Segregation cannot exist unless law sustains it. The American South acknowledged this fact and, for that reason, passed legislation to keep blacks and whites separate. Southern state legislatures approved a number of laws establishing the inferiority of the African American race. These “Jim Crow” laws touched every aspect of community life, including public facilities, voting rights, and education. Jim Crow legislation legally sustained segregation in virtually every city in the south, including Birmingham.

From the Reconstruction period through the late 1960s, the South had an established reputation of hatred and racial inequality. The so-called “Jim Crow era” was a period in which whites exhibited their authority over blacks by every means possible. Birmingham was founded in 1871 upon this creed of white supremacy. Known to Martin Luther King, Jr. as the “most segregated city in America,”1 Birmingham’s white majority fought long and hard to maintain segregation in all public facilities. To many, the most important of these facilities was the public school system.

Several “Jim Crow Laws” were passed in Alabama in order to keep the schools racially segregated. In 1875, it was written in the Constitution of the State of Alabama that “separate schools [were] to be provided for the children of citizens of African descent.”2 In 1901 it was added that “no child of either race [is] to be permitted to attend the school of the other race.”3 Even after the Supreme Court decision that schools could no longer be segregated in Brown v. Board of Education, Alabama passed a state code that read “no child compelled to attend schools that are racially mixed.”4 These guidelines set up two separate, very disparate, black and white educational communities in Birmingham. Clearly, the white educational community was far superior to the blacks.

The African American community saw the school system as the most important place to begin the journey for racial equality. Because whites in the South had always considered them inferior, African-Americans saw the school system as a public institution that gave them the opportunity to prove themselves equal. The black community in Birmingham looked to the school system as potentially “the most powerful of all agencies of racial uplift.”5 The public schools served as a microcosm for the community at large. Not only do schools teach children the three R’s, they teach children how to interact with other people. Children carry these types of social skills with them throughout their adult lives. Segregation inhibits this aspect of the learning process. The issue of school desegregation was thrust into the national spotlight with the Supreme Court’s decision in the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. Perhaps the most important step towards racial equality, the repercussions of this landmark case were felt everywhere. As a result, schools began policies of integration all over the country.

In order to understand the impact of the Brown decision on the Birmingham City Schools, one must first understand the racial situation that existed in the “pre-Brown” era. According to the Birmingham Board of Education, “the public schools of the city shall be open to all youths . . . residing within the corporate limits of the city, the races occupying separate schools.”6 The school system had legal justification under Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) for operating “separate but equal” institutions. In the Plessy case, the Supreme Court permitted segregation in public facilities. This doctrine was widely accepted and generally maintained throughout the country. The citizens of Birmingham were no exception. For this reason, the issue of segregation in the schools was not an issue at all. Everyone in the city acknowledged that blacks and whites would attend separate (and unequal) schools.

The schools that African-Americans attended were grossly inadequate. Black school buildings were small and rundown. In addition, a shortage of teachers caused overcrowding, and maintained insufficient black schools. For these reasons, black students were at a significant disadvantage relative to their white counterparts.

The condition of black schoolhouses illustrates the inequality of black education with that of whites. The black schoolhouses were “dilapidated, unsanitary, vulnerable to fire, and severely overcrowded.”7 Black leaders in the community constantly attributed the low attendance record of school age children (about one-fourth) to the inferior condition of the buildings.8 The fight for equal facilities was continuous; however, it was characterized by long periods of dormancy. Finally, in the 1920s, an education code was passed that gave school boards independent legal and financial authority to construct buildings without asking for the approval of city officials9 . With much protest by the Ku Klux Klan, this piece of legislation promoted the construction of new black schoolhouses. Progressive, white school administrators adopted a rule of thumb in reference to improvement of black school buildings: black construction costs should equal roughly fifty percent of those of white schools. Concrete, brick, and stucco were used to build the new black schools. Although small, community leaders saw this as a step in the right direction, as black attendance records soared to two-thirds in 1931.10

Teacher shortages and overcrowding furthered the inadequacy of black schools in Birmingham. Clearly, only black teachers would teach in black schools. These teachers were paid substantially lower than white teachers. During the years of the Great Depression, Superintendent Phillips held white teachers’ salaries at a minimum of $40 per month, while decreasing black teachers’ salaries to $25 a month.11 This type of differentiation allowed an increase in the disparity of black and white schools. Equally important to salary discrimination was the number of pupils assigned to each teacher. In 1920, there were approximately fifty pupils to a teacher in black classrooms12 This ratio greatly hindered the students’ ability to learn, and the attempt of any teacher to hold the attention of fifty students was futile. In the same year, only about thirty pupils were assigned to one white teacher.13 This gave both white students and white teachers an absolute advantage over blacks. Teaching in conditions of such disparity was hardly an appealing profession to many blacks.

On May 17, 1954, a monumental decision by the Supreme Court of the United States brought the beginning of the end of segregation. The “separate but equal” doctrine that had been applied to schools for over fifty years was ruled unconstitutional. The case of Brown v. Board of Education was the culmination of several other individual battles, including Briggs v. Elliott, Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, Belton v. Gebhart, and Bolling v. Sharpe.14 The case gave the black community hope in their struggle for equality.

On behalf of the NAACP, Thurgood Marshall argued the side of the Petitioner. He claimed that the “separate but equal” doctrine violated the fourteenth amendment’s equal protection clause. Marshall highlighted the damaging psychological effects of segregation on children of both races. Studies indicated that as “minority group children learn the inferior status to which they are assigned . . . they often react with feelings of inferiority.”15 In other words, if a child is continuously reminded of their inferior status by attending inferior schools, then the child will develop a low self-esteem. In addition, the child may develop anxiety about his or her relationship with the larger society.16 He also pointed out that segregation of the races only leads to feelings of hostility and distrust between them. Marshall proposed that several areas had successfully carried out a process of desegregation. In addition, he examined cities that had experienced race riots, and pointed out that no riots had occurred “in sections of the city where the two races lived, worked, and attended school together.”17

Harold R. Fatzer argued on behalf of the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. The appellees argued that the lesser court had found the black schoolhouses equal, and their decision should be upheld. Moreover, Fatzer argued that this matter is not one of judicial responsibility, but that the policies regarding the public school system should be decided by the legislature. In response to Mr. Marshall’s evidence regarding the psychological affects segregation has on the minds of young children, Fatzer argued that the appellant was far too general. He claimed that while this evidence may indeed be fact, that it had no relevance to “any of the appellants, nor to the grade schools in Topeka.”18 Fatzer reasoned that in order for their case to be viable, the appellants must find proximate cause. In other words, they must prove that the accusers have actually suffered as a result of attending segregated schools. Furthermore, he claimed the petitioners must prove that other students had suffered as well.19 Such mental suffering is extremely difficult to prove beyond the shadow of a doubt.

During the Brown proceedings, the Alabama legislature prepared several proposals to defend segregation. An Interim Committee on Segregation proposed the creation of state-subsidized private schools. In an attempt to maintain racially segregated universities in the South, Alabama and other southern states provided financial assistance to blacks who agreed to study at campuses outside of the South.20

Chief Justice Earl Warren delivered the Opinion of the Court in the case of Brown v. Board of Education. It was decided that “in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place.”21 Furthermore, Warren explained that no one could return to 1868 when the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted in order to determine its original intent. Instead, he claimed that we must examine the amendment with regards to the public education system in its “full development and its present place in American life.”22 The court decided that segregation of children in public schools does indeed deprive those in the minority group of equal educational opportunities, regardless of other “tangible” factors such as physical facilities.23 This decision shook the country. The ideals upon which many white Southerners had based their lives crumbled, and the wall separating blacks from whites came crashing down.

White reaction to Brown was outraged and fearful. The case instilled fear into the hearts of white supremacists all over the South, and Birmingham was no different. State officials tried to reassure civilians by claiming that the case “did not involve Alabama." Before the case would have any affect on Alabama schools, State School Superintendent W. J. Terry claimed, “blacks must go through the formality of asking the courts to extend it to [Alabama]."24 Neither the state officials nor the citizens were prepared for such a “disturbing” decision. City newspapers voiced similar opinions. The Birmingham News voiced a strong opinion on the Court’s decision. The News published a small picture of an all white classroom with a caption that read “Court Order Would End This.” In the editorial section the feelings remained the same. The first editorial on May 18, 1954 explained that The News “deeply [regretted]” that the separate but equal doctrine had been overturned. The article continued that “the considerations of . . .states rights . . . still apply and would better serve progress in racial relations and education.” Alabamians felt that the Brown decision was unrelated to their situation. Many argued that race relations were better in segregated schools because the races did not have to confront each other.25

The reaction of the black community was for the most part overjoyed. Most felt that “a great battle for freedom had been won.”26 The Birmingham World, an African American newspaper, published an editorial that read, “ . . . the court did not make a radical decision, but merely a reaffirmation of the United States Constitution.” Perhaps the black community in Birmingham saw the ruling as a decree for immediate change; however, the white school board did not.27

Although the decision was handed down in May 1954, Alabama did not take immediate action. The Supreme Court, in its handing down the decision of Brown had left the door open for Southern states to continue operating under a system of segregation. Justice Warren demanded that District Courts should enter “orders and decrees consistent with [the] opinion” and that schools should begin operating “on a racially nondiscriminatory basis with all deliberate speed.” The language that Warren used was very much open to interpretation, and Southern District Courts took full advantage of this. “With all deliberate speed” set no time frame, no consequence, and no authority over processes of integration in schools.28

Following the Brown decision, the Alabama legislature took every course of action to avoid segregating public schools. In 1955, they met to amend Section 256 of the Constitution. The State claimed that it would “not undertake to coerce anyone to attend mixed schools against his will, and will not be obligated to operate any such mixed schools at all.” The amendment gave localities permission to decide what best suited local conditions. The following year, a special session of the Legislature drew up a resolution that affirmed that Alabama had never surrendered the rights to maintain “racially separate public institutions” in adopting the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868. Moreover, the Legislature concluded that the “decisions . . .of the Supreme Court of the United States relating to separation of races in the public schools are, as a matter of right, null, void, and of no effect.” Put simply, the government of Alabama declared the Brown decision an encroachment of their rights, and thus denied that they were bound to abide by it altogether.29

The black community challenged the Legislature’s resolution to disregard Brown. The first of these challenges occurred when Autherine Lucy, a black alumnus from Miles College near Birmingham, applied to the University of Alabama for graduate work in Library Sciences. Birmingham Federal Judge Hobart Grooms heard the case. To the community’s surprise, Grooms ruled that the university’s admissions department could not deny anyone admission on the basis of race. On February 1, 1956, Governor George Wallace stood in the schoolhouse door in protest of the court’s decision. Despite much white opposition, Lucy attended class at the University of Alabama..”30

Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth of Birmingham brought suit against the Birmingham Board of Education in 1957. Shuttlesworth argued that the Act passed in 1956 by a special session of the Alabama Legislature was unconstitutional. He and three other individuals filed petitions requesting that the School Board should immediately reorganize the system so as to “provide accommodations for their children in schools of the closest proximity to their homes on a non-discriminatory basis during the 1957-1958 term.” The superintendent resolved that the children must take placement tests in order to determine which schools they should attend. The children took said tests, however, the Shuttlesworths did not hear from the Superintendent, and thus filed a complaint. The district court in Birmingham dismissed the case. Thus, the first objection to the Birmingham School Board’s policy was ignored.31

On June 17, 1960, Dwight Armstrong filed a suit against the Birmingham Board of Education. Armstrong alleged that the School Board had pursued “a policy, custom, practice and usage of operating under a biracial school system.” He claimed that attendance to every school in Birmingham, regardless of location, was based solely on race or color. He asked that the court issue a decree ordering the School Board to submit a complete plan, within a period of time, for the reorganization of the entire Birmingham school system on a non-racial basis. A judgement was reached in May 1963. The court decreed that Armstrong’s request be denied. The court claimed that it would “not sanction discrimination by [the school board]” but that it would not “grant injunctive relief until their good faith has been tested.” The decision was appealed to the Fifth Circuit Court. That court decided that the superintendent of Birmingham City schools and the Board of Education had indeed “operated a segregated school system based on race.” Furthermore, the court required that the School Board submit a desegregation plan no later than August 19, 1963. The Armstrong case was the black community’s first clear victory in their struggle for school desegregation.32

The Birmingham Board of Education proposed a plan of desegregation known as the “Freedom of Choice Plan.” Basically, this plan gave students permission to choose which school they wanted to attend. This plan drew attention to the school board’s attempt to maintain segregated schools, as few, if any, black children would voluntarily leave their own schools to attend white schools. For this reason, “the number of ‘mixed’ schools would be quite limited.” This plan did little to integrate the schools. In the 1963-1964 school year, “five minority students entered formerly all-white schools.” Those minority students who did choose to attend white schools were often ridiculed and subject to public humiliation.33

The passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 finally established a concrete set of guidelines on the issue of school desegregation. It clearly states that it is the duty of the board of education to desegregate the school system, not just to end discrimination. In addition, the Act required that no one should be able to recognize a school by the race that attends it. It also said that the “freedom of choice plan” was not legitimate. Because it was extremely difficult for students of the minority to enroll in all white schools, the choice was simply not a choice at all. These guidelines made it very difficult for the school board to maintain racially segregated schools in Birmingham.34

Although one would think that racial segregation in Birmingham schools is a thing of the past, the problem still exists today. As a product of the Birmingham School System, I witnessed the racial tension first had. In my high school of around 1,200 students, only one African American student was enrolled. There were certainly high schools in the area that were identified as “black” high schools, high schools that were over ninety percent African American. Although some other high schools had relatively higher black attendance than mine did, hardly any had student populations that were racially sound.

On its fiftieth anniversary, we must look at the decision handed down by the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education. Although the decision was one of progress and hope, many areas across the South continue to operate separate schools for the races. The South must come together in the spirit of Brown to move past these racial barriers.

Since 1954, great strides have been made in the area of community communication and cooperation. Birmingham has made much progress in race relations, and may yet improve. The public schools are perhaps the most important area in need of improvement. One thing is true of the black community: in the fight against a white school board, they did overcome.

1. Diane McWhorter, Carry Me Home, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001), 20.

2. “Alabama Jim Crow”; available from http://www.jimcrowhistory.org; Internet; accessed 10 Feb 2004.

3. Ibid.

4. Ibid.

5. Carl V. Harris, “Stability and Change in Discrimination Against Black Public Schools: Birmingham, Alabama 1871-1931,” The Journal of Southern History 51, no. 3 (August 1985): 376.

6. Birmingham (Alabama) Board of Education as cited in Ernest A. Hardy, A Study of Urban School Desegregation with Implications for the City School System of Birmingham, Alabama (Ann Arbor, Michigan: UMI Dissertation Services, 1977), 104.

7. Harris, 401.

8. Ibid, 405.

9. Birmingham, Board of Education, Annual Report, 1920 as cited in Harris, 409.

10. Harris, 411.

11. Ibid, 398.

12. Ibid, 401.

13. Ibid.

14. Waldo E. Martin, Jr., Brown v. Board of Education: A Brief History with Documents, (New York: Bedford, 1998), 2.

15. Ibid, 143

16. Ibid, 147.

17. Ibid, 149.

18. Ibid, 153.

19. Ibid, 151-155.

20. Bobby M. Wilson, Race and Place in Birmingham (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield, 2000), 79.

21. Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U. S. 483 (1954) as cited in Martin, 174.

22. Ibid, 173.

23. Ibid.

24. Birmingham News, 17 May 1954, p.1 as cited in Hardy, 124.

25. Birmingham News, 18 May 1954, as cited in George R. Stewart, Birmingham’s Reaction to the 1954 Desegregation Decision (Thesis: 1967) 39.

26. Birmingham World, May 18, 1954 as cited in Stewart.

27. Ibid.

28. Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U. S. 483 (1954) as cited in Martin, 198.

29. Alabama, Legislature Document No. 1, reg. Sess. (1955) as cited in Hardy, 128.

30. McWhorter, 96.

31. Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham Board of Education, United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, Southern Division, Civil Action Number 8914, December 18, 1957 as cited in Hardy, 134.

32. Dwight Armstrong and the United States v. The Board of Education of the City of Birmingham, Civil Action Number 9678 (1970) as cited in Hardy, 139.

33. Robert Gaines Corley, The Quest for Racial Harmony: Race Relations in Birmingham, Alabama 1947-1963, (Ann Arbor, Michigan: UMI Dissertation Services, 1977), 83.

34. “Civil Rights Act of 1964”; available from http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/law#s/majorlaw/civilr19.h m; accessed 24 Feb 2004.