How Integration Failed in Jackson's Public Schools from 1969 to 2017

[TexasTowelie]

Note: This is a lengthy piece that I have not read in its entirety. However, I'm posting the link since it contains many historical details.

It was a cold winter day in 1969, but Brenda Walker was not thinking about the weather when she put her coat in her locker. After all, Central High School in the middle of downtown Jackson had radiators to heat the classrooms.

Central was traditionally an all-white high school, but Walker was one of a handful of black students who opted to attend Central despite little encouragement from family or friends. Black students were allowed to voluntarily integrate white schools in Jackson after Congress passed the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

When Walker walked into her biology class, she noticed all the students sitting on the side of the room nearest the door—but that was not unusual. She was usually the sole black student in her classes, and she was accustomed to her white counterparts never sitting in the same row as her due to her race. This day, however, she noticed that her classmates wore coats and hats.

As she took her place in a row of her own next to the windows, she realized the large glass panes were wide open. She had walked into a trap, and she was stuck.

Read more: http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2017/nov/15/how-integration-failed-jacksons-public-schools-196/