Some Do Not Think Integrating Schools Was Good After All

ruby bridges being escorted by us marshals
The PushBlack Team
August 23, 2022

The United States Supreme Court made the landmark decision in Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka Kansas which ended racial segregation in public schools. Ruby Bridges became the first Black student to integrate an elementary school in the South in 1960 when she was just six years-old. 

But she went through A LOT during that year.

She and her mother were escorted by federal marshals to the school every day while crowds screamed viciously racist slurs at her. Ruby never missed a day of school, even though no one else was in her class and only one teacher, Barbara Henry, would teach a Black child. 

Ruby ate lunch alone and sometimes played with her teacher at recess.

Many question whether integration was worth the pain it caused Black children? And, mind you, integration meant many Black teachers lost their jobs.

Before she attended the all-white school, Ruby’s parents were torn. Her father feared for Ruby’s safety, but her mother wanted her to have higher educational opportunities. 

But while integration opened some doors, it closed many.

Because of desegregation, many Black parents today are forced to send their kids to poorly funded schools where Black students are over-policed and underprepared for the real world. Which makes one wonder - have we truly achieved equal educational opportunity since 1954?

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