Determined to rise : politics, labor and black West Virginians in the era of Brown

Determined to rise : politics, labor and black West Virginians in the era of Brown

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

School integration

United Mine Workers of America

West Virginia -- Race relations -- History

Altizer, Whitney P.

2007

Macaulay, Alexander, 1972-

McRae, Elizabeth

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

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As the 1957 school year commenced, "the problem of the color line" manifested itself in the hallways of Southern schools. More than three years had passed since the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling, and many were just beginning their struggle with desegregation. Meanwhile, in the hills and hollers of West Virginia, most of the schools acted within the guidelines of the ruling. The Mountain State's response to Brown came early with few protests. Whereas most schools in the South stalled for years, the schools of West Virginia were often used as an example for the rest of the South to follow. But while the school board and courts showed a state in compliance with the ruling, the responses at a local level reveal a state still struggling with the ruling. My paper is about West Virginia's response to Brown in 1954 after operating separate school systems for almost 100 years. It will look at how West Virginia's state government attempted to appease all its citizens while governors in Arkansas, Alabama and Mississippi took the stance of "Never!" It will analyze the ways in which both black and white West Virginians looked to mitigate racial tension and how they responded to unadulterated racism in its school s. Further it will attempt to understand the people and institutions involved on the state and local level, and how their stances caused certain responses to Brown. This paper also looks at how the history or coal mining and an integrated labor union, the United Mine Workers or America, affected how the state responded. It will also examine the implications or Brown for the black community by looking at how African Americans in the state responded. My paper is a local analysis of school integration, in a state that attracted many African Americans to its borders through its egalitarian economic and social opportunities in its coal mines in the early 20th century. In short, this work focuses on the factors that led the state to its immediate response to Brown.

2014-09-22

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West Virginia

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