The Segregation Of Schools In The 1950's

The segregation of schools based on a students skin color was in place until 1954. On May 17th of that year, during the Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education, it was declared that separate public schools for black and white students was unconstitutional. However, before this, the segregation of schools was a common practice throughout the country. In the 1950s there were many differences in the way that black public schools and white public schools were treated with very few similarities. The differences between the black and white schools encouraged racism which made the amount of discrimination against blacks even greater.
Firstly, in both black and white schools student were at least partially educated. However, the level of education between the two schools was extremely different. Only one out of eight black adults in the nation had completed high school and four out of ten white adults had gotten their diploma. Black students were not encouraged as much as white students were to complete school. This lead to black adults being less educated than the majority of white adults. “A white student who completed the eighth grade was almost certainly far ahead of the black child at the same grade level,” (Peter Irons). White students were taught more. The learning

There are many inequalities in the way that black and white public schools were treated in the 1950s. The concept of separate but equal was created in 1896. Public schools were separate but they were almost never equal (Lily Rothman). The quality of students books, teachers, and education was all decided based on the color of their skin. Racism in society has improved greatly since the 1950s, however it would be naive to believe that it no longer exists. As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their