Pushing the bus up the hill : the effects of public and private education on black community cohesion; Jackson County, North Carolina, 1950-1966

Pushing the bus up the hill : the effects of public and private education on black community cohesion; Jackson County, North Carolina, 1950-1966

African Americans

African Americans -- Education

Jackson County (N.C.)

Jackson County (N.C.) -- Race relations

School integration

Murray, Heather M.

2002

Graham, Gael, 1958-

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/

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Until recently, scholars considered black/white relations as the most important factor in school desegregation. Analyzing the issue solely from the white perspective, they often overlooked the importance of the black community. Moreover, many romanticized the notion of black community, finding that blacks united voluntarily to hold their community together during the struggle to desegregate. By the 1990s, however, historians began to reevaluate the effects of desegregation on the black community and redefine the term. Authors like Vanessa Siddle Walker, Frederick Rodgers, and William Chafe have extended the historical research on desegregation to include its effects on community alliance. Surprising to many, they found that desegregation was not necessarily a positive occurrence for all blacks. Moreover, it became evident through these works that the institution of education was as important to the black community as that community was to the formation and maintenance of black schools. Evaluation of one community in western North Carolina will support their arguments, showing that with the closing of the segregated black school in Jackson County, fissures formed within the black community. More importantly, studies of this type can show how race relations were not always amicable in what was considered a liberal state- North Carolina. In Jackson County, violence between the races was rare, but Jim Crow was still the law. Because of this, both the black and white communities experienced difficulty changing. Jim Crow laws during the twentieth century led to the creation of an enduring policy of segregation. What many are now coming to understand, however, is that this segregation allowed blacks who were spatially segregated to unite under the roof of the black school. Those in Jackson County attempted to use education as a means to create an alliance not only to unite blacks, but also to try and improve their educational system. It is important to understand that this union was not formed voluntarily, but out of circumstance. The use of education as a tool for alliance, however, was not always dependable. Although there was disunity before desegregation, the integration of the county's schools served as a means both to further separate and in some interesting ways bring together the black community for one cause. While placing their focus on the integration of public schools, many historians did not adequately address the importance of private education to the black community. Recently, however, some historians are finding that private schools for blacks were created to protest social inequality. What many failed to examine, however, was the cultural impact of these private schools on their communities. An evaluation of these schools can shed light on class relations within the black community. This study focuses on the impact of both public and private education on one black community in southern Appalachia. While most historians focused their research on the integration of public schools in areas where violence occurred, they missed an important piece of the historical puzzle. In small communities where race relations were mostly cool, segregation and desegregation also greatly affected the lives of both blacks and whites. Interviews with former students and teachers of Jackson County schools, newspaper articles, Board of Education minutes, and Governor's papers demonstrate that the county's race relations were not as amicable as once believed. Furthermore, these sources reveal that the black community was greatly affected by segregation and integration. This Appalachian black community was much more than an entity acted upon by whites. It was dynamic and changing. Analysis of it remains multifaceted and often contradictory. In the end, education served as a complex catalyst for change within the community.

2014-05-22

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Jackson County (N.C.)

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