The film, Eyes on the Prize: Fighting Back, Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas is put to the test. During the Supreme Court case of Brown Vs The Board of Education, many people fought for schools to end segregation of the students. This means that black and white students would attend the same schools together. The Supreme Court case made its final decision and made it illegal to segregate students. Central High School was the school that let black students in first. The NAACP let in 9 black students at Little Rock and they were called the Little Rock Nine. Even though many people fought to not have them there, President Eisenhower fought to keep them there. This led to an uproar from the community and a lot of violence. At one point the governor even has to call out the national guard and the students had to be escorted to class by police. By the end of the film, only one black student is left to graduate …show more content…
This film shows a huge issue with federalism. Within the test cases shown in the video, we see the national law that requires desegregation and the state laws stating that blacks and whites must be segregated clashing. The Brown Vs Board of Education case determined that the "separate but equal" doctrine violated the constitution because it did not offer equal protection to all people. This made some state governments very angry because they believed that ruling schools to be desegregated violated their personal rights, which was obviously not the case. The state governments didn't want to help desegregate the schools because the governors wanted the students to be segregated, but since national law stated that students will not be segregated or discriminated against, they sent help from the National Guard to protect the black students. The presidents even had to get involved issuing court orders to allow students to be enrolled in
Board of Education is a very important landmark case. This case addressed the constitutionality of segregation in public schools back in the early 1950s. When the case was heard in a U.S. District Court a three-judge panel ruled in favor of the school boards. The plaintiffs then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Supreme Court went through all its procedures and eventually decided that “Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal” ().
At the time in which segregation was a law, the door of opportunity was shut and it was African American students who opened it. These students were the Little Rock Nine. When they integrated, segregationists did anything they could to prevent it, even breaking the law. As the Little Rock Nine arduously entered Central High, they had no idea their lives would be turned completely upside down. This flip in their lives allowed them to have a voice.
They argued that segregated schools deprived African American students the equal protection under the 14th amendment of the Constitution. The Supreme Court ruled that segregated schools were inherently unequal and violated the 14 amendment. Brown v. Board of Education brought America one step closer to securing equal rights for
The next part of the film that shocked me was even though segregation was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court some schools, mainly the schools in the Deep South, avoided desegregation. In Arkansas, the Little Rock school board delayed integration for three years. The Arkansas Governor continued to resist integration by sending the Arkansas National Guard to stop nine African American students from entering the newly integrated Little Rock's Central High School. These students became to be known as the Little Rock Nine. This force President Dwight Eisenhower to respond by sending federal troops to protect the nine black students.
Although the roots of this movement date as far back as the 1900s, the legacy of the African American’s role in World War II sparked the catalyst needed to promote the legislation that eventually led to their equality. “On May 17, 1954, The Supreme Court announced its decision in the case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka” (Brinkley 772). This regulation overturned the Supreme Court’s earlier decision in the Plessy V Ferguson case. The separate but equal doctrine was a prime example of domestic policy that did not uphold the government’s constitutional promise to promote the general welfare of society-to include all that fall under the definition of an American citizen. The affliction put on children who had to travel to segregated public schools placed an unequal burden and damage done to those who it pertained to.
Have you ever wondered what the Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka was? Well, it was a big thing in the south to let colored children to be in a school with white children. Many people don’t get why there was a fight about this. In this essay I will tell you why there was a fight about this. The Brown vs. Board of Education was a really big thing in the United States.
Starting in the late 1800’s African Americans would come to Oklahoma and Indian Territory to escape discrimination and Jim Crow Law, or law persecuting African Americans. Oklahoma had no laws discriminating against them, but in 1907 when Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory would combine because of the Enabling Act of 1906 they would become a state and that would change. Charles Haskell first law he would pass, Senate Bill #1, would be a Jim Crow Law requiring the segregation of train cars and stations. After this law many more would be passed such as: Segregating schools, restaurants, neighborhoods, water fountains, and other public facilities. Although, Oklahoma is not in the Deep South, Oklahomans helped contribute to the civil rights
“The most oppressive feature of black secondary education was that southern local and state governments, through maintaining and expanding the benefits of public secondary education for white children, refused to provide public high school facilities for black children.” In sum, Anderson uses this chapter to build a broader argument about the “separate, but equal doctrine” under Plessy v. Ferguson that mandated segregation. More specifically, he situates this argument through case studies in Lynchburg, VA and Little Rock, AR. In the culminating chapter, James Anderson discusses the emergence of historically black universities and black land-grant colleges.
In 1957, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas’s decision, segregation in public education violated the Fourteen Amendment, but Central High School refused to desegregate their school. Even though various school districts agreed to the court ruling, Little Rock disregarded the board and did not agree to desegregate their schools, but the board came up with a plan called the “Blossom plan” to form integration of Little Rock High despite disputation from Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus. Desegregating Central high encountered a new era of achievement of black folks into the possibility of integrating public schools, and harsh resistance of racial integration. Although nine black students were admitted into Little Rock harsh violence and
As a result of the Brown vs. Board of Education decision, The United States legislators wrote the Southern Manifesto in 1956. They believed that the final result of Brown v. Board of Education, which stated that separate school facilities for black and white children were fundamentally unequal, was an abuse of the judicial power. The Southern Manifesto called for the exhaust of all the lawful things they can do in order to stop all the confusion that would come from school desegregation. The Manifesto also stated that the 10th Amendment of the US Constitution should limit the power of the Supreme Court when it comes to these types of issues. 2.
Brown vs. Board of Education (1954) declared that separate public schools for African American and White children is unconstitutional. This ruling paved the way for desegregation and was a major victory for the civil rights movement. In regards to providing an equal education I believe this ruling did help to level the playing field. All students would now be receiving equal education and facilities giving them equal opportunity. I do know that it didn 't exactly go down peacefully and many African Americans still did not receive fair treatment for many many years but it was a stepping stone to move education in the right direction.
The federal government may have had good reasoning behind stopping the laws implemented by states, but it doesn’t hide the fact that the federal government overstepped its boundaries. In document 1, it states that education is the important function of state and local governments and it explains how it’s those governments duties to ensure each child has the opportunity to be educated. However, if it’s the state and local governments duty, then why did the federal government decide how each state should handle school systems. It’s no longer about what was the “right thing to do”, but it’s about how the rights of the whites were also contracted as they lost their say in what goes on in their own
The Little Rock Nine A battle of State versus Federal Government broke out in Arkansas when town of Little Rock decided to integrate their High School. Nine black students, soon to be known as the Little Rock Nine, were chosen to receive their education at Little Rock Central High School, a school previously for whites only. Even though segregation in school systems had been proven to be unconstitutional the Governor of Arkansas at the time, Orval Faubus, was doing everything in his power to stop the integration process. The Little Rock Nine forced the Federal Government to make a stand in the name of equality and Civil Rights, which has made a lasting impact on the education system in the United States to this day.
The decision behind Brown versus Board of Education is bigger than a “won case “but a case that helped Americans realize interaction, companionship, and learning in a school setting among different races is detrimental and effective. The theory behind the concept was for Americans to change bias thought processes of race and notice success and academic goals is not associated with skin color. For generations to come, it is our responsibility now to reverse racial desegregation not only in schools but everywhere. Brown versus Board of Education was the stepping stone for many to take action. We must continue to
One of the biggest highlighted event in the movie would be when the white people made separate bathrooms for the black people in their houses. People were disgusted about the idea of having to use the same toilet as a black person because of the “diseases” they carry and wanted seperate bathrooms. This was also just another way that white people to keep blacks under them by making them feel inferior. We also have the case of the segregated buses where the white sit in the front and black sit in the back. At this point of the movie a young black man had gotten shot and the driver boarded the bus to kick off all the black people just by saying “colored people off”.