White Resistance to Equality

By: Mara Conner

Whites (at the time) grew up thinking that blacks were unequal- like slaves.

This was enforced by segregation of buses and other public places.

Whites didn't like it- so they showed it with violence, protest, and scorn.

Freedom RidersThe Freedom Riders were a group of civil rights workers who took bus trips through Southern States to protest bus segregation.

Their buses were bombed in Birmingham, Alabama and Montgomery, Alabama by members of the Klu Klux Klan.

Brown V. Board of EducationOliver Brown wanted to attend a white school, but the state of Kansas didn't want to integrate schools.

So, they had a court decide whether he should go or not. If they would have allowed him, there would have been no such case.

States showed that they weren't ready to deal with the violence integration would bring them.

Little Rock Nine

9 black students-- the first to integrated into a white school. (Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957)

The Little Rock Nine were scorned upon. 

For three weeks, the Little Rock Nine were guarded by National Guardsmen. 

Elizabeth Eckford, a member of the Little Rock Nine, walks past a group of opposers to integrated schools. 

University of MississippiGovernor Ross Barnett did not want a black student at the University of Mississippi; and personally prevented James Meredith from applying.

A riot soon broke out on campus, which eventually led to Meredith being allowed to go to the University of Mississippi. 

Whites acted out against these movements in those different ways. They sometimes humiliated black people, such as whites did with the Little Rock Nine. They sometimes used violence, such as the bombing on the buses of the Freedom Riders. One must remember, however, if one is subjected to those thoughts early in life, they aren't going to see any wrong in what their parents taught them. Many whites didn't think that blacks were equal, so they didn't see anything wrong in hating them. They tried to stop the reform, but as you can see, it didn't stop civil rights laws.

References

Boyer, P., & Stuckey, S. (Eds.). (2005). American nation in the modern era. Austin, Texas: Holt,         Rinehart, and Winston.Brown v. Board of Education. (2004, April 11). Retrieved April 27, 2010, from Brown Foundation         for Educational Equity, Excellence, and Research website: http://brownvboard.org/summ        ary/Gross, T. (2006, January 12). Get on the bus: The freedom riders. Retrieved April 27, 2010, from         NPR website: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5149667 Little Rock nine. (n.d.). Retrieved April 27, 2010, from http://osopher.wordpress.com/2009/11/        06/little-rock-nine/ 1960s violence. (n.d.). Retrieved April 27, 2010, from http://www.howardsmead.com/60sviol.ht        m