Story of School: Part 3

Part three of The Story of School begins to address the issue of inequality and segregation in schools, not because these issues are new to this era, but because this part takes place amidst the civil rights movement of the 1950s up to the 1980s. With the Civil rights movement getting to its feet the issue of separate but equal and segregation in schools quickly become a subject of debate our nation became embroiled in.

The climate of schooling at this time was highly disparate between white and black schools. Black schools offered no science labs, gyms, or foreign languages for their students. Women also suffered from discrimination within their own schools as well, they were barred from playing sports and many prestigious colleges. While schools for black students typically did have more qualified teachers they were limited by poor or outdated resources and materials.

While integrating schools was a positive step forward, many of the issues associated with segregation were still common within these schools. In integrated schools white and black students attended separate proms, played on different sports teams, or participated in separate after school clubs or activities. Even after integration many school boards resisted integrated student bodies by zoning schools away from black communities to avoid admitting black students. The city of Detroit did unveil a busing plan to transport a number of students from suburban white communities to schools within the urban center of Detroit, while busing students from urban black communities into white schools. Though, many students, faculty, and parents resisted the plan, citing an unwelcoming environment as a common factor.

Several steps were also made preventing gender discrimination in schools, with laws like title IX, which eliminated federal funding to schools which discriminated based on gender. However many schools never upheld title and subsequent litigations were required to enforce the law.