Debunking The Top Three Lies About School Segregation

young ruby bridges being escorted
Via flickr
Tremain Prioleau II
January 24, 2025

History is filled with white lies about the fight to desegregate schools. “Separate but equal?” Tell that to somebody else. The following three myths debunk that lie and reveal harsh truths about our school desegregation struggle.

First, school diversity wasn’t the goal. Activists like Stokely Carmichael believed that “sitting next to White people” was a distraction. The real purpose of integration was to help ensure that Black students were getting the same resources as white students.

There’s a belief that whites opposed busing, not integration. But we know the truth. In places like Boston, white children were already being bussed without objection. Suddenly, when Black and white students would be bussed together, it became a problem. It was always about race.

Brown vs. Board of Education wasn’t the magical desegregation wand many believed. The Supreme Court ruled to desegregate with “all deliberate speed,” which allowed defiant Southern states to take their sweet time. More aggressive congressional actions in the next decade would make integration a reality, but today that is proving to be a deadly school-to-prison pipeline for our children.

Don’t be fooled by the lies of history; assimilation was never the goal of school segregation. Black people didn’t want a seat at the table; they wanted a proper table. We must fight for what we deserve without settling for what others believe we should have.

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