The Civil Rights Movement

2875 Words12 Pages
How was education affected by the Civil Rights Movement? The Civil rights movement had played an important role in liberating the United States of America. It seeked to end segregation and racial discrimination against African Americans that was happening throughout the country. The movement also focused on fighting for the rights to vote that the African Americans rightly deserved and also for equal opportunity in areas such as employment and education. Throughout history, there was a very distinct difference in the standard of living between the Caucasians and African Americans. This was due to the fact that it was difficult for African Americans to find jobs that payed well. And even if they have managed to get union jobs, African Americans…show more content…
However, receiving education was not as easy as it is today due to the implementation of the segregation laws namely the Jim Crow Laws, that acted on the “separate but equal” doctrine which came about after the Plessy V. Ferguson case. The case concluded that “segregation was legal and constitutional as long as facilities were equal”. Throughout the United States, the Jim Crow laws ruled that public facilities should be separated between the whites and other races. It also allowed states to impose legal punishments on individuals who consorted with members of another race. Educational facilities also fell under the control of the Jim Crow Laws. States like Florida, Mississippi and Missouri were one of the many that ruled that white and colored students should attend separate schools and that it should be unlawful for individuals to attend schools that were not meant for their…show more content…
The very first time desegregation of education was successfully challenged was the Mendez v. Westminster case. In 1945, a young child Sylvia Mendez was rejected from an all-white California public school and was told to attend a separate facility reserved for Mexican Americans. The rejection of young Mendez aggravated her father who took four Los Angeles-area school districts to court as he challenged the issue of segregation. Using social science evidence to support his claim - an approach that was considered unusual back then, attorney David Marcus argued that Mexican-American childrens felt inferior to their white counterparts as a result of segregation and this detrimental effect could undermine their abilities to be productive
Open Document