Opposition to Developments in Education (Edexcel GCSE History): Revision Note

Summary

Progress towards desegregation in Southern schools resulted in a furious backlash. This involved politicians who argued that the national government did not have the right to tell separate states how to run their schools. Wealthy Southerners set up White Citizen’s Councils (WCC) to organise and coordinate their opposition to desegregation. Opposition also involved violence and terror from the Klu Klux Klan (KKK). Civil rights groups continued to ensure that the law was enforced through a series of court cases.

How did the White Citizens’ Council (WCC) oppose desegregation in schools?

• After the Supreme Court judgement ruled all US schools must be integrated in Brown v. Topeka many people in the South formed White Citizen’s Councils (WCC) 

• WCCs were made up of wealthy middle- and upper-class people who wanted to use economic power to prevent the end of segregation in schools

• Methods used by the WCCs included: 

  • Pressuring and boycotting companies that cooperated with desegregation laws

  • Illegally firing people for supporting the civil rights movement

• WCCs were formed throughout the South and attracted around 60,000 members

• They also worked to stop the voter registration of Black Americans and resorted to violence and intimidation of civil rights campaigners

 How did the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) oppose desegregation in schools?

• The Ku Klux Klan also became more active

• There was an increase in membership after the Brown v. Topeka judgement

  • This led to an increase in violence and brutality 

  • Black churches were bombed alongside the homes of civil rights campaigners and a series of murders were committed by Klan members

Political opposition to desegregation in schools

• The response of many politicians in the South to the Brown v. Topeka judgement was to sign the Southern Manifesto

  • The politicians believed that the Federal government had no right to interfere in the education policy of individual states

  • They argued they were trying to protect their states’ independence and that their opposition was not racist

• Political opponents to desegregation came from both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party – with Democrats who opposed desegregation becoming known as Dixiecrats

  • Southern state governments passed hundreds of laws and resolutions designed to prevent desegregation from taking place

•  President Eisenhower did not want to take on his Southern political opponents, enforce the segregation laws and risk violence and civil disorder

  • It was only the civil disorder over Black students attending Little Rock High School in Arkansas that forced him to get involved

  •  He then used the army to make sure integration took place

Protecting School Integration: CORE & NAACP

• The leaders of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) had expected the Southern states to obey the law and desegregate their schools

  • When the states didn’t, CORE and the NAACP organised petitions to be gathered and sent to school boards

• CORE created guidance leaflets for Black students and their parents on how to cope with racist incidents in their new schools.

• It became clear from the growing opposition to desegregation through the Southern Manifesto, the WCC and the KKK that petitions would not be enough

  • In January 1956, the NAACP began legal action in eight Southern states that had completely refused to integrate their schools

  • Fierce opposition from well-funded state politicians meant that progress was slow but a series of NAACP court victories ensured integration was gradually introduced

• Progress was slow in 1965; fewer than 12,000 of the 235,000 Black students in Virginia attended integrated schools