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SEGREGATED SCHOOLS IN AMERICA

Segregation in the United States is a legal or social practice of separating people on the basis of their race or ethnicity. Segregation has been prohibited in the United States since the All over America there seems to be painfully obvious difference in the school systems which cater to the upper class minority and the ones that serve the lower and middle class minority. There is a strong undercurrent of racial inequality in today's school systems, which negatively affect the quality of education that its students receive. A schools potential to give a proper education often depends on the perspective economic, and social, or should I say racial backgrounds of its students. America's school systems seem to be returning to their former state of segregation. The population of minorities who live in the United States is constantly increasing and their numbers can contribute to the success or the failure of the nation. Magnet schools, private schools, or suburban schools serve the upper class, minority of the American population. These schools are some of the best high schools in the nation.

Impact of Segregation on Students
In 1954, the United States Supreme Court decided the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education. The Court, by a 9-0 vote, held that the segregation of school children based on race violated the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Court relied heavily on the work of social scientists, who found that segregation generated a feeling of inferiority among African-American students. This paper will analyze that issue, both in the context of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s and in the context of modern American society. Segregation started not long after slavery ended. After the Civil War, Congress sought to ensure the rights of freed slaves by passing three amendments to the U.S. Constitution: the Thirteenth, which ended slavery; the Fourteenth, which barred discrimination based on race; and the Fifteenth, which enfranchised African-American males. Congress also enacted several other measures that benefited African-Americans (Barker and McCurry, p. 94). Those advances came to a halt after the 1876 presidential election. By agreeing to end military rule in the South, Republican candidate Rutherford Hayes won the support of Congress, which decided the election because of a tie in Electoral College votes. Whites soon returned to power in the former Confederacy, rolling back almost all of the gains made by African-Americans. Southern whites then went about building a rigid social structure that separated the races, especially in the schools.

Segregation Still Going Strong in America
Despite the fact that America has elected its first African-African president, this country isn’t as progressive as it seems. There’s increased minority segregation in schools, the job situation remains bleak for American blacks, and Latinos have a college completion rate that is shockingly low, says a new report by the Civil Rights Project, which promotes racial and ethnic equity.“Reviving the Goal of an Integrated Society: A 21st Century Challenge” points out that it would be wrong to assume that our nation has realized civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream, where blacks, whites, and others coexist harmoniously as equals. Or field goes on to say that the “outgoing administration has left the machinery of civil rights justice and educational equity in a shambles and strong leadership will be needed to restore it.”