Title: History of Institutional Racism in U.S. Public Schools - The Edvocate
Headings: 
History of Institutional Racism in U.S. Public Schools
Institutional Racism today – the “New Racism”
Matthew Lynch

Content: If African-Americans remained uneducated, plantation owners and Southern Whites believed, they would not revolt, maintaining the status quo of slavery. Jim Crow laws then made their appearance in 1877. The “separate but equal” doctrine created an educational system of segregated schools (i.e., Plessy vs. Ferguson). Under this doctrine, African-American students had difficulties finding schools in their districts or they were forced into schools that did not meet proper standards. Black schools were also under constant threat of closure in favor of funding for their white counterparts. In the 1950s, Brown vs. The Board of Education turned the “separate but equal” doctrine on its head by subverting the previous Plessy vs. Ferguson ruling. However, progress was met with violence. Schools effectively became war zones where violence called for military involvement when white protestors and African American students clashed. Photos of students as young as six years old being escorted by U.S. Marshalls to and from school flooded newspapers as the racial bias in the education system fueled the coming Civil Rights Movement. The Civil Rights Movement brought about legislation that supported and pushed forward what Brown vs. The Board of Education began.