In this section of the reading there was much talk about the fight for equal educational opportunities. Seeing that families were willing to put their lives at risk for their future really was sad to see. This made life a living hell for those who really wanted a better future, parents sacrificed there safely for their children to succeed. From the beginning I believe everyone regardless of their race and color should have been granted the same opportunities. When some Blacks tried to enter the white school system they were targeted and their homes were attacked. This led to the 101st Airborne to step in and serve as security to those being attacked while they received their education at the vast majority white institutions. It was also women and those who were disabled that didn’t have the same education as whites. It was small numbers of each that actually attended and excelled in the school system and was very hard for them to be accepted in this time period.
During the 1950s-1980s it was also your financial situation that played a huge part and determined your education level. The government made sure to hinder those who were poor and give them such terrible treatment and tools to excel in the system. Only those who had money and lived in a rich neighborhood would most likely succeed. The rich students were granted with better schools and received more funding than the schools that wasn’t in the poor neighborhoods.
One thing that I mentioned during the class activity was the “carrot and the stick”. It had seemed that many white officials was not making any moves towards actually ending segregated schools. The Civil Rights Act stated that school districts would lose their funding if they refused to desegregate schools which was the stick. The carrot was the federal funds that granted schools in support of disadvantaged students. Through this is clear that money talks! It would be the only thing that would and could make a real change in the systems implicated. This was the start to more minorities coming out of school retirement and entering the school system once again. The Mexicans were one group that had large numbers coming back.
The struggles that these individuals went through most definitely made a great change today, however, one thing that sticks is the financial divide that causes some students to receive less tools and funding to make their experience in the school system equal to someone with more money living in better neighborhood. We must find a way to make things better for everyone. We are no longer living in an separate but unequal world, there are tools and resources that those in power have to make things right!
