Desegregation of the Baltimore City Public School System
Encyclopedia
Desegregation of the Baltimore City Public School System happened in 1956 after the United States Supreme Court
ruled, in the case of Brown v. Board of Education
, that segregation in schools went against constitutional law. Desegregation
of American schools was a pivotal part of the civil rights movement, as no progress in the civil rights movement would have been made if America’s schools remained segregated
.
Following the Supreme Court ruling cities all across America began to desegregate. Baltimore
, the largest city in the state of Maryland
, desegregated all its public schools
following the Supreme Court’s decision, and the events that followed the desegregation in Baltimore, were both interesting and important to the civil rights movement across America. Recent scholarship has begun to revisit the importance of the desegregation of Baltimore's public schools and identify it as an important precursor to the Greensboro sit-ins
.
was forced to open its advanced college preparatory curriculum to African American students. This course was prestigious and was unusual for a high school
at that time. The Institute's so-called "A" course included calculus, analytical chemistry, electricity, mechanics and surveying; subjects not offered at the black school
s in the City at that time. The Institute was a whites-only school but supported by both white and black tax dollars. Consequently a group of 16 African American students, along with help and support from their parents, the Baltimore Urban League and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
, applied for the engineering "A" course at the Institute. The applications were denied and the students sued.
The subsequent trial on the suit began on June 16, 1952. The NAACP’s intentions were to end segregation at the 50-year-old public high school. They argued that the Institute's offerings of specialized engineering courses violated the "separate but equal
" clause because these courses was not offered in high schools for black students. To avoid integration, an out-of-court proposal was made to the Baltimore City school board to start an equivalent "A" course at the colored Frederick Douglass High School
. The hearing on the "Douglass" plan lasted for hours with Dehuff and others arguing that separate but equal "A" courses would satisfy constitutional requirements and NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall
arguing that the plan was a gamble and cost the City should not take. By a vote of 5-3, the board decided that a separate "A" course would not provide the same educational opportunities for African American students and that starting that fall, African American students could attend the Institute. The vote vindicated the NAACP national strategy of raising the cost of 'separate but equal' schools beyond what taxpayers were willing to pay.
The African American
population in Baltimore before 1954 was significant, and rose dramatically after the schools were desegregated. (Crain 1968, 72) This is not to say, however, that the desegregation of Baltimore schools went smoothly. There were many problems encountered along the way to a free and equal school system and society in Baltimore, Maryland.
Because of the rapid growth of the African American community in Baltimore, the schools became over crowded. Due to the over crowding of the schools, Baltimore decided to district the schools. (Crain 1968, 74) This means that if someone did not live in the district of a certain school, they could not attend that school. This was a way for the school system to remain segregated. African Americans and whites still lived in different areas of Baltimore, therefore, African American and white children went to different schools. Obviously desegregation had not taken full effect.
The Maryland State Department of Education
put out a book on the progress of desegregation in 1961. The book has an over all feeling that all is fixed, and that nothing more needs to be done to further the cause of desegregation. This was obviously inaccurate, and displays the hardships that the civil rights movement encountered.
The Baltimore school system was accused of intentionally segregating schools through districting. (Crain 1968, 74) Many civil rights leaders protested this, and asked for reform in the system. The reform was slow, and is still being sought after today.
By 1968, the tensions between the African American and Caucasian citizens in Baltimore were high, and came to a head when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
was assassinated in April 1968. Riots broke out in Baltimore
during the weekend of Palm Sunday. African American citizens were frustrated and angry. The 1968 riots were not exclusive to Baltimore. Many American cities had riots after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. Though the riots were tragic, America’s backwards and unenlightened racial beliefs led to the riots. The riots were a necessary and key event in the civil rights movement. The riots.
The educational achievement of African American students in Baltimore would continue to lag behind that of their white counterparts, with a report in 1968 showing that the ethnic mix of areas, the influence of private education and the divide been urban and suburban areas affected outcomes.
Much has changed in Baltimore since the 1960s; however, Baltimore is still facing some of the same problems in its inner city school systems that Baltimore faced in the fifties and sixties. Most of the population in Baltimore city schools is still African American. These schools are over overcrowded, and under funded. Much still needs to be done to improve the quality and equality of the Baltimore city school system.
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
ruled, in the case of Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 , was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. The decision overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896 which...
, that segregation in schools went against constitutional law. Desegregation
Desegregation
Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups usually referring to races. This is most commonly used in reference to the United States. Desegregation was long a focus of the American Civil Rights Movement, both before and after the United States Supreme Court's decision in...
of American schools was a pivotal part of the civil rights movement, as no progress in the civil rights movement would have been made if America’s schools remained segregated
Racial segregation in the United States
Racial segregation in the United States, as a general term, included the racial segregation or hypersegregation of facilities, services, and opportunities such as housing, medical care, education, employment, and transportation along racial lines...
.
Following the Supreme Court ruling cities all across America began to desegregate. Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
, the largest city in the state of Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
, desegregated all its public schools
Baltimore City Public Schools
The Baltimore City Public School System is a public school district in the state of Maryland, United States, that serves the youth in the city of Baltimore . Its headquarters are the Dr. Alice G...
following the Supreme Court’s decision, and the events that followed the desegregation in Baltimore, were both interesting and important to the civil rights movement across America. Recent scholarship has begun to revisit the importance of the desegregation of Baltimore's public schools and identify it as an important precursor to the Greensboro sit-ins
Greensboro sit-ins
The Greensboro sit-ins were a series of nonviolent protests which led to the Woolworth's department store chain reversing its policy of racial segregation in the Southern United States....
.
History
Most Baltimore City public schools were not integrated until after the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education. However, in 1952 Baltimore Polytechnic InstituteBaltimore Polytechnic Institute
Baltimore Polytechnic Institute is a US public high school founded in 1883. Though established as an all-male trade school,it now is a institution that emphasizes mathematics, the sciences, and engineering. It is located on a tract of land in North Baltimore at Falls Road and Cold Spring Lane,...
was forced to open its advanced college preparatory curriculum to African American students. This course was prestigious and was unusual for a high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
at that time. The Institute's so-called "A" course included calculus, analytical chemistry, electricity, mechanics and surveying; subjects not offered at the black school
Black school
Black schools originated under legal segregation in the southern United States after the American Civil War and Reconstruction era, in southern states' public policy to keep races separated and maintain white supremacy. In the United States white opposition to African American success resulted in...
s in the City at that time. The Institute was a whites-only school but supported by both white and black tax dollars. Consequently a group of 16 African American students, along with help and support from their parents, the Baltimore Urban League and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to...
, applied for the engineering "A" course at the Institute. The applications were denied and the students sued.
The subsequent trial on the suit began on June 16, 1952. The NAACP’s intentions were to end segregation at the 50-year-old public high school. They argued that the Institute's offerings of specialized engineering courses violated the "separate but equal
Separate but equal
Separate but equal was a legal doctrine in United States constitutional law that justified systems of segregation. Under this doctrine, services, facilities and public accommodations were allowed to be separated by race, on the condition that the quality of each group's public facilities was to...
" clause because these courses was not offered in high schools for black students. To avoid integration, an out-of-court proposal was made to the Baltimore City school board to start an equivalent "A" course at the colored Frederick Douglass High School
Frederick Douglass Senior High School (Baltimore, Maryland)
Frederick Douglass High School known locally as Douglass is a public high school located in Baltimore, Maryland, US. Established in 1883 as the Colored High and Training School, Douglass is the second oldest historically integrated public high school in the United States...
. The hearing on the "Douglass" plan lasted for hours with Dehuff and others arguing that separate but equal "A" courses would satisfy constitutional requirements and NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, serving from October 1967 until October 1991...
arguing that the plan was a gamble and cost the City should not take. By a vote of 5-3, the board decided that a separate "A" course would not provide the same educational opportunities for African American students and that starting that fall, African American students could attend the Institute. The vote vindicated the NAACP national strategy of raising the cost of 'separate but equal' schools beyond what taxpayers were willing to pay.
The African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
population in Baltimore before 1954 was significant, and rose dramatically after the schools were desegregated. (Crain 1968, 72) This is not to say, however, that the desegregation of Baltimore schools went smoothly. There were many problems encountered along the way to a free and equal school system and society in Baltimore, Maryland.
Because of the rapid growth of the African American community in Baltimore, the schools became over crowded. Due to the over crowding of the schools, Baltimore decided to district the schools. (Crain 1968, 74) This means that if someone did not live in the district of a certain school, they could not attend that school. This was a way for the school system to remain segregated. African Americans and whites still lived in different areas of Baltimore, therefore, African American and white children went to different schools. Obviously desegregation had not taken full effect.
The Maryland State Department of Education
Maryland State Department of Education
Maryland State Department of Education is a division of the state government of Maryland in the United States. The agency oversees public school districts. The agency is headquartered at 200 West Baltimore Street in Baltimore...
put out a book on the progress of desegregation in 1961. The book has an over all feeling that all is fixed, and that nothing more needs to be done to further the cause of desegregation. This was obviously inaccurate, and displays the hardships that the civil rights movement encountered.
The Baltimore school system was accused of intentionally segregating schools through districting. (Crain 1968, 74) Many civil rights leaders protested this, and asked for reform in the system. The reform was slow, and is still being sought after today.
By 1968, the tensions between the African American and Caucasian citizens in Baltimore were high, and came to a head when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
was assassinated in April 1968. Riots broke out in Baltimore
Baltimore riot of 1968
The Baltimore Riot of 1968 began two days after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. Rioting broke out in 125 cities across the United States, and spread to the city of Baltimore, Maryland on Saturday, April 6. The Governor of Maryland, Spiro T...
during the weekend of Palm Sunday. African American citizens were frustrated and angry. The 1968 riots were not exclusive to Baltimore. Many American cities had riots after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. Though the riots were tragic, America’s backwards and unenlightened racial beliefs led to the riots. The riots were a necessary and key event in the civil rights movement. The riots.
The educational achievement of African American students in Baltimore would continue to lag behind that of their white counterparts, with a report in 1968 showing that the ethnic mix of areas, the influence of private education and the divide been urban and suburban areas affected outcomes.
Much has changed in Baltimore since the 1960s; however, Baltimore is still facing some of the same problems in its inner city school systems that Baltimore faced in the fifties and sixties. Most of the population in Baltimore city schools is still African American. These schools are over overcrowded, and under funded. Much still needs to be done to improve the quality and equality of the Baltimore city school system.