Implementation of Desegregation as a Discriminatory Process

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to look at the impact of school desegregation on Black children in an effort to arrive at implications for the future of this major social change on the quality of educational opportunities for all children. Ironically, the desegregation of schools has had deleterious results for Black children in a number of ways, among which are: (1) disproportionate number of suspensions, expulsions, and pushouts due to disciplinary policies and procedures, (2) disproportionate number of Blacks relegated to special education classes and low tracks, and (3) dismissal and demotion of Black educators. These results will be discussed in detail further in the paper. It is well over two decades since the Supreme Court decision of 1954,1 and still this democratic nation is floundering as to how best to implement this national policy in the schools so that Black and white children can learn together. Realistically, desegregation decision-policy implementers made some wrong decisions and implemented them according to the desires of white militants. Part of the problem has to do with the footnote to that 1954 decision based on social science literature which pointed towards the detrimental effects on the Black child accruing from attendance in a segregated school. Based on these studies, the Court noted: Segregation of white and black children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon the black children. The impact is greater when it has the sanction of law; for the policy of separating the races is usually interpreted as denoting the inferiority of the Negro group. A sense of inferiority affects the motivation of a child to learn. Segregation with the sanction of law, therefore, has a tendency to retard educational and mental development of Negro children and to deprive them of some of the benefits they would receive in a racially integrated school system.... We come then to the question presented: Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the