 years in some parts of the United States, barring blacks from white
facilities was the law--the Jim Crow law.
Jim Crow* (*Jim Crow was a stereotyped, black, song-and- dance man) laws were
designed to keep black people and white people separate, or segregated, in public.
The laws prohibited blacks from sharing rest rooms, hotels, hospitals, restaurants,
drinking fountains, train cars, and jails with whites. Blacks could not serve on juries.
And in many parts of the South, black children could not attend white schools.
The Supreme Court put its stamp of approval on Jim Crow laws in 1896. The High
Court ruled that even though the Constitution entitled every citizen to equal rights,
equality did not necessarily include associating with one another. The court's phrase
separate but equal became justification for excluding blacks from white facilities and
services.
In education, for instance, the new ruling meant black students could be separated
from white students as long as both groups had equal facilities. But separate schools
were often far from equal.
In West Memphis, Ark., in 1945, the only school for 1,000 black children was a halfburned shack. Children who couldn't squeeze into its five small classrooms were
crammed next door into an overcrowded church with mud-crusted floors. The
buildings had no electricity or indoor plumbing, and the only heat came from a small
coal stove. Supplies and books were almost nonexistent.
In that same year, West Memphis built a new school for half as many white
children. The modern building boasted a fully equipped gym, a cafeteria, and industrial
arts, typing, and cooking classes. In 1945, in West Memphis, $144 was spent on every
white schoolchild, but only $19 was spent for each black schoolchild.
Outraged by such inequalities, black leaders and white leaders across the nation
began to rally for change. The NAACP,** (**National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People) an organization fighting for civil rights, challenged the doctrine of
separate but equal schools. On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court declared
32
segregated schools unconstitutional.
"Separate is never equal," said Thurgood
Marshall, who argued the case and later became a Supreme Court justice. In the
ruling called "Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka," the High Court charged all
U.S. schools to integrate.
Many states and school districts complied immediately, opening their doors to
black students. In Little Rock, Ark., the school board and the mayor began drawing up
plans for gradual school integration.
Governor Orval Faubus, however, had other plans. Up for reelection, Faubus
courted the political support of segregationists. Disregarding the High Court's ruling,
he ordered the Arkansas National Guard to barricade Central High. Faubus claimed
the move was to prevent bloodshed, but his actions blocked black students from
entering the school. Integration in Little Rock was stalled for years.
By 1957--exactly 40 years ago--the two sides were clearly drawn. Those who
demanded school integration were poised to march forward. Those bitterly opposed
were ready to block them in the streets. Caught in the middle were nine black
teenagers--nine frightened but hopeful warriors. Would they survive the clash?