This document summarizes the three phases of public school desegregation in the American South from 1955-1977 based on the study by Black and Black. Phase 1 from 1955-1964 saw massive white resistance to desegregation. Phase 2 from 1965-1968 saw increased desegregation efforts spurred by federal intervention. Phase 3 from 1969-1977 saw more rigorous judicial intervention reinforced by administrative sanctions. The study found that by the late 1970s, almost all black students in the South attended desegregated schools, though isolation persisted in large cities and some rural areas. It also discusses the partial penetration of the "intermediate color line" in areas like education, employment, and family income by the late 1960s-1970s, but

1. Confronting the Intermediate Color Line

2. Intermediate Color
Line
Blacks to make gains in:
Quality Education
Employment
Residential integration

3. Public Schools:
Black and Black describe
three phases of Public
School Desegregation

4. Phase 1: 1955-1964
Massive White
Resistance

5. Phase 2: 1965 - 1968
Desegregation
spurred by Federal
Intervention

6. ase 2: $$ =
ral $ h
Ph t of Fede sout
out spec
ab ro
ore + P hools of the
tle mssure the sc
lit Pre
A al n in
der volutio
f Fe l re
e at o ocia
Thr iet s
qu

7. Phase 3: 1969-1977
More rigorous judicial
intervention
reinforced by coercive
administrative
sanctions

8. "When measured against history of total segregation,
the South's uneasy transition to biracial elementary
and secondary schools was most impressive. The South
exceeded north and west in % of black students
attending desegregated schools.” - Black and Black

9. Black and Black study:
•compares scope of school desegregation for current generation across different demographic
settings, used HEW data
•calcuated percent of blacks who went to school where whites were 10 % or more of the popuation
•found that almost all black students were attending desegregated schools in 84% of the region's 1009
counties
•isolation disappeared in rural counties with small black population
•isolation persisted in large cities and rural areas where blacks outnumbered whites

10. ation
artial penetr
co me: P 1969
ily In
d Fam diate color line by
R ace an terme
of in

11. Race and Family Income
• Early sixties south went from poverty and deprivation to adequacy for
most, abundance for many, and luxury for some
• Obstacles of the intermediate color line remained intact for black, but
some black families were able to escape
• 1979 shows partial penetration of the color line, but there were more
rich whites and more poor blacks by region (7.2)
• Southern White Poverty - one in nine, 2/5 of Blacks
• White poverty was mountain poverty, black poverty was throughout
the south
• Whites and blacks both against preferential treatment

12. Fig 7.1 The Geography of White Poverty

13. Fig. 7.2 The geography of black poverty

14. ew
dN t
an
ace oymen
n, R mpl
atio ss E
Ed uc
dle Cla
Mid

15. •Jobs required reading,
writing and math
•Blacks still at a
disadvantage
•Entry to employment
impeded by low levels
of education

16. Black and Black
conclusions
• Modern south not as bad as it once was or as good as it
can become
• Foundations of racism started to shake in the 1960s
• Some blacks have penetrated the intermediate color line
• Effects won't be seen for many years
• Races remain separate based on the innermost color line -
friendship and intimacy

17. rt o f life
re pa
nes a o
“ Co lor li th, t f the
sou ics o
in the polit t and
tand esen
ders st pr
un
u th pa reful ns of
so ca atter of
fu ture, tion of p nsus
exa mina d conse
ct an hites.”
c onfli and w
b lacks