Mansfield, TX School Desegregation Incident essays

Mansfield, TX School Desegregation Incident essays During the fifteen to twenty years after World War II, America was experiencing numerous changes, not only politically but socially also. After World War II most Americans felt a sense of pride, due to the victory over the Japanese and Nazi powers. Although most people felt this pride, some people in the African American community did not experience this joy because of the racial tension that existed in the South. Racial segregation was at one of its worst points in history. Separate but equal, was the law of the land, but clearly the equal part was left out of the equation. Everything was split up into two categories, whites and coloreds, everything from bathrooms to restaurants. People grew up with no idea how a person of another race survived or even conducted themselves on a daily basis. Because of this isolation, black children grew up with social issues that affect some still today. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) began to challenge segregation in graduate and secondary schools in the mid-1930s. Early successes in the Supreme Court barred law schools from denying applicants on the basis of race alone. Application of these cases to public schools finally happened in Brown v. Board of Education, in 1954. In Brown I, after two rounds of oral arguments, the Supreme Court held that racial segregation in public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. A third round of arguments were held in 1955, concerning remedies, and in Brown II, the Court ordered that desegregation should occur with all deliberate speed. Unfortunately, the vagueness of this phrase, combined with the unwillingness of many states to desegregate, meant that many states were able to postpone any desegregation. Anger over these delays and a growing frustration over the continued disenfranchisement of African-Americans helped launch th e Civil Rights Movement. Shortly following the Brown...