Hyperlink : TAL and Herbert

Michael Brown's graduation picture.

Elizabeth Eckford being heckled at by a crowd of white people at 15 for being the first person of color to attend Little Rock Central High School. 

Integration in schools is something that many educational facilities are lacking, this is the reality of our world. We are still desegregating white and black schools, and it is due to discrimination in communities. Nikole Hannah Jones followed the story of those attending at the Normandy school district in which was unaccredited for nearly fifteen years because it had such inadequate teaching, supplies and general education. This left those who went there seeking other schools to attend and those at Francis Howell to be upset by this new change which had 85% white people attending. Many white parents were discriminating against the students and parents wanting to attend just based on their color, and stating that there would be more violence, lower test scores, and drug use. These accusations were totally unacceptable and the demands made at the parent meeting beforehand offensive, to say the least. These kids who just wanted a quality education were being bashed on for acts that white people commit a majority of the time. Violence towards black people was and still is at a high with Michael Brown being killed for being black. The hyperlink Michael Brown shows the story of how in his own community he was shot by a white police officer just for simply being black and the updated story of his murder. Watching this story on the news in 2014 and his mother cry was something I will never forget. His mother was devastated by his death and felt that she worked so hard in order to have him be a kind young man and finish high school with a diploma. In which connects back to Jones's point where these families are having to work extra hard just to receive the bare minimum. The integration of these schools is a necessity because a majority of the upper or middle-class schools that have high amounts of white people. When integrated the white community members just flee the district to escape because they think with the addition of black students come bad influences and community members. People of color would not be fighting so hard for better quality education for their children if they didn't have good intentions though. Some are driving or taking the bus for very long commutes like in this NPR podcast Why Busing Didn't End School Segregation, that explains how providing transportation for students in poverty to end segregation helps the students of color but not enough. It tells how the METCO program transports thousands of kids to integrated schools in which has helped students graduate on time and score higher on state achievement tests than their peers. If given the opportunity, proper resources, and chance these students can make a difference. The problem with busing in students though is the flight of white students when students of color attend and the burden it puts on the family members to have to travel to great lengths and hostile neighborhoods. Some solutions that they suggest are putting the funding into communities of color so that white students will be attracted to these schools, or to redraw zoning lines. Getting children in poverty away from it is also another point that Herbert makes in his NYT article "Separate and Unequal." This would work by having students from areas of low income attend a middle-class school in which the school receiving these students will get financial benefits towards the school and bettering the student's education. He points out that society, in general, should be more integrated and yet these schools are segregated in the first place due to discrimination based on race. All of these culturally diverse students who were so willing to join a new community were pushed aside due to stigma and lack of education themselves. Mah'Ria and Rhianna were both two students at Normandy Schools Collaborative who had very different experiences, one was welcomed with open arms while the other was called the N-word and told was stupid because of her external appearance. When the school was non-accredited these bright young women and many others were forced out once again. So after having no violence, drugs, and higher test scores, these young students taught the powerful impact integration can have on a school as a whole, even if it was an accident. The matter of integration has to be pushed in order for change to be seen in American culture. From the Brown vs. Board of Education case in 1954, we have made strides but we should be progressing more for those being discluded for something they cannot control.