Abstract
This chapter explains how the 2014 death of Michael Brown at the hands of a white police officer led to questions about school desegregation policy in St. Louis. It explores the need to revisit desegregation policies and to identify how those policies excluded predominately black, suburban schools like the one that Brown attended. The main argument presented in this chapter is that because some schools in St. Louis have never desegregated, school desegregation is a contemporary issue. This chapter also describes the methods used for this research project and discusses the questions and goals of this research. The main goal of this research is to explore how racism in Missouri affected desegregation school policy and how citizens responded to that policy. Archival letters, newspaper articles, and political speeches are used to reclaim lost voices of people who were involved in the desegregation battle.
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Notes
- 1.
The case was covered by major newspapers such as the New York Times, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and others. This case dominated both print and television news. See http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/08/13/us/ferguson-missouri-town-under-siege-after-police-shooting.html. Wilson’s testimony was broadcast on several cable news stations, following his acquittal. See “Officer’s Testimony Crucial in Grand Jury Decision,” CNN, November 25, 2014, http://www.cnn.com/videos/crime/2014/11/25/tsr-todd-darren-wilson-grand-jury-testimony.cnn.
- 2.
Ben Brumfield and Steve Almasy, “Michael Brown Shooting: Who’s Who in Ferguson,” CNN, August 20, 2014, http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/20/us/ferguson-power-players/index.html.
- 3.
“HIV Scare at Missouri High School,” CBS NEWS, October 24, 2008, http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hiv-scare-at-missouri-high-school/; see also Michel Martin, host, “High School HIV Scare Alarms Community,” Tell Me More, NPR, October 28, 2008, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96211747; Trymaine Lee, “White School District Sends Black Kids Back to Failed Schools,” MSNBC, June 25, 2015, http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/white-district-sends-black-kids-back-failed-schools; and Trymaine Lee, “Missouri School Busing Causes ‘Crippling’ Fallout,” MSNBC, December 9, 2013, http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/heres-how-not-deal-failing-schools.
- 4.
Frank Kovarik, “School Deseg: History, Politics, Impact, Future?” Occasional Planet, January 12, 2011, http://www.occasionalplanet.org/2011/01/12/school-deseg-history-politics-impact-future/.
- 5.
Nikole Hannah-Jones, “School Segregation, the Continuing Tragedy of Ferguson,” ProPublica, December 19, 2014, http://www.propublica.org/article/ferguson-school-segregation; Nicole Hannah-Jones, “How School Segregation Divides Ferguson—and the United States,” New York Times, December 19, 2014, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/21/sunday-review/why-are-our-schools-still-segregated.html?_r=0; Nikole Hannah-Jones, “The Problem We All Live With,” This American Life, July 31, 2015, http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/562/the-problem-we-all-live-with.
- 6.
William Freivogel reported that suburban schools received 150% per pupil spending for each black transfer student admitted under the desegregation program. While that translated to approximately $10,000 per pupil spending for transfer students in wealthy districts like Clayton School District, less wealthy suburban school districts like Bayless received approximately $3000 for each transfer student accepted. See William H. Freivogel, “St. Louis: Desegregation and School Choice in the Land of Dred Scott,” in Divided We Fail: Coming Together Through Public School Choice, ed. The Century Foundation Task Force on the Common School (New York: Century Foundation Press, 2002), 214, http://www.tcf.org/Publications/Educationfreivogel.pdf.
- 7.
Freivogel, “St. Louis: Desegregation,” 218.
- 8.
Michel Martin, host, “Is St. Louis’ School Transfer Program ‘A Mess’?” Tell Me More, NPR, November 8, 2013, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=243951597.
References
Brumfield, Ben, and Steve Almasy. “Michael Brown Shooting: Who’s Who in Ferguson.” CNN, August 20, 2014. http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/20/us/ferguson-power-players/index.html.
Freivogel, William H. “St. Louis: Desegregation and School Choice in the Land of Dred Scott.” In Divided We Fail: Coming Together Through Public School Choice, edited by The Century Foundation Task Force on the Common School, 209–235. New York: Century Foundation Press, 2002. http://www.tcf.org/Publications/Educationfreivogel.pdf.
Hannah-Jones, Nikole. “School Segregation, the Continuing Tragedy of Ferguson.” ProPublica, December 19, 2014. http://www.propublica.org/article/ferguson-school-segregation.
———. “How School Segregation Divides Ferguson—and the United States.” New York Times, December 19, 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/21/sunday-review/why-are-our-schools-still-segregated.html?_r=0.
———. “The Problem We All Live With.” This American Life, July 31, 2015. http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/562/the-problem-we-all-live-with.
“HIV Scare at Missouri High School.” CBS NEWS, October 24, 2008. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hiv-scare-at-missouri-high-school/.
Kovarik, Frank. “School Deseg: History, Politics, Impact, Future?” Occasional Planet, January 12, 2011. http://www.occasionalplanet.org/2011/01/12/school-deseg-history-politics-impact-future.
Lee, Trymaine. “White School District Sends Black Kids Back to Failed Schools.” MSNBC, June 25, 2015. http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/white-district-sends-black-kids-back-failed-schools.
———. “Missouri School Busing Causes ‘Crippling’ Fallout.” MSNBC, December 9, 2013. http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/heres-how-not-deal-failing-schools.
Martin, Michael, host. “High School HIV Scare Alarms Community.” Tell Me More, NPR, October 28, 2008. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96211747.
———. “Is St. Louis’ School Transfer Program ‘A Mess’?” Tell Me More, NPR, November 8, 2013. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=243951597.
“Officer’s Testimony Crucial in Grand Jury Decision.” CNN, November 25, 2014. http://www.cnn.com/videos/crime/2014/11/25/tsr-todd-darren-wilson-grand-jury-testimony.cnn.
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Rias, H.C. (2019). Why Desegregation Still Matters. In: St. Louis School Desegregation. Historical Studies in Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04248-6_1
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