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Review Of Brown V. Board And The Mystification Of Race: Article Summary

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The article “The Whole United States Is Southern!” : Brown v. Board and the Mystification of Race” is written by Charles M. Payne, an American academic whose areas of study include civil rights activism, urban education reform, social inequality, and modern African-American history. Payne argues through the article against the intention of racial segregation being a problem for the Southerners. There’s also pieces on how this concept has interfered with African American lives and how it has affected them. Payne states that the South, as the only region with racial problems, ignores the pervasiveness of racism throughout the whole United States. He also argues that racial groups can develop equally and still a person can know their own worth …show more content…

Brown's inspiration for more civil rights activism is plausible, but the article states that there would probably be a better case made for Smith v. Allwright, essentially meaning Brown doesn’t have a strong case definitely since no one made another for his case besides an anecdotal. Smith had a decision to outlaw the white primary and the percent of southern blacks who were registered to vote increased indefinitely following Smith. This energized the modern civil rights movement and ended black political exclusion. And for Brown, the most important revisionist critique of the decision was that strong links exist between the decision and the mobilization of white southern resistance to racial change. Starting with so many questions, the author states “Clearly, part of the miscalculation involved a widespread tendency to overestimate the power of the law to make change and to underestimate the degree of racial intransigence outside the South.” Which is giving the understanding that the miscalculations can reflect into a bigger problem, creating a larger pattern. The author states the segregation was a part of that mystification process was the reduction of the systematic character of white

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America’s history has been marked by periods of tumult and periods of stability within its borders, C. Vann Woodward’s book, The Strange Career of Jim Crow, chronicles the events that happen after the Reconstruction period, showcasing the problems that Americans went through. The Strange Career of Jim Crow attacks segregation starting with its foundations and then records the laws and codes that the African-American population lived under during that time period. In his book Woodward points out the origins of Jim Crow laws and the segregation that goes with it, stating “One of the strangest things about the career of Jim Crow was that the system was born in the North and reached an advanced age before moving South in force. ”1 This book review

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“A racist system inevitably destroys and damages human beings; it brutalizes and dehumanizes them, blacks and whites alike” (Kenneth Clark). Kenneth Clark was a very important person in helping the Brown V. Board Of Education case win. Winning that case was important because a state law came into place that said separate public schools for black and white students were unconstitutional. A Raisin in the Sun shows how Clark was right; a racist system affected the way the Youngers’ lived. The Youngers’ apartment in the Southside of Chicago: in the 1950s; significantly affected the Youngers’ lives.

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“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.

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WaiTo Wong Polsc 1 Prof. Uranga 8/7/2014 Was Brown v Board decided correctly? Back in 1950s', African American children were rejected admission to normal public schools which are attended by white children, under laws requiring or allowing segregation towards to the races. Linda Brown who is the main character in this event, she was born in Topeka, Kansas. Despite the fact she grew up in a ethnically diverse neighborhood, she was still forced to go to a school which need an hour time to reach instead of going to a school which was four blocks away from her house. Back at that time Topeka's schools are being segregated by races.

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T Patterson’s essay The Troubled Legacy of Brown v. Board believes the view that Brown v. Board was a hindrance to Civil Rights. [7, T. Patterson, James, (2001), The Troubled Legacy of Brown v. Board, 6-7] Firstly, he discusses the general decrease in “demonstrations” after the ruling when he would have expected more. What he describes may be due to complacency or an instilled fear because of their persecution because many states accelerated their persecution after the verdict. He continues saying only “1.2 percent” of integrated schools existed even a decade after the ruling, showing an abject Federal failure to enforce the ruling. Michael.

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Throughout the book, as one reads its contents, one can see that Woodward tackles the ideas such as the fact that the interaction between black and whites, which was very prevalent in the pre-Civil War era because of slavery, could not have been undone overnight. One factor that limited segregation was the fact that the north controlled the south for a period of time to prevent the Southerners from stirring up conflict again. And once the north withdrew itself from southern affairs in the late nineteenth century, the south started to introduce the now infamous Jim Crow laws. The rise of southern populism, and the depression of the eighteen-eighties, both led to racial differences to become more pronounced which made whites resent blacks more than ever. Woodward goes in depth in his book to show his reasoning behind his theories of how segregation came to be, and he later describes and analyzes the demise of segregation towards the end of his book in the newer editions.

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Susan Brooks was born in Buffalo, New York in 1940. She recalls that, while the conditions weren’t as terrible as in the south, segregation still occurred. The main difference was that in the south, segregation was governed by law, while in the North, real estate agents would steer blacks towards certain neighborhoods. There were no African American students at her school before the Brown vs. Board of Education decision. After the Supreme Court’s decision, there was only a small difference, as her school wasn’t close to a black neighborhood.

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During this time period, Northern States and Southern States followed different laws in terms of African Americans. According to the reading, “large majority of African Americans living in the south lacked the civil and political rights of citizens.” Despite living in a partially liberal society, African Americans faced adversity in the Southern States. Blacks lacked recognition as citizens due to the idea of inferiority that Whites

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In the 1950’s, states had either laws or no laws about segregation. As a high topic of controversy, states came the notion of whether desegregation was worth it or not. By attempting to change social norms, problems such as, violence could erupt. However, with so many cases involving minorities being oppressed and courts unable to maintain an unbiased point of view, the federal government

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A prominent issue that occurred in the Southern United States was segregation between African Americans and other Americans (predominantly White Americans). Segregation was implanted in all aspects of American society that eventually became “an accepted part of southern society” (Greene 2010). The government’s perspective on civil rights was stagnant and not striving toward

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In the mid 1870’s, the white southern had taken much of the control of the southern state governments. The result was the government took away many of the rights of the blacks and for almost a century there was a segregation of peoples (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2011). Blacks and whites always had different policies and facilities. It was supposed to be a separate but equal system according to the government, however, this was by no means the

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Prior to 1956 there had always been issues between different races (particularly African Americans and whites) due to slavery and mistreatment, and how the north supported desegregation while the south did not because they thought the white majority was superior to African Americans. Nevertheless as time went on and peoples viewpoints were altered, desegregation became inevitable; the University of Alabama-a place with traditional southern ideals- chose to welcome “the first black student to the university” (Trager 5); yet she was expelled first for her own safety, readmitted due to a court ruling, and expelled once again for the charges of “making libelous comments” (Trager 5). The back and forth tensions between desegregation at the University of Alabama signified that the US was working towards civil rights equality, however not everyone was shared those ideas- even if there were court rulings against segregation. The hostility to equality for all races went farther than just a university, it went to South Carolina as they created a law that “forbid city employees from affiliating with any civil-rights organization’ (Trager 5). This ruling took away rights from the average American because they did not have the freedom to voice their opinion or protest without severe consequences: it again proves how some

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One point he raises is that two students are applying for admissions into school. They each take a test testing their knowledge. The black student makes a 700 while the white makes a 720. The school accepts the black student even though his score was lower to have more black students brought into the profession. Both students exceeded the standard score of 600 but the white student was turned down because the blacks were once racially discriminated.

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In the case of Strauder v. West Virginia, an African American man challenged the state’s law that only whites could serve in jury duty, saying that it was unconstitutional to the 14th Amendment, but the court ruled that states could choose to exclude any person from serving on a jury, even if that reason was simply because they were not white (Strauder v. West Virginia). From this decision, it is clear that, even after the passing of the 14th Amendment, many, if not most court judges thought that African Americans were inferior, intellectually and morally, to white men, and still held that equal participation in the government should not be possible. The denial of African Americans from serving their country, through their local courts, in the same capacity as white people was a chief reason for the continual contention that was had with state governments, especially those that were disinclined to allow civil rights to African Americans, and court appeals for violation of rights seemed to be the most effective way to induce the equality of the races, or at least to make people aware of the social injustice. One of the most famous examples of the push against discrimination was the landmark Brown v. the Board of Education, a consolidation of four cases from four states against the state government for the laws against African Americans children from attending “whites only” schools violating the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment (Brown v. Board of Education). The idea of schools that educate students of different races was not a frontrunning issue in America’s sociopolitical eye until the eve of the Civil Rights Movement, and although the Fourteenth Amendment protects the rights of American citizens to enjoy equal institutions, the

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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

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