The "deliberate speed" called for in the Supreme Court's Brown decision
was quickly overshadowed by events outside the nation's courtrooms.
In Montgomery, Alabama, a grassroots revolt against segregated
public transportation inspired a multitude of similar protests
and boycotts. A number of school districts in the Southern and
border states desegregated peacefully. Elsewhere, white resistance
to school desegregation resulted in open defiance and violent confrontations,
requiring the use of federal troops in Little Rock, Arkansas, in
1957. Efforts to end segregation in Southern colleges were also
marred by obstinate refusals to welcome African Americans into
previously all-white student bodies.
By 1964, ten years after Brown, the NAACP's focused legal
campaign had been transformed into a mass movement to eliminate
all traces of institutionalized racism from American life. This
effort, marked by struggle and sacrifice, soon captured the imagination
and sympathies of much of the nation. In many respects, the ideals
expressed in Brown v. Board had inspired the dream of
a society based on justice and racial equality.
Mrs. Rosa Parks being fingerprinted
in
Montgomery, Alabama, 1956.
Gelatin silver print.
New York World-Telegram & Sun Collection,
Prints and Photographs Division (119)
|
Mrs. Rosa Parks Fingerprinted in Montgomery, Alabama
On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, forty-three,
was arrested for disorderly conducted for refusing to give
up her bus seat to a white passenger. Her arrest and fourteen
dollar fine for violating city ordinance, led African American
bus riders and others to boycott the Montgomery city buses.
It also helped to establish the Montgomery Improvement Association
led by a then unknown young minister from the Dexter Avenue
Baptist Church, Martin Luther King, Jr. The boycott lasted
for one year and brought the Civil Rights Movement and Dr.
Martin King to the attention of the world.
|
Rosa Parks Arrest Record
Rosa Parks was a leader in the Montgomery,
Alabama, bus boycott, which demonstrated that segregation
would be contested in many social settings. A federal district
court decided that segregation on publicly operated buses
was unconstitutional and concluded that, "in the Brown case, Plessy
v. Ferguson has been impliedly, though not explicitly,
overruled." The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the
district court without opinion, a common procedure it followed
in the interim between 1954 and 1958. |
Rosa Parks's arrest record,
December 5, 1955.
Page 2
Frank Johnson Papers,
Manuscript Division (118)
|
Tom P. Brady.
Black Monday
Title page
Winona, Mississippi: Association of
Citizens' Councils, 1955.
General Collections (120)
|
Black Monday, 1954
Following the Supreme Court's decision
on Brown v Board of Education, U.S. Representative
John Bell Williams (D-Mississippi) coined the term "Black
Monday" on the floor of Congress to denote Monday, May 17,
1954, the date of the Supreme Court's decision. In opposition
to the decision, white citizens' councils formally organized
throughout the south to preserve segregation and defend segregated
schools. The White Citizens' Council movement in Mississippi,
led by Thomas Pickens Brady, a circuit court judge, published
a handbook, Black Monday, in which the philosophy
of the movement is stated, including its call for the nullification
of the NAACP, the creation of a forty-ninth state for Negroes,
and the abolition of public schools. |
University of Alabama Students Protest Desegregation
Autherine Lucy's dream of obtaining a
degree in library science was finally realized when she officially
enrolled at the all-white University of Alabama in 1956.
While the court had granted her the right to attend the university,
the white population seemed intent on making this impossible
by staging riots. Students, adults and even groups from outside
of Alabama shouted racial epithets, threw eggs, sticks and
rocks, and generally attempted to block her way. Protestors,
like the group pictured here, prompted the University to
expel Lucy on February 6, 1956, in order to ensure her personal
safety. |
University of Alabama Students
burn
desegregation literature, 1956.
Gelatin silver print.
Prints and Photographs Division (121A)
|
Thurgood Marshall and Arthur
Shores,
February 29, 1956.
Gelatin silver print.
Visual Materials from the NAACP Records,
Prints and Photograph Division (123)
Courtesy of the NAACP
|
Autherine Lucy's Attorneys
Autherine Lucy, the first African American
student to be admitted to the University of Alabama in 1956,
is shown with her attorneys Thurgood Marshall and Arthur
Shore. The case went to court in 1953, and a decision to
prohibit the university from rejecting Lucy based on race
was reached in 1955. This decision was amended days later
to apply to all African American students seeking to enter
the University of Alabama. Lucy enrolled on February 3, 1956,
but was expelled for her own safety three days later. Marshall
and Shores went back to court but were forced to withdraw
the case due to lack of support. Lucy's expulsion was finally
overturned in 1988. |
Autherine Lucy's Expulsion
A day after Autherine Lucy's expulsion
from the University of Alabama, Roy Wilkins sent this telegram
to U.S. Attorney General Herbert Brownell requesting the
institution of criminal contempt proceedings against all
parties prohibiting Lucy from attending classes at the University.
The federal government refused to intercede. Lucy's expulsion
was finally overturned in 1988 by the Board of Regents. She
entered the University in earnest the following year and
graduated in 1992 with a master's degree in elementary education
along with her daughter, Grazia, who was enrolled as an undergraduate. |
Telegram. NAACP Executive
Secretary
Roy Wilkins to Herbert Brownell concerning
the
expulsion of Autherine Lucy,
February 7, 1956.
NAACP Records,
Manuscript Division (121)
Courtesy of the NAACP
|
Clinton, Tennessee, school
integration conflict, 1956.
Gelatin silver print. U.S.
News & World Report Magazine Collection,
Prints and Photographs Division (125C)
Digital ID # ppmsca 03093
|
School Integration in Clinton, Tennessee
In 1956, Clinton High School in Clinton, Anderson County,
Tennessee, was set to be the first high school in the South
to be integrated
after the Brown decision. Integration was progressing
smoothly until John Kasper, leader of the White Citizens
Council and a staunch segregationist, came to town. Protests
and riots ensued from that day until early in December, when
several white citizens escorted the African American students
to class, as shown here. One of the escorts was badly beaten
afterwards. As a result of the episode the school was closed
on December 4, but reopened six days later without incident. |
A Classroom in Nashville After Integration
While many schools throughout the south
were confronted with protesters attempting to prevent integration,
Miss Mary Brent, principal of the previously all white Glenn
Elementary School in Nashville greets black and white students,
without incident, on the first day of school. |
Integrated classroom in Nashville,
1957.
Gelatin silver print.
New York World-Telegram & Sun Collection,
Prints and Photographs Division (125A)
|
School Dilemma--Youths taunt
Dorothy Geraldine
Counts in Charlotte, North Carolina,
1957.
Gelatin silver print.
Visual Materials from the NAACP Records,
Prints and Photographs Division (125B)
Courtesy of the NAACP
|
School Dilemma
In 1957, fifteen-year-old Dorothy Geraldine
Counts and three other students became the first African
American students to attend the previously all white Harding
High School in Charlotte, North Carolina. They were greeted
by angry white mobs who screamed obscenities and racial slurs
at the African American students. Counts's picture appeared
in many newspapers as did others of black students attempting
to attend white schools for the first time. Counts's family
feared for her safety and withdrew her from Harding and sent
her out of state to complete high school. |
Anacostia High School, Washington, D.C.
In the 1950s, Washington, D.C. black
schools were both segregated and inadequate. Many schools
were overcrowded and lacked adequate educational materials.
This photograph shows the results of the Brown decision
with both black and white students in the same classroom
in 1957. Today Anacostia, like many of the public high schools
in D.C. is attended by predominantly African American students. |
Warren K. Leffler.
An integrated classroom at Anacostia High School,
Washington, DC, 1957.
Gelatin silver print.
U.S. News & World Report Magazine Collection,
Prints and Photographs Division (201)
|
Cecil Layne.
Little Rock Nine and Daisy Bates pose
in living
room, ca. 1957-1960.
Gelatin silver print.
Visual Materials from the NAACP Records,
Prints and Photographs Division (128)
Courtesy of the NAACP
|
The Little Rock Nine
Seventeen African American students were
selected to attend the all white Central High School in 1957
but by opening day the number had dwindled to nine. Pictured
here with Daisy Bates, a newspaper journalist and active member
in the local NAACP, are nine students, Ernest Green, Thelma
Mothershed, Elizabeth Eckford, Terrace Roberts, Carlotta Walls,
Gloria Ray, Jefferson Thomas, Melba Pattillo, and Minnijean
Brown. Bates would become the advisor for the nine students.
The day before school opened, Governor Orval Faubus called
the National Guard to surround Central High, declaring "blood
would run in the streets" if blacks students attempted to enter.
|
U.S. Army 101st Airborne Division
On September 24, Little Rock Mayor Woodrow
Mann sent a special request for federal assistance to President
Dwight Eisenhower. The following day nine African American
students entered Central under the protection of members
of the 101st Airborne Division of the U. S. Army,
shown here. The Little Rock Nine, as they have become known,
finished the school year in 1958. One of the students, Ernest
Green graduated that year with the help of federal protection.
In September 1958, Governor Faubus closed all high schools
in Little Rock. They reopened in August 1959 with the protection
of local police. Only four of the nine students returned. |
U.S. Troops escort African
American students from Central High School, Little Rock,
Arkansas,
October 3, 1957.
Gelatin silver print.
New York World-Telegram & Sun Collection,
Prints and Photographs Division (130B)
|
Charles Mingus. "Fables of Faubus."
Holograph music manuscript, ca. 1957.
Charles Mingus Collection,
Music Division (131)
"Fables of Faubus" by Charles Mingus, published by the Jazz Workshop,
Inc. Courtesy of Sue Mingus.
| "Fables of Faubus"
Orval E. Faubus was the governor of Arkansas,
who in 1957 sent out the National Guard to prevent African-American
students from entering Little Rock's Central High School. American
jazz musician Charles Mingus responded to the event by composing "Fables
of Faubus," a condemnation of the action. Unfortunately, Columbia
Records prohibited Mingus and fellow musician, Danny Richmond
from singing the following lyrics:
Name me someone who's ridiculous, Dannie.
Governor Faubus!/
Why is he so sick and ridiculous?
He won't permit integrated schools.
Columbia reconsidered and recorded the
piece in its entirety two years later. |
Daisy Bates and The Little Rock Nine
Daisy Bates, publisher of the newspaper The
Arkansas State Press and president of the Arkansas
NAACP Branches, led the NAACP's campaign to desegregate
the public schools in Little Rock, Arkansas. Thurgood Marshall
and Wiley Branton served as counsel. The school board agreed
to begin the process with Central High School, approving
the admission of nine black teenagers. The decision outraged
many white citizens including Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus.
President Eisenhower sent federal troops to Little Rock
to ensure the protection of the nine students, and, on
September 25, 1957, they entered the school. In the midst
of the crisis, Daisy Bates wrote this letter to NAACP Executive
Director Roy Wilkins to report on the students' progress.
|
Daisy Bates to Roy Wilkins
on the treatment
of the Little Rock Nine,
December 17, 1957.
Page 2
Typed letter. NAACP Records.
Manuscript Division (127)
Courtesy of the NAACP
|
"Segregation's
Citadel Unbreached in 4 Years,"
Washington
Observer,
Sunday, May 11, 1958.
Enlarged version
Newspaper map.
Geography and Map Division (140)
Copyright
1958, Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive
and The Washington Post.
All Rights Reserved.
|
Segregation's Citadel Unbreached, 1958
At the time of the May 1954 Brown v.
Board of Education,decision seventeen states and the
District of Columbia had laws enforcing school segregation.
By 1958, only seven states--Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia,
Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana --maintained
public school segregation. |
Ruby Bridges
In 1956 U.S. District Court Judge J. Skelly Wright ordered
the desegregation of the New Orleans public schools. After
a series of appeals, in 1960, Wright set down a plan that
required the integration of the schools on a grade-per-year
basis, beginning with the first grade. The School Board issued
a test to black kindergartners to determine the best candidates.
Six-year old Ruby Bridges was one of six children selected.
Four agreed to proceed. On November 14, Bridges integrated
the William Frantz Public
School. In retaliation, white parents withdrew her classmates
and Bridges's father was fired from his job. Ruby completed
the first grade alone with the support of Barbara Henry,
a Boston teacher, and Dr. Robert Coles, a child psychiatrist.
Ruby's walk to school the first day, escorted by U.S. Marshals,
inspired the 1964 Norman Rockwell painting, "The Problem
We All Live With."
|
Ruby Bridges, 1960.
Gelatin silver print.
New York World-Telegram and Sun Collection,
Prints and Photographs Division (148)
Digital ID # cph 3c26460
|
The Library of Congress
does not have permission to show this image online
School Desegregation Spreads Through South,
Associated Press Newsfeatures,
October 16, 1961.
Newspaper map.
Geography and Map Division (152) |
School Desegregation Spreads Through South
Faced with increasing public and state
legislative support for desegregation, political leaders
in Southern states gradually introduced desegregation measures.
By 1961, only South Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi still
maintained completely segregated school systems. |
"Meredith Enrolls at Ole Miss "
Riots erupted when James Meredith, armed
with a Supreme Court order and guarded by federal marshals,
enrolled at the University of Mississippi, known as "Ole
Miss," on October 1, 1962. In spite of Governor Ross Barnett's
initial defiance of federal rulings, Meredith prevailed and
graduated from the university in 1963. The Birmingham
News, then an evening newspaper in Alabama, a state
that experienced its own civil rights woes, reported that
day's activities. Founded in 1888, the newspaper had a daily
circulation of approximately 188,280 at the time. |
The Birmingham News (Birmingham,
Alabama),
Monday, October 1, 1962.
Enlarged version
Newspaper.
Historic Events
Newspaper Collection,
Serial and Government Publications Division (158)
|
Media Images
|
Norman Rockwell to John A.
Morsell,
December 3, 1963.
Typed letter.
NAACP Records,
Manuscript Division (155)
Courtesy of the NAACP
|
The Library of Congress
does not have permission to show this image online
Look magazine,
January 14, 1964.
Centerfold.
Prints and Photographs
Division (175) |
Powerful images appearing in the news
media captured the imaginations of ordinary Americans and
helped enlist their sympathies in the cause of civil rights
and school integration. In this letter to the NAACP, renowned
illustrator Norman Rockwell offered for the organization's
use his painting "The Problem We All Live With." The painting,
which was published in Look magazine, January 14,
1964, portrayed a young African American girl, escorted by
federal marshals, as she made her way through a hostile environment
toward a newly integrated school. The painting was based
on the ordeal of Ruby Bridges in New Orleans, Louisiana. |
John A. Morsell, Assistant
to NAACP Executive Secretary to President John F. Kennedy
requesting the assistance of the federal government in
the case of James Meredith,
September 21, 1962.
Page 2
Typed letter.
NAACP Records,
Manuscript Division (156)
Courtesy of the NAACP
|
Federal Assistance Needed
On September 10, 1962, the Supreme Court
ordered the University of Mississippi to admit James Meredith,
a twenty-eight year old Air Force Veteran, after a sixteen
month legal battle. Governor Ross Barnett disavowed the decree
and had Meredith physically barred from enrolling. President
Kennedy responded by federalizing the National Guard and
sending Army troops to protect Meredith. After days of violence
and rioting by whites, Meredith, escorted by federal marshals,
enrolled on October 1, 1962. Two men were killed in the turmoil
and more than 300 injured. Because he had earned credits
in the military and at Jackson State College, Meredith graduated
the following August without incident. |
Meredith with Constance B. Motley and Jack Greenberg
On September 28, the Fifth Circuit Court
found Governor Ross Barnett guilty of civil contempt for
defying two earlier orders to admit James Meredith to the
University of Mississippi. Meredith left the courthouse accompanied
by his attorneys Constance Baker Motley and Jack Greenberg.
Motley received national recognition for her defense of Meredith.
A graduate of Columbia Law School, she joined the Legal Defense
Fund as a law clerk in 1946 and became assistant counsel
in 1949. She helped prepare the Brown briefs. Thurgood
Marshall hired Greenberg as an assistant counsel directly
from Columbia Law School in 1949. Greenberg worked on the Sweatt case
and was co-counsel on the Parker, Brown and
Delaware cases. In 1961, he succeeded Marshall as Director-Counsel
of the Legal Defense Fund , serving in that capacity until
1984. |
The Library of Congress does not have permission
to show this image online
James Meredith and NAACP lawyers
Constance Baker Motley and Jack Greenberg, 1962.
Gelatin silver print.
New York World-Telegram & Sun Collection,
Prints and Photographs Division (157B) |
The Library of Congress
does not have permission to show this image online
Phil Ochs. "The Ballad of Oxford, Mississippi." Broadside 15,
(November 1962). New York: 1962.
American Folklife Center (157) |
"The Ballad of Oxford, Mississippi"
Phil Ochs, a topical-protest songwriter,
played a central role in the 1960s Greenwich Village folk
scene. "A Ballad of Oxford, Mississippi" chronicled James
Meredith's 1962 enrollment at the University of Mississippi
and was first published in Broadside magazine. Despite
the magazine's small circulation, it had a strong impact
on the folksong revival. The late 1962 issues contained numerous
other songs about James Meredith including, for example,
Bob Dylan's Oxford Town. |
Governor George Wallace at the University of Alabama
This image of Governor George Wallace blocking the entrance
to the University of Alabama is one of the most recognized
of all the images from the civil rights period. On June 11,
1963, Wallace, surrounded by Alabama state troopers, confronted
and blocked Assistant U.S. Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach
and the African American students from entering the university.
President Kennedy had to federalize the National Guard and
send them to the campus to assist with the integration process.
Wallace did eventually step aside and allow the students
to register. |
Warren K. Leffler, photographer.
Governor George Wallace attempting to block integration
at the University of Alabama, 1963.
Gelatin silver print.
U.S. News & World Report Magazine Collection,
Prints and Photographs Division (174A)
Digital ID # ppmsca 04294
|
Warren K. Leffler.
Students entering Foster Auditorium to register
at the University of Alabama,
June 11, 1963.
Gelatin silver print.
U.S. News & World Report Magazine Collection,
Prints and Photographs Division (174B)
|
Vivian Malone at the University of Alabama
Vivian Malone and James Hood were the
first two students to integrate the University of Alabama
with the help of the National Guard, Assistant U.S. Attorney
Katzenbach, and President Kennedy on June 11, 1963. |
Summit Conference on Civil Rights
On the tenth anniversary of the Brown decision
leaders of national organizations for blacks met in New York
City to hold a Summit Conference on Civil Rights. Present
(from left to right) were Bayard Rustin, civil rights
activist; Jack Greenberg, Director of Counsel of the NAACP
Educational and Legal Defense Fund; Whitney Young, Jr., Director
of the National Urban League; James Farmer, National Director
of Congress of Racial Equality; Roy Wilkins, Executive Secretary
of NAACP; Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; John Lewis, Chairman
of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee; and A.
Philip Randolph, Chairman of the National Negro American
Labor Council. |
Summit Conference on Civil Rights.
Gelatin silver print.
New York World-Telegram & Sun Collection.
Prints and Photographs Division (204)
|
The Library of Congress
does not have permission to show this image online
Newport Broadside: Topical Songs
at
the Newport Folk Festival.
Vanguard, 1964.
Album cover.
Motion Picture, Broadcasting and
Recorded
Sound Division (205) |
The Newport Folk Festival
The Newport Folk Festival quickly became
a showcase for 1960s folk revival artists. One festival highlight
was the afternoon Topical Songs workshop hosted by Pete Seeger.
The Vanguard Records release of topical songs from the 1963
festival includes "Fighting for My Rights" by the Freedom
Singers, a group associated with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee. |
The March on Washington
We Shall Overcome! captures
one of the pivotal moments in the Civil Rights Movement,
the March on Washington held on August 28, 1963. This LP
was produced by the Council for United Civil Rights Leadership
and issued by Folkways Records. It includes part of President
Kennedy's news conference about the event, Dr. King's "I
Have a Dream" speech, and Bayard Rustin's "Demands on the
March,"speech that asked for civil rights legislation to "include
public accommodations, decent housing, integrated education,
and the right to vote." |
The Library of Congress does not
have permission to show this image online
We Shall Overcome!: Documentary of the March
on
Washington.
Folkways, 1964.
Album cover.
Motion Picture, Broadcasting and
Recorded
Sound Division (209) |
Life magazine,
September 6, 1963.
Cover.
General Collections (217)
Courtesy of Leonard McCombe,
Time-Life Pictures, Getty Images.
|
March on Washington in Life, 1963
African American resistance to enslavement
and multiple forms of social, political, and economic inequality
included slave rebellions, marches, individual protests,
and legislative action in the courts. The March on Washington,
August 28, 1963, was a major expression of resistance in
the continuing strugglefor African American freedom in the
United States. Major organizers included Bayard Rustin, civil
rights activist, A. Phillip Randolph (Brotherhood of Sleeping
Car Porters), Roy Wilkins (National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People), James Farmer (Congress of Racial Equality),
John Lewis (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), and
Dorothy Height (National Council of Negro Women). |
"We Don't Dig No Busing"
In 1971, the Supreme Court upheld legislation
that caused children of different races to be transported
to white schools for racial balance. The school districts
spent millions of dollars each year busing minorities to
white schools; however, opponents of forced integration believed
that the transportation funding should have been used to
improve the conditions of the poor schools.
Shown here is a recording of "We Don't
Dig No Busing," sung by the Greer Brothers ages nine through
fourteen. It was produced in 1973 by an African American
recording studio, the Don Music company in Houston, Texas. |
The Library of Congress
does not have permission to show this image online
Greer Brothers. " We Don't Dig No Busing," (Busing
Song).
Houston: Don Music Company, 1973.
Record.
Motion Picture, Broadcasting and
Recorded
Sound Division (176A) |
he Library of Congress
does not have permission to show this image online
Bob Dylan.
The Times They Are A-Changin'.
Columbia , 1964.
Album cover.
Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded
Sound Division (206) |
The Times They Are A-Changin
Bob Dylan's third recording was also
his last to feature topical-protest songs. In compositions
such as "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll," Dylan described
a specific civil rights event to his growing audience, in
this case focusing upon the judicial system's inadequacies.
The title track and other songs on the record such as "When
the Ship Comes In" articulated a broad and defiant call for
cultural change. |
Obstruction and Delays in Virginia
The diehard segregationist campaign of "massive
resistance" took many forms. In Virginia's Prince Edward
County, location of one of the original school-segregation
cases, local authorities evaded court-ordered integration
by closing the public schools and supporting new, white-only,
private schools. The Supreme Court reviewed these actions
in 1964. This handwritten draft ruling by Justice William
O. Douglas indicates his frustration with "over a decade" of
delays since Brown: "Afterward numerous opinions
were written by the District Court and the Court of Appeals
but our mandate in the Brown case has never been
implemented." |
William O. Douglas,
[May 1964].
Draft per curiam opinion.
William O. Douglas Papers,
Manuscript Division (203)
|
Thomas J. O'Halloran, photographer.
Students arriving at the Free School #2 in Farmville,
Prince Edward County, Virginia, 1963.
Gelatin silver print.
U.S. News & World Report Magazine Collection,
Prints and Photographs Division (203A)
|
"Free school" in Farmville, Virginia
When Prince Edward County closed all
of its schools in 1959 rather than integrate in accordance
with the Supreme Court's decision. The white citizens in
the county formed a private all white academy where their
children could continue their education. African American
students were not provided public education until 1963. The
Reverend Leslie Francis Griffin a member of the NAACP and
the chairman of the Moton High School P.T.A. petitioned President
Kennedy for support from the federal government to prepare
the African American students for re-entering the public
schools. As a result the Prince Edward County Free School
System was created. Shown are students entering Free School
#2. |
Tenth Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education
A press conference at the Hotel Americana
celebrates the tenth anniversary of the landmark Brown
v. Board of Education decision. Four of the five plaintiffs
whose class action cases combined in Brown are pictured
together: Harry Briggs, Jr. (Briggs v Elliot), Linda
Brown Smith (Brown v Board of Education of Topeka),
Spottswood Bolling, Jr. (Bolling v. Sharpe), and
Ethel Louise Belton Brown (Gebhart v. Belton [Bulah] ).The
fifth case was Dorothy E. Davis v County School Board
of Prince Edward County, Virginia. |
Harry Briggs, Jr., Linda Brown
Smith, Spottswood Bolling, Jr., and Ethel Louise Belton Brown
during press conference, 1964.
Gelatin silver print.
New York World-Telegram and Sun Collection,
Prints and Photographs Division (224)
|
Save Brown v. Board of Education,
2003.
Poster.
Prints and Photographs Division (220)
|
The New Civil Rights Movement
On April 1, 2003, several thousands gathered
for a new March on Washington sponsored by The Coalition
to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration & Immigrant
Rights, and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary. BAMN,
the organization's acronym, were co-defendants in Grutter
v. Bollinger, the case which disputed the University
of Michigan's admissions policy. They felt many of the gains
made by minorities would be lost if the case did not uphold
the Brown decision. Many of the protesters carried these
signs with the phrase "Save Affirmative Action" and "Save
Brown v. Board of Education." |
Bill Mauldin's Support for Integration
In this drawing, political cartoonist
Bill Mauldin commented on the actions of Little Rock to establish
private schools to circumvent the U.S. 8th Circuit
Court of Appeals' November 10, 1958, order to integrate.
He used the dilapidated schoolhouse as a metaphor for the
disintegration of public school systems in the 1950s. Mauldin
gained public recognition for his World War II army cartoons,
but when asked what the most important issue of his career
had been, Mauldin replied, "The one thing that meant the
most to me and that I got involved in was the whole civil
rights thing in the sixties." |
Bill Mauldin (1921-2003). "What is done in
our classrooms today will be reflected in the successes or failures of civilization
tomorrow." Lindly C. Baxter, 1958.
Ink, crayon, and white out over pencil on layered paper.
Published in the St.
Louis Post-Dispatch,
November 11, 1958.
Prints and Photographs Division (138)
© Copyright 1958 by Bill Mauldin. Reproduced online courtesy of the Mauldin
Estate.
|
Bill Mauldin (1921-2003).
Inch by inch, 1960.
Crayon, ink, blue pencil and white out over pencil on layered paper.
Published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 1, 1960.
Prints and Photographs Division (145)
© Copyright 1960 by Bill Mauldin. Reproduced online courtesy of the Mauldin
Estate.
|
Difficulty of Achieving Integration, 1960
Despite the legal mandate to integrate,
school districts were slow to accommodate African American
children, as Bill Mauldin metaphorically shows here with
three young students working hard to open the door of "School
segregation" a mere crack. At its annual meeting in 1960,
the National Education Association rejected proposals to
support the Supreme Court decision, instead opting for a
watered-down resolution describing integration as "an evolving
process." Because of school boards' reluctance to follow
either the letter or the spirit of the law, segregation remained
in effect well into the 1960s. |
Slow Pace of Integration
Political cartoonist Herb Block, better
known by his pen name Herblock championed civil rights throughout
his career. Eight years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled
unanimously that racial segregation in public schools was
unconstitutional, in the 1954 case of Brown v. Board
of Education of Topeka, he penned this cartoon expressing
his dismay at the country's slow progress toward educational
integration. In his 1964 book Straight Herblock he
wrote, "The racist demagogues and rulers of state fiefdoms
need not send to know for whom the school bell tolls. It
tolls for them." |
Herb Block (1909-2001).
I'm eight. I was born on the day of the Supreme
Court decision,
May 17, 1962.
Ink, crayon, and opaque white over
graphite underdrawing on layered paper.
Published in the Washington Post, May 17, 1962.
Prints and Photographs Division (169)
© 1962 by Herblock in The Washington Post
|
Herb Block (1909-2001).
If the government doesn't support separate-but-equal
schools for our children, it's guilty of discrimination!,
February 12, 1963.
Ink, crayon, and opaque white
over graphite underdrawing on layered paper.
Published in the Washington Post, February 12, 1963.
Prints and Photographs Division (168)
© 1962 by Herblock in The Washington Post
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Herblock on Private Schools to Avoid Integration
Commenting on white parents who sent
their children to private school to avoid integration, Herb
Block wrote in Straight Herblock, "I'll get in there
and pitch for any child who is being denied schooling, whatever
his race, color or religion. But when a public school is
open and parents choose to send their children to a private
school instead, I don't see how those children are being
denied an education or denied any rights. And it seems ironic
indeed that some people in effect feel discriminated against
for lack of government-supported separate-but-equal religious
schools, when real victims of discrimination have finally
won recognition of the fact that schools which are separate
are not equal." |
Supporting Civil Rights
Herb Block applauds the growing activism
of the Civil Rights Movement in this cartoon. He shows an
African American practically pushed into the street by a
white man, while signs on all the buildings that line the
street speak of restrictions on blacks. Block's cartoon reflects
events of its time. In efforts to compel school districts
to end de facto segregation in the North and to
reduce school overcrowding, African American parents in Chicago,
New York, New Jersey, and other areas publically demonstrated.
President Kennedy, in a speech given on August 28, 1963,
urged Americans to "accelerate our effort to achieve equal
rights for all our citizens." |
Herb Block (1909-2001).
"And remember, nothing can be
accomplished by taking to the streets,"
September 6, 1963.
Ink, graphite, and opaque white over
graphite underdrawing on layered paper.
Published in the Washington Post, September 6, 1963.
Prints and Photographs Division (170)
© 1963 by Herblock in The Washington Post
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Oliver W. Harrington (1912-1995).
Dark laughter. Now I aint so sure I wanna
get educated, 1963.
Crayon, ink, blue pencil, and pencil on paper.
Published in the Pittsburgh Courier, September 21, 1963.
Prints and Photographs Division (172)
Courtesy of Dr. Helma Harrington
Digital ID # ppmsca-05518
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Oliver Harrington's Dark Laughter
This cartoon appeared as President Kennedy announced integration
of 157 city school districts, not as a milestone, but as
progress "slow step by step." Meanwhile some black children
continued to live in areas without a public school system
as officials attempted to bypass integration. Oliver Harrington,
an influential African American cartoonist, published this
image during a year of heightened interracial tension in
the United States, from his home in East Berlin, Germany.
This cartoon appeared in the African American newspaper,
the Pittsburgh Courier.
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First Day of School
Artist Vincent Smith, once described
himself as an "expressionist," someone who experiences life
on his own terms. As an African American artist, he became
aware of social issues early in his career. An active member
of the black arts movement in the1960s, Smith sometimes explored
these issues in his work. His etching, First Day of School,
shows a large crowd watching young black children on their
way to school. The scene is reminiscent of attempts to integrate
public schools in some areas throughout the South after the Brown decision. |
Vincent Smith (b. 1930).
First Day of
School, 1965.
Etching (reprint, 1994).
Prints and Photographs Division (178)
|
Herb Block (1909-2001).
" . . . One nation . . . indivisible . . . ,"
February 22, 1977.
Ink, graphite, and opaque white, with tonal film overlay
and porous point pen over graphite underdrawing on paper.
Published in the Washington Post,
February 22, 1977.
Prints and Photographs Division (182)
© 1977 by Herblock in The Washington Post
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Problems of "White Flight"
In this work, Herb Block reminded Americans
of the divisions between public education in the inner cities
and the suburbs, made more pronounced by "white flight" from
urban areas after the Brown v. Board decision. The
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights reported on February 15,
1977, that true desegregation could be achieved in urban
areas only if students were bused between cities and suburbs.
It argued that segregation had actually increased since 1954.
Block strove to make Americans aware of the need for equality
in education during his career, and bequeathed money to the
United Negro College Fund in his will. |
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