Desegregation in Richmond County

Dana Gant
Gagnon Hist 3090
5 November 2004

The United States was living in a world created by its own hands, where blacks and whites lived separately. Society will not have integrated until the late sixties, early seventies even though the Civil Rights Act and the decision of Brown v. Board of Education are supposed to be in effect at least twenty years prior. A person looking back at the history of the United States may wonder why there was such a drastic change in social interaction between whites and blacks. The reason for the increased social interaction between whites and blacks in the late sixties and early seventies is because of the desegregation of public schools systems, especially in the south. Although the decision of Brown v. Board of Education found separate but equal school systems according to race to be in violation of the fourteenth amendment, many school systems did not adhere to this ruling until forced by the court. This is the case for the school system in Richmond County, Georgia. Complete desegregation of the Richmond County school system did not occur until the year 1972. Plans for integrating the school system were being discussed since 1964, almost ten years before the school system completely desegregated. There must be a reason why black and white students did not attend the same schools until eighteen years after the decision of Brown v. Board of Education, and eight years after the first discussion of desegregation among the Richmond County Board of Education members. The effort and decisions made during the time of desegregation will also allow the understanding of requirements that are needed to be adhered to today.

There is never a sufficient amount of effort used to meet a requirement when it is not desired by the people who are going to be implementing what is to be required. The members of the Board of Education of Richmond County are a fine example of this. A certain amount of integration in the school system is required by the court, but the goal of the Board members is to meet the court’s requirement without having to desegregate the schools completely. In other words, the Board will integrate just enough students to satisfy the court in the hopes that they will be left alone. The first plan made by the Board is to pair up schools racially segregated in the county; 125 students from each school are then to be bused or transferred to the school that they are paired with. This only allows 125 black students to be integrated into an all white school, and only 125 white students to be integrated into an all black school. Unfortunately for the Richmond County Board of Education, the integration of 125 students in an individual school is not enough to satisfy the court. According to the Supreme Court case of Swann v. Mecklenburg Board of Education, there must be a seventy-one percent to twenty-nine percent balance of the races in individual schools depending upon the original racial make-up of the school. An achievement of this ratio, with only 125 racially opposite students transferred, would mean there are only 306 students or less of the racial majority in the individual school. This number of the racial majority is highly unlikely to be this low in a county where the city of Augusta is located. This implies there are far more than 306 students in one school; meaning 125 racially opposite students are not enough to make up twenty-nine percent of the school’s student population. The Board is now forced to construct another plan that allows for more students of the minority race to be transferred to keep the school’s population within the guidelines required by the court.1

In June of 1972, the Board of Education members lay their last hand in an effort to prevent desegregation of schools from occurring in Richmond County. Against the advisement of the attorneys, Franklin H. Pierce and Leonard Fletcher Jr., the Board decides to appeal the court order to integrate Richmond County schools under the regulations being implemented. Although the Board has a zone plan approved by both the court and the Board, the last thing they want to do is put the plan into effect. Based on the 1968 Supreme Court case of Green v. County School Board of New Kent County, a zone plan is not allowed to be used unless the school board places it into effect. This is what the Richmond County school board has already completed in order to secure as little integration as legally possible. There is a chance, however, because of the appeal, the Court might refuse the Board’s zone plan and require a cluster plan to be used, causing more integration in the school system. The only positive outcome the Board can expect from an appeal is the delay of placing the zone plan into effect for six months. Five days after the school board moves to appeal, there is a realization that the integration of the schools will not be lessened by following through with this action. With the most difficult ‘yes’ the Board members have ever had to make, the appeal is moved to be revoked, and with it, any hope of maintaining a desegregated school system in Richmond County.2

The Richmond County Board of Education may not have put a great amount of effort into trying to integrate the school system, but the Board did come up with a tool that would aid them in making multiple plans to desegregate the schools. A basis to the plans made by the Board is the pupil locator map that is ordered by the school board in July of 1970. This map will help members know where students are located and what school they attend in a zone. Change in pupil assignments to allow only 125 students to be transferred and the pairing of schools are made easier by the use of the pupil locator map. However, the map creates an easier way for the Board to see how it is possible for them to integrate as few students as possible. The pupil locator map will become ineffective when Judge Lawrence orders the map for the convenience of the court. Now that the court knows where students are located and what school they attend in a zone, there will be very little that the Board members can do to limit the amount of integration with the court having the same information in its possession.3

There is the need not only to desegregate students, but also to desegregate the teachers within the Richmond County school system as well. Teachers need to be re-assigned to schools to meet the required sixty-one to thirty-nine ratio as required by the court. This task seems to have been easier to accomplish than desegregating the students. Less commotion was made when teachers needed to be integrated into schools. This could be attributed to the fact that before desegregation occurred, some schools already had about fifty percent of white teachers and fifty percent of black teachers. Some schools still did not have any teacher integration by the first year the students were desegregated. There is, however, a change by the second year of desegregation, having fifty percent of both black and white teachers within the schools.4

Desegregation of the school system is not only what the Board of Education is concerned about. A student being able to maintain his or her grades is the goal of the school board. This is one reason why the Board wants to hold off the desegregation of the school system. There is a fear the grades of white students will plummet if the white children are taught with black students. The plan created by the Board allows the status quo concerning grades to be maintained in desegregated schools. Parents of children in the Richmond County school system observe their children making the same grades after the schools become desegregated.5

Blame can not be placed solely on the Richmond County Board of Education members for trying to stall the desegregation of the school system. White parents of children who attend schools in Richmond County made it very clear by petitioning the school board members to stop the desegregation of the school system. The parents claim that their children will not receive the same high standing of education if the children are to be taught with black children. They also fear that there may be racial fighting between students if the schools are integrated. The petitions made to the Board of Education are unable to sway the members of the Board because they are bound by the law to desegregate the Richmond County school system.

White parents are not just upset their children have to be taught side by side with black children. The other half of their rage resides in the fact their children will now have to be bused across town for them to attend school. There actually seems to be more anger toward the issue of busing students across town instead of them being able to attend the school down the street than there is about the actual integration of the schools. Black parents, though, grateful their children will now be able to attend a desegregated school, are also upset about the busing of students across town. Security for a parent is lost when his or her child is on the other side of town not known very well to them. Many students did not mind attending school with children of the opposite race. Busing was the only part of desegregating the schools that bothered the students. Parents felt that busing was not necessary and did not understand why it was being used. They believed their students should be assigned to attend schools by district rather than busing them to a school across town. Groups in the community also made their viewpoint known on the subject of busing. The Concerned Citizens for Neighborhood Schools greatly disliked the busing plans and held boycotts and protests opposing the decision.6

Steps taken by the Richmond County Board of Education to delay or prevent the school system from desegregating are only shoved back by the court. The court must push the Board members every step of the way, making them enforce desegregation. In August of 1970, the Board receives a court order to create a plan for the desegregating of the school system in the 1970-71 school year. Judge Lawrence then calls for the school board to create a desegregation plan that will rely on the zoning of schools, basing his reasoning on the 1971 Swann v. Mecklenburg Board of Education decision. The Board, still trying to minimize the amount of integration, is issued another court order in 1971, denying the ability of the Board to open schools under the current plan and any other plan not approved by the court. 7

Judge Lawrence, who is becoming vexed and perturbed with the actions of the Board, issues the January 7, 1972 Acree decision that will order the elementary schools in the school system to desegregate with the aid of busing to transport students. This decision is based on the original lawsuit in 1964 filed by Robert Acree and fifteen black community groups with the help of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People against the Richmond County Board of Education. Unfortunately, Acree was unsuccessful in his lawsuit at that time. Eight years later, the case will become effective to the cause of desegregating the school system. At the time the case had been filed, there had not been many stepping stones laid down for the court to be able to cross. With the two cases of Green and Swann, the Acree case will now have enough stepping stones for it to become effective in 1972.8

The reaction from the community after the Acree decision is one of anger and frustration. Parents of both races do not enjoy the continuing use of busing as a means to desegregate schools. Many white parents decide to place their children in private schools, distancing themselves from the issue of desegregation in public schools. A period of time must pass before the white community will accept the decision of the court and realize the benefits of attending a desegregated school system. Children who attended a desegregated school are more likely to be prepared for the reality of an integrated society.9

The Richmond County school system is finally desegregated in 1972 with little problems concerning the County?s desegregation plan until the creation of the No Child Left Behind Act twenty years later. The Act, signed by President George W. Bush in 2002, allows poor students in a school that demonstrates the need for improvement to be relocated to a school that is not in need of any improvement. An original plan in the Act allowed the use of vouchers, instead of re-distributing students, as the way students from schools needing improvement could attend private schools. This plan including vouchers quickly died because of the lack of funding.10

There is a problem with the public school choice plan that replaces the vouchers, and it concerns schools with a desegregation policy. The seventy-one percent to twenty-nine percent racial balance of students in a school is still required of school systems that have a desegregation policy such as that of Richmond County. The possible event in which the plan to transfer students who are attending schools that need improvement causes the racial balance to become out of proportion raises the question of what policy or plan the Board follows. Based on the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution, the desegregation policy would seem to be the course to follow in such a situation. With the level of low income students in schools needing improvement at seventy-six percent, there will be a great amount of funding needed to provide for more buses and the need for more time to implement a plan that will meet the requirements of the desegregation policy and the public school choice requirements. In an attempt to clarify what procedures are to be followed if the racial balance becomes disproportional, both the Director of the Office of Educational Accountability, Dr. Nelson, and the Georgia State Department of Education, stated that the Fourteenth Amendment will take precedence over the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act in Georgia?s school systems with a desegregation policy.11

Information received from Georgia state offices, however, was not met with concurrence from the Secretary of Education. According to the Secretary, Roderick Paige, the school district must adhere to the public school choice requirements. If this in any way interferes with the desegregation policy, then the school board must change the policy to comply with the public school choice requirements.12

Fletcher, understanding the confusion Richmond County is placed in, decides to file a motion in the federal district court to allow the Board of Education more time to allocate additional funds for buses and to make an effective plan that meets both the requirements of the desegregation policy and the public school choice plan. Contrary to some beliefs, the motion was not filed to delay the actual implementing of the choice requirements indefinitely, but only to delay it for a year to better prepare the schools for the new requirements. Judge Bowen grants the Richmond County School Board of Education one year to create an effective plan and raise money for school buses. Since 1972 the Richmond County school system has remained desegregated according to its policy and will remain desegregated because of the decision of this court.13

There is a saying that old prejudices die hard, and the Richmond County Board of Education grew to realize this when forced to desegregate the school system. Schools and life in general were segregated for a century. The people of Richmond County were born and raised in this hundred year old way of life, and it is no surprise they bucked and kicked when forced to adhere to the dramatic change of desegregation. This is the reason why desegregation took so long to take effect. Parents feared their children?s grades would decline, but they stayed the same. They hated the use of busing the students across town, but they remained safe. Why, when the only thing that changed was the color of a classmate?s skin, was the white community so set against integration? The answer is they were scared of what they did not know, scared of change, but most importantly, scared they would be wrong. This admission of fault is also why slavery took so long to be abolished. People did not believe they were doing or thinking wrongly, causing the prolonging of slavery and inevitably the segregation of schools.