Equal Education Essay Research Paper The most

Equal Education Essay, Research Paper

The most critical civil rights issue in the United States has concerned the status of it’s African-American minority. After the Civil War the former slaves situation as free people granted them the rights of citizenship which was established by the 13th and 14th Amendments that were legalized in 1865 and 1868, individually. The 15th Amendment, legalized in 1870, prohibited race, color, or previous condition of bondage as grounds for denying or restraining the rights of citizens to vote. In addition to these constitutional provisions, judgments were passed defining civil rights more particular. The Supreme Court, however, held several of these unconstitutional, including the 1875 act of prohibiting racial discrimination in public places. In 1872 Speaker of the House John R. Lynch fought for equality. In his years in office, Lynch would engage in debate on the Civil Rights Bill when came before the House. He would plead for safekeeping of the provision that would open all public schools to children of all races. He criticized all Republicans who did not support the Bill. Less then a month before the Bill became law Lynch would plead with the House members. He said: I appeal to all members of the House- republicans and democrats, conservatives and liberals- to join with us in the passage of this bill, which has for its object the protection of human rights. And when every man, woman, and child can feel and know that his, her and their rights are fully protected by the strong arm of generous and grateful Republic, then can all truthfully sat that this beautiful land of ours, over which the Star Spangled Banner so triumphantly waves, is, in truth and in fact, the “land of the free and the home of the brave. Ibid., 43rd Cong., 2nd Sess., p. 947. Even though the bill was later found unconstitutional, he was just the beginning of many Civil Right Fighters who would offer their hand in the fight. In the last two decades of the 19th century, African Americans were restricted and stripped of other rights in the South through discriminatory legislation and unlawful violence. Separate accommodations for whites and African Americans became a basic rule in the southern society. In 1896 decisions involving the segregation of railroad passengers, the Supreme Court held that “separate but equal” public facilities did not violate the Constitution. From 1900, Pennsylvania statistics reveal that an increasing percentage of African American children of school age were attending school; however, it was obviously lower than for Whites. “in 1900, 54.1 percent of the native White and 44.3 percent of the Negro children between the ages of five and twenty were attending school. In the 1910, the percentage for native Whites was 61.1 and 55.1 for African American; in 1920, the percentages were 65.4 and 59.4 separately for native Whites and African Americans”. Some African American did not attend school because they had “working parents”; low economic status where it required that both parents be absent from home. There was also the insufficient training offered by the schools. In the Struggle for Education, a depiction of an African American child is given: The Negro boy or girl who goes through the eight grade, can do nothing well. Very few of them go to the High School because by that time they find that they are circumscribed by the race prejudice which keeps them from open competition, and they do not see that the four year course in the High School would be of any special economic benefit to them. It is a well known fact that a Negro girl finishing eighth grade at present, has about as much chance economically, as her sister from High School…. With Negro young men who finish High School courses, there is often a larger amount of discouragement. The reason is, that a Negro boy is not permitted to enter competition for clerical or other positions with his white classmates, though they be no better intellectually or economically than he is. He is not even half prepared for any other work and he must turn to domestic service, where he is often held up by the Negroes as sufficient proof for other boys and their parents, that a High School course is useless for Negroes. R.R. Wright, Jr., pp. 189-190. Blacks left the South seeking better educational opportunities for their children, and this large movement had significant effect on the northern public school systems. Throughout the century, the percentage of African Americans on the public school population increased. In 1920, African Americans constituted 7.7 percent of the elementary school population and 3.2 percent of the secondary school population. By 1925, African Americans made up 11.6 percent of the elementary and 3.9 percent of the secondary school population; in 1930, they accounted for 15.4 and 6.4 percent each of the elementary and secondary school population. Ibid., p. 413. During the first half of the 20th century racial discrimination, was practiced in most areas of American life. The May 7, 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. Board of Education(out of Kansas), Briggs vs. Elliot (out of South Carolina), Davis vs. Prince Edward County School Board (out of Virginia), and Gebhart vs. Belton ( out of Delaware) were considered together; a fifth case, Boiling vs. Sharpe, coming out of the District of Columbia, was considered separately ( since the district is not a state) represented a turning point. With Thurgood