Detail 4 - Dual marches re: school desegregation in Memphis. Tennessee
Would love to know more about all these people. The good ones and the hateful/misguided ones.
Sign 1: "GO 8:30; LEAVE 3:30"
Sign 2: "6544 CASES OF VENEREAL DISEASE AMONG NEGROES OF MEMPHIS IN ONE YEAR"
"MEMPHIS,[Saturday]Aug.31--MARCH AND COUNTER MARCH--A group of Negro marchers protesting school board policies were met by white counter marchers during a double demonstration here today. The Negroes, estimated at about 600, and some 50 whites marched side-by-side through the busy Main Street shopping district without incident."
More copy accompanying photo in another paper: "Sunday, Sept 1-MEMPHIS, Tenn.-About 500 Negroes staged the largest racial demonstration in Memphis' history yesterday to protest crowded school conditions and the Negroes' quickening desegregation drive flared in several other cities across the nation. ... The Memphis demonstration was sparked by a school board decision to require two shifts of classes in five Negro schools, a move which Negro leaders termed an attempt to shackle Negroes "within educational ghettos." The Negroes marched into the downtown section. About 50 whites formed in a counter-protest march but there were no incidents."
Memphis' black student enrollment soared in the early 1960s as many moved from surrounding rural areas to the city and the segregated all-black schools became increasingly overcrowded. Memphis had decided to integrate slowly, beginning in the 1960-61 school year with a total of 13 black students allowed to enroll at four previously all-white schools. The next year, a total of 53 black students attended seven previously all-white schools in grades 1-3. For the 1963-64 school year, a total of 258 black students were to attend 14 previously all-white schools in grades 1-4. Rather than further speed up integration to alleviate overcrowding at many black high schools, those schools were placed on double-shifts, with some students starting school at 7 AM, and others starting at 9 AM. This wreaked havoc with parents' schedules and made participation in extra-curricular activities difficult. The NAACP, perceiving the issue to be one of preserving segregation, led a boycott of the double-shift schools in 1963. The School Board responded to by announcing one white high school would also be placed on a double-shift the following year.
Detail 4 - Dual marches re: school desegregation in Memphis. Tennessee
Would love to know more about all these people. The good ones and the hateful/misguided ones.
Sign 1: "GO 8:30; LEAVE 3:30"
Sign 2: "6544 CASES OF VENEREAL DISEASE AMONG NEGROES OF MEMPHIS IN ONE YEAR"
"MEMPHIS,[Saturday]Aug.31--MARCH AND COUNTER MARCH--A group of Negro marchers protesting school board policies were met by white counter marchers during a double demonstration here today. The Negroes, estimated at about 600, and some 50 whites marched side-by-side through the busy Main Street shopping district without incident."
More copy accompanying photo in another paper: "Sunday, Sept 1-MEMPHIS, Tenn.-About 500 Negroes staged the largest racial demonstration in Memphis' history yesterday to protest crowded school conditions and the Negroes' quickening desegregation drive flared in several other cities across the nation. ... The Memphis demonstration was sparked by a school board decision to require two shifts of classes in five Negro schools, a move which Negro leaders termed an attempt to shackle Negroes "within educational ghettos." The Negroes marched into the downtown section. About 50 whites formed in a counter-protest march but there were no incidents."
Memphis' black student enrollment soared in the early 1960s as many moved from surrounding rural areas to the city and the segregated all-black schools became increasingly overcrowded. Memphis had decided to integrate slowly, beginning in the 1960-61 school year with a total of 13 black students allowed to enroll at four previously all-white schools. The next year, a total of 53 black students attended seven previously all-white schools in grades 1-3. For the 1963-64 school year, a total of 258 black students were to attend 14 previously all-white schools in grades 1-4. Rather than further speed up integration to alleviate overcrowding at many black high schools, those schools were placed on double-shifts, with some students starting school at 7 AM, and others starting at 9 AM. This wreaked havoc with parents' schedules and made participation in extra-curricular activities difficult. The NAACP, perceiving the issue to be one of preserving segregation, led a boycott of the double-shift schools in 1963. The School Board responded to by announcing one white high school would also be placed on a double-shift the following year.