As a Southerner by birth, the Klan, the legacy of slavery, and Jim Crow has always been visible, even if the effects are being alleviated by time and tolerance. \u00a0The KKK is certainly one of the country\u2019s most reprehensible institutions. \u00a0Despite their evil and criminal intents, being a member was practically a requirement in the American South (and beyond) to be an accepted member of society until the latter half of the 20th century. \u00a0This societal pressure to adopt a racially bigoted worldview set the country back decades and extended the legacy of the country\u2019s greatest crime. \u00a0There is a quote from The West Wing<\/i> where a character calls slavery \u201cAmerica\u2019s original sin.\u201d \u00a0This rings true as many of America\u2019s greatest problems originate from the massive racial divide in the country, from culture to wealth to education, which all originate from the legacy of the institution of slavery. \u00a0In my own life, I see this on a daily basis. \u00a0While the legacy of slavery can be extrapolated to just about every issue of racial inequity, I encounter the most obvious examples on a daily basis both in Richmond and at home in South Carolina. \u00a0In Richmond, the presence of \u201cJefferson Davis Highway\u201d and the statues on Monument Avenue present daily reminders to a time where this country was torn asunder by a conflict over whether owning an entire race was morally acceptable in exchange for economic benefit. \u00a0At home, the vast majority of Hilton Head Island (where I live) is divided between gated communities, most of which include the word \u201cplantation\u201d in their name. \u00a0While plantations are not inherently slave-driven, the word association in the American South is unavoidable. \u00a0Similarly, just 6 minutes from my house, there lies the ruins of an old plantation house which was burned when Union soldiers took the Island. \u00a0This, alongside the Union gun batteries which stand on the coast and the remains of the freed slave village of Mitchelville, provides a continual reminder of what the South once stood for.<\/p>\n
As for Jim Crow, the legacy of this can be seen across the nation, even in regions where it was never the law of the land. \u00a0Segregation was a brutal injustice, the terrible history of which is still remembered across the nation. \u00a0Following the Brown v. Board of Education <\/i>decision, schooling was legally desegregated. \u00a0However, the images of Southern governors blockading the doorways of public educational institutions to black students haunted the nation throughout the 60s, as racial rhetoric and conflict began to heat up. \u00a0This resulted in the passage of the Civil Rights Act and other laws which required full integration and absolute equality under law between the races. \u00a0Despite this, many whites found their way around this law. \u00a0Redlining and white flight led many neighborhoods to be segregated unofficially and, as whites left the cities, urban populations became more and more monochromatic. \u00a0This perpetuates to this day, where \u201csegregation between suburban places has increased for blacks and white, hispanics and whites, and asians and whites\u201d (Semuels) between 1990 and 2010. \u00a0While many neighborhoods are integrated and diverse, many of the countries suburban and urban regions are still known as \u201cthe black neighborhood\u201d or \u201cthe white neighborhood.\u201d
\nWhile housing continues to be a problem of segregation, so does education. \u00a0Over half a century has passed since Brown v. Board<\/i> forced the South (and the rest of the country) to desegregate its schools and allow integration. \u00a0This certainly did not go into effect immediately, as much of the country continued to see public school segregation well into the 60s. \u00a0I must also note, simply based on my own experience, that the South found another way around integration: segregation academies, sometimes called \u201cwhite flight schools.\u201d \u00a0These were a wide variety of private schools founded in the 1960\u2019s and 70\u2019s to keep white students separated from blacks, usually at the cost of a good education. \u00a0As a Southerner who attended a private school founded in 1965, I have always been very aware of their existence. \u00a0While my alma mater is not officially considered a segregation academy, due to never holding an official policy of racial exclusion, it participates in the South Carolina Independent School Association, which was originally founded for such purposes. \u00a0\u00a0In high school athletics, my school regularly competed against schools like Calhoun Academy (which paid taxes well into the 80s to remain segregated), Stonewall Jackson Academy (kind of self-explanatory), and Thomas Heyward Academy (which, to my knowledge, does not have a black student to this day).<\/p>\n
While the South still faces issues of racial inequity, which are very easy to point out, it is often neglected that the strict laws placed on the South did force public schools to integrate with a great deal of legal force. \u00a0Such laws were not enforced with nearly as much vigor in the North and West. \u00a0For that reason, the worst segregation in schooling in the country is observed in a surprising place: New York. \u00a0According to a study done by UCLA, \u201cNew York \u2018had the highest concentration of in intensely segregated public school\u2019\u201d (Resmovits). \u00a0This means that many schools are almost exclusively black and Latino in which \u201cwhite students make up less than 10 percent of enrollment\u201d (Resmovits). \u00a0This problem is not exclusive to New York, and can be seen across the country. \u00a0Many said that the election of Barack Obama may lead to a \u201cpost-racial America.\u201d \u00a0However, the persistence of these problems which were in discussion over half a century ago nullify that argument.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Works Cited<\/p>\n
Resmovits, Joy. \u201cThe Nation’s Most Segregated Schools Aren’t Where You’d Think They’d Be.\u201d The Huffington Post<\/i>, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 26 Mar. 2014, www.huffingtonpost.com\/2014\/03\/26\/new-york-schools-segregated_n_5034455.html.<\/p>\n
Semuels, Alana. \u201cWhite Flight Never Ended.\u201d The Atlantic<\/i>, Atlantic Media Company, 30 July 2015, www.theatlantic.com\/business\/archive\/2015\/07\/white-flight-alive-and-well\/399980\/.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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