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Northern Desegregation: A Tale of Two Cities
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2017
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Throughout American history, African American communities have fought for desegregated education, equal school funding, and the right to a quality education. Many activists and scholars have long believed that a racially desegregated education would be the best way to educate citizens in a democratic society. Segregated education has historically been a reality for many African Americans throughout the nation. Before the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) successfully won the Brown v. Board of Education (1954) Supreme Court case, much of the attention to racial segregation was paid to the South, although there had been numerous cases fought in the North before the Brown decision. After Brown, the NAACP decided to take their school desegregation litigation to the North in an effort to fight de facto segregation. The federal government also became involved in school desegregation with the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act (Title IV and VI) and through the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) and the Justice Department who enforced the act. Court cases, along with the federal government efforts, pushed school districts in the North and South to desegregate.
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References
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