Author Archives: jm9wv

From Brown to Merhige, mapping desegregation in Richmond

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John McAuliff
The Color of their Skin, Robert Pratt

For this blog I’ve decided to break down the chapters into three timelines, since Pratt is dense and a lover of tangents. What seemed like a simple prospect resulted in a three hour battle with the text to figure out exactly what was really happening this whole time, so I hope this is helpful.

Policy of Containment 1956-65
Dec 29, 1956 Creation of the Pupil Placement Board
1956-8 Oliver Hill leads court case against PPB
Mar 1, 1960 Local option PPB goes into effect, board resigns
Aug 15, 1960 PPB assigns 2 children to white school on proximity
Sep, 1960 Of 200K black pupils in VA, 170 were in white schools
Sep. 1963 Of 26K black pupils in Richmond, 320 in white schools
Mar. 1963 Feeder system and dual zoning abolished
Mar 16, 1964 Freedom of Choice Act approved.
Take-away: Tokenism was proving effective at stalling desegregation.

Myth of Operation 1966-71
Jun 30, 1966 PPB expires
Jan 1 1970 Richmond annexes dominantly white Chesterfield
Jan 1970 School board expands (5 to 7) with three blacks
1970 FoC fails. 85% of blacks attend black schools in its final year
1970 Grade pairing attempt fails because black and white schools are not close by
Aug 31, 1970 Third plan fails as 5,000 don’t show up
Jan, 1971 Merhige declares past plans a failure, integration slows at 30%
Apr 5, 1971 Merhige orders schools to have same black to white ratio throughout
Take-away: Clever subterfuge and housing discrimination slows desegregation, but by 1971 Merhige orders a bold step forward.

The Busing Experiment 1971-73
Aug 1970 Gov. Holton escorts white daughter to black school
Apr 21, 1971 Swann finds local gov’t unwilling to desegregate, allows Merhige bus plan
1971 Conservatives Rehnquist and Powell appointed to Supreme Court, shifting power
Jan 10, 1972 Merhige merges county and city schools to expand busing
Jun 5, 1972 Appeals court overturns Merhige
May 21, 1973 Supreme Court hears case and votes to do nothing, letting the appeals court decision stay
Take-away: The dramatic decisions of Merhige that would have integrated schools were supported by the Republican moderate Holton, but eventually shot down by the more conservative Supreme Court.

In the end, was Brown working? Before Merhige’s dramatic attempt to integrate, 30% of blacks were in white schools. Equally interesting, would his plan have worked? How do the different factors of housing, tokenism, and local government play a role in this era?

Gov. Holton brings his daughter to Kennedy High School.

Chapter 6: Civil Disobedience, A Fact Sheet

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In a word: Versatile.

In a sentence: Civil Disobedience is a tool of social movements used by an individual or group to protest a law or common practice, and can change over the course of the movement from a spark of ignition to a unifying action.  

In a picture:

The OWS Student Strike in NYC (Rights owned by me, so no copyright issues)

 

Types of Civil Disobedience:

Individualistic-Often dramatic, and in accordance with an individual’s own ‘higher law,’ individualistic Civil Disobedience is an action of one or a few who find a present practice or law against their beliefs—religious, secular, or otherwise—and take action. Meyer’s example is of a woman who bars all other women entrance to an abortion clinic.

 

Collective-In acting not against a law or for a ‘higher law,’ collective Civil Disobedience relies on disagreement with a common practice that goes against the ‘collective value’ of a large group. Meyer’s example is of a fictional play in which women withhold sex and chores until war ends. Though not breaking laws, they are breaking customs. See ‘Famous Users’ for more.

 

Primary uses of Civil Disobedience:

Bring attention and inspire action-At the beginning of a movement, Civil Disobedience can bring media attention to an issue and inspire involvement by previously dormant citizens. Case in point: Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat on the bus. (spark)

 

Unify a campaign- In the course of a movement, Civil Disobedience can serve as a common thread linking protestors, leaders, and events. Case in point: MLK and Ghandi used non-violent civil disobedience to gain the moral high ground and control the direction and methodology of protests.

 

Famous users/uses of Civil Disobedience:

Women and Prohibition-Though Meyer’s does not mention this in his fictional account of women withholding sex, many women in America actually did withhold sex, cease household labor, and acted generally against the grain in a response to the obscene drinking of the early twentieth century. The result: prohibition. This illustrates perfectly collective Civil Disobedience.

 

MLK and the Civil Rights Movement-Referred to constantly my Meyer’s and used by analysts around the world, the Civil Rights Movement illustrates both individualistic Civil Disobedience and Collective Civil Disobedience in the ways written about through the piece.

 

The Take-away

The key to understanding the different uses of Civil Disobedience lies not in the result or the people involved, but the origin of the action. In assessing whether or not a movement is effectively using Civil Disobedience at the right moment in the course of a movement, one must look at why it occurred. Did a single person or small group act in favor of a ‘higher law’ or a ‘collective value’?

 

With that in mind, how is Civil Disobedience used by the Occupy movement? Which kind? At what time? How about the Tea Party?