Desegregation In The United States
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups, usually referring to races. Desegregation is typically measured by the index of dissimilarity, allowing researchers to determine whether desegregation efforts are having impact on the settlement patterns of various groups. This is most commonly used in reference to the United States. Desegregation was long a focus of the American
civil rights movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...
, both before and after the
United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
's decision in ''
Brown v. Board of Education ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segrega ...
'', particularly desegregation of the school systems and the military (''see
Military history of African Americans The military history of African Americans spans from the slavery in the United States, arrival of the first enslaved Africans during the colonial history of the United States to the present day. In every war fought by or within the United States ...
'').
Racial integration Racial integration, or simply integration, includes desegregation (the process of ending systematic racial segregation). In addition to desegregation, integration includes goals such as leveling barriers to association, creating equal opportunity ...
of society was a closely related goal.


US military


Early history

Starting with
King Philip's War King Philip's War (sometimes called the First Indian War, Metacom's War, Metacomet's War, Pometacomet's Rebellion, or Metacom's Rebellion) was an armed conflict in 1675–1676 between indigenous inhabitants of New England and New England coloni ...
in the 17th century, Black and White Americans served together in an integrated environment in the
Thirteen Colonies The Thirteen Colonies, also known as the Thirteen British Colonies, the Thirteen American Colonies, or later as the United Colonies, were a group of Kingdom of Great Britain, British Colony, colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. Fo ...
. They continued to fight alongside each other in every American war until the
war of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...
. Black people would not fight in integrated units again until the
Korean war , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
. Thousands of Black men fought in the new continental navy, on the side of rebellious colonists in the American revolutionary war. Their names, accomplishments and total numbers are unknown due to poor record keeping. During the
American civil war The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
, Black people enlisted in large numbers. They were mostly enslaved African Americans who had escaped the South, though there were many Northern Black unionists as well. More than 180,000 Black people served with the union army and navy during the civil war in segregated units, known as the
United States Colored Troops The United States Colored Troops (USCT) were regiments in the United States Army composed primarily of African-American (colored) soldiers, although members of other minority groups also served within the units. They were first recruited during ...
, under the command of White officers. They were recorded and are part of the
National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...
's Civil War Soldiers & Sailors System(CWSS). Around 18,000 Black people also joined the union navy as sailors. They are part of the
National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...
's War Soldiers & Sailors System (CWSS).


World Wars I and II

Despite the
NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...
lobbying for the commission of more Black officers, they were severely underrepresented throughout
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. Upon entering office, President
Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...
officially segregated the United States navy for the first time in its history. During
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, most officers were White, and the majority of Black troops still served as truck drivers and as
stevedore A stevedore (), also called a longshoreman, a docker or a dockworker, is a waterfront manual laborer who is involved in loading and unloading ships, trucks, trains or airplanes. After the shipping container revolution of the 1960s, the number o ...
s.Martin Blumenson, ''Eisenhower'' (Ballantine Books Inc.: New York, 1972) p. 127; Jonathan Jordan, ''American Warlords: How Roosevelt's High Command Led America to Victory in World War II'', (Penguin 2015), 54-58, 143-45''.'' The
Red Ball Express The Red Ball Express was a famed truck convoy system that supplied Allied forces moving quickly through Europe after breaking out from the D-Day beaches in Normandy in 1944. To expedite cargo shipment to the front, trucks emblazoned with red b ...
, which was instrumental in facilitating the rapid advance of allied forces across France after
D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...
, was operated almost exclusively by African American truck drivers. In the midst of the
Battle of the Bulge The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive, was the last major German offensive (military), offensive military campaign, campaign on the Western Front (World War II), Western Front during World War II. The battle lasted fr ...
in late 1944, General
Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
was severely short of replacement troops for existing military units, all of which were entirely white in composition. Thus, he made the decision to allow African American soldiers to join White military units in combat for the first time; this represented the first step toward a desegregated United States military. Eisenhower's decision in this case was strongly opposed by his own army chief of staff, Lieutenant General
Walter Bedell Smith General Walter Bedell "Beetle" Smith (5 October 1895 – 9 August 1961) was a senior officer of the United States Army who served as General Dwight D. Eisenhower's chief of staff at Allied Forces Headquarters (AFHQ) during the Tunisia Campaign ...
, who was outraged by the decision, and said that the American public would take offense with the integration of the military units. For the US army air corps, see the
Tuskegee Airmen The Tuskegee Airmen were a group of primarily African American military pilots (fighter and bomber) and airmen who fought in World War II. They formed the 332d Fighter Group and the 477th Fighter Group, 477th Bombardment Group (Medium) of the ...
. For the US army, see the
761st Tank Battalion (United States) The 761st Tank Battalion was a separate tank battalion of the United States Army during World War II. The 761st was made up primarily of African-American soldiers, who by War Department policy were not permitted to serve alongside white troops; ...
. In the second world war, the US navy first experimented with integration aboard USCGC ''Sea Cloud'', then later on , (both commanded by
Carlton Skinner Carlton Skinner (April 8, 1913 – September 2, 2004) was the first civilian governor of Guam and a prominent advocate for the integration of the United States Armed Forces. President Harry Truman appointed Skinner governor in 1949, after the ...
) a ship with Black crew members and commanded by White officers. Some called it "Eleanor's folly" after President Franklin Roosevelt's wife. ''Mason''s purpose had been to allow Black sailors to serve in the full range of
billets A billet is a living-quarters to which a soldier is assigned to sleep. Historically, a billet was a private dwelling that was required to accept the soldier. Soldiers are generally billeted in barracks or garrisons when not on combat duty, alth ...
(positions) rather than being restricted to stewards and mess men, as they were on most ships. The navy was pressured to train Black sailors for billets by Eleanor Roosevelt, who insisted that they be given the jobs for which they had trained. The US navy's newest component, the Seabees, had the same ingrained attitudes and approaches but ended up at the forefront of change. In February 1942, the CNO, Admiral
Harold Rainsford Stark Harold Rainsford Stark (November 12, 1880 – August 20, 1972) was an officer in the United States Navy during World War I and World War II, who served as the 8th Chief of Naval Operations from August 1, 1939 to March 26, 1942. Early life an ...
, recommended African Americans for ratings in the construction trades. In April, the navy announced it would enlist African Americans in the Seabees. Even so, those men were put into segregated units, the 34th and 80th Naval Construction Battalions (NCBs). Both had White southern officers and Black enlisted. Both battalions experienced problems with this arrangement, which led to the replacement of the officers. In addition, many of the stevedore battalions (special construction battalions) were segregated. However, by war's end, many of those special construction battalions were the first fully integrated units in the US navy. The war's end also brought the decommissioning of every one of those units.


Modern history

On July 26, 1948, President
Harry S. Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...
's
Executive Order 9981 Executive Order 9981 was issued on July 26, 1948, by President Harry S. Truman. This executive order abolished discrimination "on the basis of race, color, religion or national origin" in the United States Armed Forces, and led to the re-integra ...
ordered the integration of the armed forces following World War II, a major advance in civil rights. Using the executive order meant that Truman could bypass Congress. Representatives of the
Solid South The Solid South or Southern bloc was the electoral voting bloc of the states of the Southern United States for issues that were regarded as particularly important to the interests of Democrats in those states. The Southern bloc existed especial ...
, all White Democrats, would likely have stonewalled related legislation. For instance, two months prior to Truman's executive order in May 1948,
Richard B. Russell Richard Brevard Russell Jr. (November 2, 1897 – January 21, 1971) was an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 66th Governor of Georgia from 1931 to 1933 before serving in the United States Senate for almo ...
, Democratic senator from
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...
, unsuccessfully attempted to attach a "Freedom of Selection" amendment granting draftees and new inductees the opportunity to choose whether or not they wanted to serve in segregated military units to the Selective Service Act that was being debated in Congress. On 12 October 1972, a racially fraught riot occurred on . "Despite the presence of a Black executive officer, the ship's second-in-command, many Black sailors felt they were dealt harsher punishments and menial assignments because of their race".


US housing law

The practice of
housing segregation Housing segregation in the United States is the practice of denying African Americans and other minority groups equal access to housing through the process of misinformation, denial of realty and financing services, and racial steering. Housing ...
and racial discrimination has had a long history in the United States. Until the American civil rights movement in the 1960s, segregated neighborhoods were enforceable by law. The
Fair Housing Act The Civil Rights Act of 1968 () is a landmark law in the United States signed into law by United States President Lyndon B. Johnson during the King assassination riots. Titles II through VII comprise the Indian Civil Rights Act, which applie ...
ended discrimination in the sale, rental and financing of housing based on race, color, religion, and national origin. This was the first housing law against discrimination. The passage of this act was contentious. It was meant to be a direct follow up to the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 () is a landmark civil rights and United States labor law, labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on Race (human categorization), race, Person of color, color, religion, sex, and nationa ...
. However, from 1966 to 1967 it failed to garner enough political support for its passage in the
United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...
. At that time, several states had passed their own fair housing laws and Congress was not convinced that a federal law was necessary. It was only after the
assassination of Martin Luther King Jr Martin Luther King Jr., an African-American clergyman and civil rights leader, was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, at 6:01 p.m. CST. He was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he died at 7 ...
on 4 April 1968, and the ensuing riots, that the bill was finally passed. It was signed into law on 11 April 1968 by President
Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...
, a strong proponent. Johnson called the new law one of the "promises of a century … It proclaims that fair housing for all — all human beings who live in this country — is now a part of the American way of life." Since the act's passage in 1968, it has been amended to include sex, familial status, and disability. The
Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity The Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO) is an agency within the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. FHEO is responsible for administering and enforcing federal fair housing laws and establishing policies th ...
within the
US Department of Housing and Urban Development The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It administers federal housing and urban development laws. It is headed by the Secretary of Housing and Urb ...
is charged with administering and enforcing this law.


US education system

After ''
Brown v. Board of Education ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segrega ...
'' (1954), the lawful segregation of African American children in schools became a violation of the 14th Amendment. In ''
Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education ''Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education'', 402 U.S. 1 (1971), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case dealing with the busing of students to promote integration in public schools. The Court held that busing was an appropriate ...
'' (1971), the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that
forced busing Race-integration busing in the United States (also known simply as busing, Integrated busing or by its critics as forced busing) was the practice of assigning and transporting students to schools within or outside their local school districts in ...
of students may be ordered to achieve racial desegregation. However, court-enforced school desegregation efforts have decreased over time. A major decline in manufacturing in northern cities, with a shift of jobs to suburbs, the South, and overseas, has led to increases in the numbers of residents of all races in suburbs, and shifts in population from the North and Great Plains to the southwest, the Pacific Northwest, and the South. Left behind in many northeastern and midwestern
inner cities The term ''inner city'' has been used, especially in the United States, as a euphemism for majority-minority lower-income residential districts that often refer to rundown neighborhoods, in a downtown or city centre area. Sociologists somet ...
have been the poorest Black people and other minorities. According to
Jonathan Kozol Jonathan Kozol (born September 5, 1936) is an American writer, progressive activist, and educator, best known for his books on public education in the United States. Education and experience Born to Harry Kozol and Ruth (Massell) Kozol, Jonat ...
, in the early 21st century, US schools have become as segregated as they were in the late 1960s. The Civil Rights Project at
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
says that desegregation of US public schools peaked in 1988. As of 2005, the proportion of Black students at schools with a White majority was at "a level lower than in any year since 1968". Some critics of school desegregation have argued that court-enforced desegregation efforts were either unnecessary or self-defeating. Numerous middle class and wealthy White people continued moving from cities to suburbs during the 1970s and later, in part to escape certain integrated school systems, but also as part of the
suburbanization Suburbanization is a population shift from central urban areas into suburbs, resulting in the formation of (sub)urban sprawl. As a consequence of the movement of households and businesses out of the city centers, low-density, peripheral urba ...
caused by movement of jobs to suburbs, continuing state and federal support for expansion of highways, and changes in the economy. Some White parents in Louisiana said that they were afraid to drop off their children because of all the mobs surrounding the desegregated schools. Sociologist David Armor states in his 1995 book ''Forced Justice: School Desegregation and the Law'' that efforts to change the racial compositions of schools had not contributed substantially to academic achievement by minorities. Carl L. Bankston and Stephen J. Caldas, in their books ''A Troubled Dream: The Promise and Failure of School Desegregation in Louisiana'' (2002) and ''Forced to Fail: The Paradox of School Desegregation'' (2005), argued that continuing racial inequality in the larger American society had undermined efforts to force schools to desegregate. They maintained that racial inequality had resulted in popular associations between school achievement and race. Therefore, the achievement levels of American schools were generally associated with their class and racial compositions. This meant that even parents without racial prejudice tended to seek middle class or better residential neighborhoods in seeking the best schools for their children. As a result, efforts to impose court-ordered desegregation often led to school districts with too few White students for effective desegregation, as White students increasingly left for majority White suburban districts or for private schools.


Asian Americans

The increasing diversity of American society has led to more complex issues related to school and ethnic proportion. In the 1994 federal court case '' Ho v. San Francisco Unified School District'', parents of
Chinese American Chinese Americans are Americans of Han Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans along with their ancestors trace lineage from ...
schoolchildren alleged that
racial quotas Racial quotas in employment and education are numerical requirements for hiring, promoting, admitting and/or graduating members of a particular racial group. Racial quotas are often established as means of diminishing racial discrimination, addr ...
under a 1983 consent decree constituted racial discrimination in violation of the
United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven ar ...
's
Equal Protection Clause The Equal Protection Clause is part of the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The clause, which took effect in 1868, provides "''nor shall any State ... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal ...
. The desegregation plan did not allow any school to enroll more than 50% of any ethnic group. Originally intended to aid integration of Black students, the ruling had a negative effect on the admissions of Chinese Americans, who had become the district's largest ethnic group. The newspaper ''
AsianWeek ''AsianWeek'' was America's first and largest English language print and on-line publication serving Asian Americans. The news organization played an important role nationally and in the San Francisco Bay Area as the “Voice of Asian America”. ...
'' documented the Chinese American parents' challenge. Since Chinese Americans were already nearly half the student population, the consent decree had the effect of requiring the competitive Lowell High School in
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
,
California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
, to apply much higher academic admission standards for Chinese American students. However, the civil rights group
Chinese for Affirmative Action Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA) is a San Francisco-based advocacy organization. Founded in 1969, its initial goals were equality of access to employment and the creation of job opportunities for Chinese Americans. The group broadened its missio ...
sided with the school district, arguing that such standards were not harmful to Chinese Americans, and were necessary to avoid the resegregation of schools. In 2006, Chinese parents continued to protest against race-based school assignments."Back to School for Integration: The Catch-22 of Excellence and Diversity Without Race"
, ''
AsianWeek ''AsianWeek'' was America's first and largest English language print and on-line publication serving Asian Americans. The news organization played an important role nationally and in the San Francisco Bay Area as the “Voice of Asian America”. ...
''


See also

*
Educational Inequality in the United States Unequal access to education in the United States results in unequal outcomes for students. Disparities in academic access among students in the United States are the result of several factors including: government policies, school choice, family ...
*
Achievement gap in the United States Achievement gaps in the United States are observed, persistent disparities in measures of educational performance among subgroups of U.S. students, especially groups defined by socioeconomic status (SES), race/ethnicity and gender. The achievement ...
*
Civil rights movement (1896–1954) The civil rights movement (1896–1954) was a long, primarily nonviolent resistance, nonviolent action to bring full Civil and political rights, civil rights and equality under the law to all Americans. The era has had a lasting impact on Society ...
*
Multiculturalism The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for "Pluralism (political theory), ethnic pluralism", with the tw ...
*
Timeline of the civil rights movement This is a timeline of the civil rights movement in the United States, a nonviolent mid-20th century freedom movement to gain legal equality and the enforcement of constitutional rights for people of color. The goals of the movement included secu ...
*
List of sports desegregation firsts This is a list of sports desegregation firsts. Within each section, the entries are in chronological order by achievement. Major League Baseball * 1871: Steve Bellán (1849–1932), first Latin American, depending on whether or not the National ...


References


External links


Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity

File a housing discrimination complaint
part of th
Civil Rights 101 Reference Guide
From civilrights.org.
Guardians of Freedom - 50th Anniversary of Operation Arkansas, by ARMY.MILCivil Rights Project at Harvard UniversityCommission for Racial Equality, race equality body in the UKMemphis Civil Rights Digital ArchiveTrumanlibrary.orgUssmason.orgBedfordbulletin.com
*John Egerton,
Walking into History: The Beginning of School Desegregation in Nashville
" ''Southern Spaces'', 4 May 2009
southernspaces.org
*Ruthie Yow,
'It's Being Black and Poor': Race, Class, and Desegregation at Pebblebrook High
" ''Southern Spaces'', 20 February 2012
southernspaces.org
{{Segregation by type, state=collapsed Segregation African-American segregation in the United States