1950-1980 Education

This video made me so angry. I was frustrated at how many people were ignorant when it came to understanding and accepting people of other races and genders. In the 1950’s schools were full of the post war baby boomers. The job of schools, at this point in time, was to keep them safe and propel students towards a technological future”. Three out of five students graduated and 50% went on to college. But in this decade, schools were segregated and it was understood that different people were educated differently. There were different schools for the “whites and the blacks” and there were little to no opportunities for women. 17 states had segregated schools by laws with Mexican-Americans averaging only 5 years of schooling and 72% of disabled children not being in school.

From 1950-1970 there were many reforms that came to open schools to everyone. Equality was now a major concern, starting with the schools, it would, as many hoped, carry on through the rest of society. In Topeka, Kansas, the black and the white students were attending schools together but everything else they had or did was separate such as sports, proms, school government, and even the books were different. In Topeka there were 18 white schools with only four African-American schools. The term “separate but equal” was no longer equal, and segregation was still legal as long as the schools claimed to be "separate but equal". The NAACP stated that schools were never equal and they were inadequate. Schools could give employment to black teachers and they were highly qualified but many jobs were not open to them because of race. African- American teachers were interested in the whole child not just certain facets and wanted to expand learning. In 1950, the NAACP enlisted 15 black parents to enroll their children in white schools, with all of them being turned away and denied entrance. Through this we find the Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, which ultimately ended 60 years of legal segregation in May of 1954. Schools began complying with the decision but it ended up displacing 30,000 black teachers.

The South defied the decision, saying they would not integrate. But in Little Rock, Arkansas we saw Dwight Eisenhower upholding the law and through armed forces nine black students would attend a white school. We began seeing the Civil Rights movement, Martin Luther King Jr., as well as others who were strong advocates for rights of black people. In 1963 public schools had the support of Lyndon B. Johnson who advocated equal chances at education would lead to equal chances at life. He implemented programs such as Head Start and College Loans to help pay for school. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed equality in schools and equal education and opportunity. This Act was then followed by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act promoting quality and equality in education. Eight years after the Civil Rights Act, 90% of black people would attend schools. The 1960s brought about schools trying to keep up with the job market, reaching (and not attaining) the “American Dream”. In the Southwest, we found that Mexican-Americans rarely made it to high school with, in 1968, a 75% drop out rate. In Crystal City, Texas 87% of people were Mexican-American with three out of four teachers being white. We find the word “Americanize” coming back to our schools and society.

We begin to see the push for bilingual education and without results, students performed “walk outs”, 500 students not going to school. The school board was to blame and starting there, the Mexican-American community obtained four of the seven seats on the school board and began making improvements to education. The Bilingual Education Act was passed in 1974 giving even more opportunities to students speaking multiple languages. The Lau case pushed forward more advocacies for bilingual education. This case dealt with Chinese culture in San Francisco schools and also lead to the idea that equality requires that you treat each student differently. Thus $68 million dollars was given for bilingual education. With race and languages making strides in schools, gender became the widespread topic. With, in 1970, only 1% of medical and law degrees were being awarded to women and only 7.4 athletes being women, something had to change. In 1972, Title 9 was passed and demanded equal education for all genders (females more specifically). But even with this step forward books and school materials were heavily gender biased. Dorothy Raffel, a female athlete, who saw doors being closed to her, charged the government with not upholding the law for girls. Women because of Raffel began earned more degrees, participated in more sports and for the first time ever, were in the Olympics. In 1976 we found that children with disabilities were now the subject of discrimination. The 1970’sbrought about changes for these students as well, with more talking, more debates, came progress through communication.

It certainly looks as though, as a nation, if we do not have some group, race, gender, or ability to target for discrimination, our country is at a loss for what to do. I feel so frustrated looking to our history of education, knowing that my own race, the people who I would have mostly identified with, during those days, were so cruel to so many other groups of people for just being different.