Black students have experienced a …

History Matters

Black students have experienced a long history of discrimination in the education system. In the 1800s, Jim Crow laws required public spaces—including schools—to be racially segregated. The laws were rooted in the damaging concept of “separate-but-equal.” In 1896, the Supreme Court upheld this philosophy in schools in the Plessy v. Ferguson case. These practices perpetuated disinvestments in the schools attended by Black children. It took nearly six decades to overturn Plessy v. Ferguson. Finally, in 1954, Brown v. Board of Education determined that “separate-but equal” was highly unequal. ^[12] Though schools have become more integrated, the racist legacy of Jim Crow-era laws persists and continues to create many barriers, which can still be seen in schools today. ^[13]