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How Housing Redlining Contributed to the Racial Wealth Gap and Segregation | NowThis

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THE HISTORY OF RACIST HOUSING POLICIES OF REDLINING STIFLED AFRICAN AMERICAN GENERATIONAL WEALTH

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CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) - In 1957 Cedar Rapids St. Luke's hospital welcomed its first Black intern: Doctor Percy Harris. But every time he and his wife Lileah, found a property that would work for their growing family, the listing would suddenly be unavailable, or neighborhoods would hire attorneys to keep them out. But realtors easily found houses for the 11 White interns.

They lived in a house the hospital owned, until people advocated on their behalf. The racist barriers to homeownership were real in the 1950's for a doctor new to Cedar Rapids. And the gap in homeownership between Black and White families persists today.

In Iowa about 30% of Black people own homes, compared to 75% of White people.

And that contributes to the racial economic gap that is especially high for the Midwest, according to Colin Gordon, a history professor at the University of Iowa. "For most American families, almost all of their wealth is in home equity so the wealth gap between Whites and Blacks is so much wider than the income gap is about opportunities for homeownership," said Gordon.

Gordon analyzed these disparities and compiled them in the 2019 publication, Race in the Heartland: https://files.epi.org/uploads/Race-in-the-Midwest-FINAL-Interactive-1.pdf

That gap started with slavery, when Black Americans either didn't have the freedom to acquire land, or those who were free weren't allowed to access government help - such as the Homestead Acts of the 1860s.

Then in the 1930′s the federal housing agency, HUD, created the Federal Housing Administration to boost home building and ownership after the Depression. The government agency supported maps warning banks not to lend money to people living in the red areas: a practice called redlining. Most of the Black people in America, regardless of their income, were relegated to the red areas, which prevented them from building equity and wealth through homeownership. There's a map for Waterloo that is available in an online database called Mapping Inequality in New Deal America: https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining/#loc=13/42.5/-92.352&city=waterloo-ia Dr. Julian Hayter is an Associate Professor of Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond. His college was one that put together that online database so anyone can learn about the history of housing discrimination through redlining. And he found the legacy of redlining was impacting those regions generations later.

"If you superimpose a map of urban poverty in 2020 over most cities there's a direct correlation between the most impoverished communities and redlined communities," said Hayter.

The Polk County Housing Trust Fund has an online resource with more information about the practice of redlining in Iowa: https://www.undesigndsm.com/

July 1, 2020 there is an online forum on Facebook about redlining in Iowa starting at 1:00 p.m. that day. Anyone can join in the event: https://www.facebook.com/pchtf/

"I grew up in a redlined neighborhood in Des Moines, Iowa, despite the fact that my father worked for John Deere for nearly 40 years and my mother worked at what was Blue Cross and Blue Shield in middle management. I came from a solid middle class family because not just redlining, but restrictive covenants which the Supreme Court outlawed at least in the government capacity in 1948, were still on the proverbial books in the twilight of the 20th century," said Dr. Julian Hayter. Even when the government helped veterans get home loans after World War II, African Americans were disproportionately left out. The GI bill backed 4.3 million home loans, but the same program rejected more than one million African American veterans. "Roughly two generations ago we created these divergent opportunities for white and black families and of course those are passed down from generation to generation. My parents might be in a position to give me some help in buying my first house, I can do the same for my kids. Because of my grandparents took advantage of these programs where for an African Americans in the exact position, that's not true," said Dr. Colin Gordon During the civil rights movement of the 1960′s the government took action to try and right these wrongs. The Fair Housing Act established the Civil Rights Commissions so instances of discrimination for housing, employment and credit could be investigated and brought to justice.

Stefanie Munsterman-Scriven is the executive director of the Cedar Rapids Civil Rights Executive Director and explained what the commission does:

"We're a law enforcement agency that investigates if someone feels they've being treated unfairly the landlord says Nope it's not available and the next person who might be white or who doesn't have a disability and it's available. Those things do happen, so we investigate those, we do mediations. We try to come to a satisfactory agreement between parties if possible. We also do quite a bit of education in the community," said Stefanie Munsterman-Scriven.

Last year people in Cedar Rapids filed 37 complaints to the Civil Rights Commission. 13 alleged housing discrimination which can include landlords not responding to Black or disabled people who want to rent from them. "We do hear in the community of not being called back. We don't hear of people with certain sounding names don't get called back like 'John Smith'," said Stefanie Munsterman-Scriven. All three experts agree this moment has the potential to close the income, wealth and homeownership gaps between White and Black Americans. But that will require change at the individual level and in public policy. "It's one that's not going to go away by sweeping it under the rug. It began in 1619 when slavery began, here in 2020 with what's going on today and I want people to keep it top of mind. Just because it's not your experience doesn't mean it's not true," said Stefanie Munsterman-Scriven. "In the middle of 1970′s African American workers earned almost exactly the same as white in the upper Midwest. Now they earn 75% mostly because of that lost union representation. Labor unions were especially important to African American workers because of the other forms of discrimination they faced," said Dr. Colin Gordon "Institutional problems need institutional solutions, and on some level I think this will take broad based policies to beat back many of the effects that this has had on the United States," said Dr. Julian Hayter.

Discrimination kept the Harris family from finding a house of their own 65 years ago. But then advocates stepped in and convinced St. Paul's church to hold a vote to sell a plot of land to the Harris family. 61% percent of the congregation agreed and six years after Doctor Harris came to Rapids, he was a homeowner.

Doctor Harris' opened his surgical practice and was Cedar Rapids only program of cardiac catheterization and cardiovascular surgery. He and Lileah raised 12 children and left a legacy of breaking barriers and healing Iowans. His children weren't always treated well by neighbors and teachers, but there were advocates. The family had White allies who pushed for equality at a time when that wasn't popular: like the Erskine Elementary principal, the owner of Armstrong's Department Store and the minister of Saint Paul's Methodist Church.

To read about the Percy and Lileah Harris legacy in Cedar Rapids and Iowa, read the online book A Healing Presence in Our Community: https://issuu.com/stlukescr/docs/percyharris-online-11-24_lores

Links related to this story:

Race in the Heartland, Dr. Colin Gordon https://files.epi.org/uploads/Race-in-the-Midwest-FINAL-Interactive-1.pdf

Mapping Inequality: Redlining in New Deal America : https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining/#loc=13/42.5/-92.352&city=waterloo-ia

Undesign The Redline: Event July 1 at 1:00 p.m. on the PCHTF (Polk County Housing Trust Fund) Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/pchtf/

The redlining history of Iowa here: https://www.undesigndsm.com/

Percy and Lileah Harris online book A Healing Presence in Our Community: https://issuu.com/stlukescr/docs/percyharris-online-11-24_lores
Copyright 2020 KCRG. All rights reserved.

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In 1957 Cedar Rapids St. Luke's hospital welcomed its first Black intern: Doctor Percy Harris. But every time he and his wife Lileah, found a property that would work for their growing family, the listing would suddenly be unavailable, or neighborhoods would hire attorneys to keep them out.

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Josie R. Johnson

Civil rights activist Josie R. Johnson has dedicated her life to championing fair housing and anti-discrimination legislation. In 1962, lobbying on behalf of the League of Women Voters, Johnson played a pivotal role in passing the first fair housing law in the United States. Striking down the practice of "redlining" in Minnesota, the state's black community became empowered to own and rent homes outside of existing geographical boundaries.

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The American Dream Deferred: Redlining and Fair Housing

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Civil rights activist Josie R. Johnson has dedicated her life to championing fair housing and anti-discrimination legislation. In 1962, lobbying on behalf of the League of Women Voters, Johnson played a pivotal role in passing the first fair housing law in the United States.

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A ‘Forgotten History’ Of How The U.S. Government Segregated America

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Author Richard Rothstein says the housing programs begun under the New Deal were tantamount to a “state-sponsored system of segregation,” in which people of color were purposely excluded from suburbs.

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Racist housing policies have created some oppressively hot neighborhoods

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Racist housing policies have created some oppressively hot neighborhoods

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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People's choices about where to buy homes creates segregation

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People's choices about where to buy homes creates segregation

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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Learn how the Tuskegee Airmen soared into history as the first African-American military pilots.

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The Tuskegee Airmen were the first group of African Americans to fly warplanes for the U.S. military. They served during World War II. At that time, during the 1940s, African Americans were not allowed to serve in the same units with whites in the military. The Tuskegee Airmen did their jobs as well as any white pilots. After seeing how well the airmen did, other African Americans pushed harder for equal rights.

Before the United States entered World War II, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) asked the U.S. government to allow African Americans to fly warplanes. The military was then segregated, or separated by race. Because of this, the U.S. Army started a training program for African Americans only.

The airmen got their training in Alabama at the Tuskegee Army Air Field and at an African American college called Tuskegee Institute. The first Tuskegee Airmen graduated in 1942. Eventually 992 pilots graduated from the training program.

The Tuskegee Airmen served in Europe and North Africa. They flew small airplanes that protected bigger airplanes that dropped bombs on enemy targets. The group flew more than 1,500 missions and kept many U.S. bomber planes from being shot down by enemy pilots. The airmen received more than 800 medals for their outstanding service.

In 1948, three years after World War II ended, President Harry S. Truman ended racial segregation in the military. After that African Americans served alongside whites.

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The Tuskegee Airmen were the first group of African Americans to fly warplanes for the U.S. military. They served during World War II. At that time, during the 1940s, African Americans were not allowed to serve in the same units with whites in the military.

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Despite racial bias, African-Americans throughout history have been ready to join the military.

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A Federal Marshal's Perspective on Ruby Bridges

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A Federal Marshal's Perspective on Ruby Bridges

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Kids learn about the biography of Ruby Bridges, the first African-American child to attend an all white elementary school in the South.

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Portraits of Courage

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Ruby Bridges and the Civil Rights Moveme

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Ruby Bridges and the Civil Rights Moveme

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BrainPOP Jr. - Animated Educational Site for Kids - Science, Social Studies, English, Math, Arts & Music, Health, and Technology

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Ruby Bridges Reuniting with her First Grade Teacher 

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Ruby Bridges Reuniting with her First Grade Teacher 

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Civil Rights Pioneer on First-Grade Teacher: "She Showed Me Her Heart" | Where Are They Now | OWN

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In 1960, Ruby Bridges (September 8, 1954-present) walked through the doors of William Frantz Elementary School, in New Orleans, Louisiana. By doing so, she became the first African-American student to attend an all-white elementary school in the Southern United States.

On November 14, 1960, Ruby Bridges became a symbol of the U.S. civil rights movement. She was just 6 years old. Her simple act of going to an all-white school marked the beginning of integration for U.S. public schools.

Bridges was born in Tylertown, Mississippi, on September 8, 1954. A few months before her birth, the Supreme Court-the nation's highest court -had issued a ruling on five combined cases that would impact not only Bridges's life, but also change the course of American history.

In Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, the prosecution wanted to end the idea of "separate but equal schools." In many places in the U.S., black students and white students could not attend the same school. On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation in U.S. public schools was against the constitution. In his opinion, Chief Justice Earl Warren stated that "in the field of public education the of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are unequal . . ."

Although it was illegal to have segregated schools, some states-especially in the South-did not follow the ruling. The Supreme Court was aware of the resistance and took action. A year after the ruling, the court declared that the desegregation of public schools should advance with "all deliberate speed." Five years later, little Ruby would become the first student to a Southern elementary school.

A Promising Student

When Bridges was 4, the family moved from Mississippi to New Orleans, Louisiana. Her parents hoped a new city would offer better job opportunities. Her father, Abon, found a job working as a gas station attendant and her mother, Lucille, worked nights to help support their growing family.

Bridges attended kindergarten in a segregated school in New Orleans. But in 1960, a federal court ordered that Louisiana all of its public schools. Bridges was a good student. She was chosen to be part of a small group of black students who would take an exam given by the school district. The exam determined which students would attend the all-white schools. Bridges was one of six black children who passed the exam. She enrolled in William Frantz Elementary School. It was just blocks from her home.

At first, Bridges's father refused to enroll his daughter in the all-white school. He feared some would seek revenge on the family. However, her mother convinced him that it was the right decision. She believed their daughter would get a better education at an all-white school. Bridges's parents were unable to read or write. On November 14, federal marshals escorted Bridges and her mother to her new school.

School of One

In a 1997 interview with PBS NewsHour, Bridges recalled preparing to leave for her new school. She remembered looking out the window of a car driven by a U.S. marshal. "Driving up, I could see the crowd," she said, "but living in New Orleans, I actually thought it was Mardi Gras."

The angry crowd chanted, "Two, four, six, eight, we don't want to integrate." They tried to block the entrance to the school. While Bridges and her mother sat in the principal's office, hundreds of parents entered the school and removed their children from their classrooms. "They didn't see a child," Bridges later said in the PBS special series The African Americans. "They saw change and what they thought was being taken from them."

The next day, Bridges was led past the screaming crowd and into the school by four marshals. When she arrived at her classroom, she found a teacher but no students. Her teacher, Barbara Henry, was a Boston, Massachusetts, native who had moved to the South hoping to help schools integrate. She was the only teacher willing to teach Bridges. "She would greet me, take me to my classroom, and it was just her and I," said Bridges. Although Bridges and Henry remained in the classroom alone, neither missed a single day of school that year.

A Lasting Legacy

The following school year, Bridges attended second grade at William Frantz. This time, the crowds had disappeared, and her classroom was full of students. In 1963, she was immortalized in a now-iconic painting called The Problem We All Live With, by artist Norman Rockwell.

In 1999, Bridges established the Ruby Bridges Foundation to teach tolerance to students. The following year, she was made an honorary deputy federal marshal in Washington, D.C. "I am so proud to have received such an honor," she said. "Deputy U.S. marshals are peacemakers and advocates of justice."

In 2014-54 years after she attended her first day of school at William Frantz-a bronze statue of 6-year-old Ruby Bridges was unveiled in the school's courtyard. "We need to honor the power of children," she said at the ceremony. "We need to encourage them that they can do extraordinary things."

Today, Bridges is an author, activist, and public speaker. She continues her work helping people learn to be more accepting of others.

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In 1960, Ruby Bridges (September 8, 1954-present) walked through the doors of William Frantz Elementary School, in New Orleans, Louisiana. By doing so, she became the first African-American student to attend an all-white elementary school in the Southern United States....

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Ruby Bridges reunites with the marshal who escorted her

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Ruby Bridges reunites with the marshal who escorted her

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16th Street Baptist Church Bombing Survivor Recalls Attack 58 Years Later

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16th Street Baptist Church Bombing Survivor Recalls Attack 58 Years Later

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16th Street Baptist Church Bombing Survivor Recalls Attack 58 Years Later

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The last living parent of a child killed in the 1963 Birmingham church bombing dies

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The last living parent of a child killed in the 1963 Birmingham church bombing dies

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The last living parent of a child killed in the 1963 Birmingham church bombing dies

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Maxine McNair’s 11-year-old daughter, Denise McNair, was the youngest of the four Black girls killed in the bombing of Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963. She died Sunday at 93.

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Table of Contents

Birmingham in the 1960s

Letter from a Birmingham Jail

th Street Baptist Church

Aftermath of the Birmingham Church Bombing

Lasting Impact of the Birmingham Church Bombing

The Birmingham church bombing occurred on September 15, 1963, when a bomb exploded before Sunday morning services at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama-a church with a predominantly Black congregation that also served as a meeting place for civil rights leaders. Four young girls were killed and many other people injured. Outrage over the incident and the violent clash between protesters and police that followed helped draw national attention to the hard-fought, often-dangerous struggle for civil rights for African Americans.

Birmingham in the 1960s

The city of Birmingham, Alabama, was founded in 1871 and rapidly became the state's most important industrial and commercial center. As late as the 1960s, however, it was also one of America's most racially discriminatory and segregated cities.

Alabama Governor George Wallace was a leading foe of desegregation, and Birmingham had one of the strongest and most violent chapters of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). The city's police commissioner, Eugene "Bull" Connor, was notorious for his willingness to use brutality in combating radical demonstrators, union members and any Black citizens.

Did you know? By 1963, homemade bombs set off in Birmingham's Black homes and churches were such common occurrences that the city had earned the nickname "Bombingham."

Precisely because of its reputation as a stronghold for white supremacy, civil rights activists made Birmingham a major focus of their efforts to desegregate the Deep South.

Letter from a Birmingham Jail

In the spring of 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. had been arrested there while leading supporters of his Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in a nonviolent campaign of demonstrations against segregation. While in jail, King wrote a letter to local white ministers justifying his decision not to call off the demonstrations in the face of continued bloodshed at the hands of local law enforcement officials.

His famous "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" was published in the national press, along with shocking images of police brutality against protesters in Birmingham that helped build widespread support for the civil rights cause.

16th Street Baptist Church

Many of the civil rights protest marches that took place in Birmingham during the 1960s began at the steps of the 16th Street Baptist Church, which had long been a significant religious center for the city's Black population and a routine meeting place for civil rights organizers like King.

KKK members had routinely called in bomb threats intended to disrupt civil rights meetings as well as services at the church.

At 10:22 a.m. on the morning of September 15, 1963, some 200 church members were in the building-many attending Sunday school classes before the start of the 11 am service-when the bomb detonated on the church's east side, spraying mortar and bricks from the front of the church and caving in its interior walls.

Most parishioners were able to evacuate the building as it filled with smoke, but the bodies of four young girls (14-year-old Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley and Carole Robertson and 11-year-old Denise McNair) were found beneath the rubble in a basement restroom.

Ten-year-old Sarah Collins, who was also in the restroom at the time of the explosion, lost her right eye, and more than 20 other people were injured in the blast.

The bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church on September 15 was the third bombing in 11 days, after a federal court order had come down mandating the integration of Alabama's school system.

Aftermath of the Birmingham Church Bombing

In the aftermath of the bombing, thousands of angry Black protesters gathered at the scene of the bombing. When Governor Wallace sent police and state troopers to break the protests up, violence broke out across the city; a number of protesters were arrested, and two young African American men were killed (one by police) before the National Guard was called in to restore order.

King later spoke before 8,000 people at the funeral for three of the girls (the family of the fourth girl held a smaller private service), fueling the public outrage now mounting across the country.

Though Birmingham's white supremacists (and even certain individuals) were immediately suspected in the bombing, repeated calls for the perpetrators to be brought to justice went unanswered for more than a decade. It was later revealed that the FBI had information concerning the identity of the bombers by 1965 and did nothing. ( J. Edgar Hoover, then-head of the FBI, disapproved of the civil rights movement; he died in 1972.)

In 1977, Alabama Attorney General Bob Baxley reopened the investigation and Klan leader Robert E. Chambliss was brought to trial for the bombings and convicted of murder. Continuing to maintain his innocence, Chambliss died in prison in 1985.

The case was again reopened in 1980, 1988 and 1997, when two other former Klan members, Thomas Blanton and Bobby Frank Cherry, were finally brought to trial; Blanton was convicted in 2001 and Cherry in 2002. A fourth suspect, Herman Frank Cash, died in 1994 before he could be brought to trial.

Lasting Impact of the Birmingham Church Bombing

Even though the legal system was slow to provide justice, the effect of the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church was immediate and significant.

Outrage over the death of the four young girls helped build increased support behind the continuing struggle to end segregation-support that would help lead to the passage of both the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In that important sense, the bombing's impact was exactly the opposite of what its perpetrators had intended.

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The Birmingham church bombing occurred on September 15, 1963, when a bomb exploded before Sunday morning services at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama-a church with a predominantly Black congregation that also served as a meeting place for civil rights leaders. Four young girls were killed and many other people injured.

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The crater and other damage caused by the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, which killed four African-American girls. AP Photo.

It was a quiet Sunday morning in Birmingham, Alabama-around 10:24 on September 15, 1963-when a dynamite bomb exploded in the back stairwell of the downtown Sixteenth Street Baptist Church.

The violent blast ripped through the wall, killing four African-American girls on the other side and injuring more than 20 inside the church.

It was a clear act of racial hatred: the church was a key civil rights meeting place and had been a frequent target of bomb threats.

Our Birmingham office launched an immediate investigation and wired the FBI Director about the crime. FBI bomb experts raced to the scene-via military jet-and an additional dozen personnel from other offices were sent to assist Birmingham.

At 10:00 p.m. that night, Assistant Director Al Rosen assured Assistant Attorney General Katzenbach that "the Bureau considered this a most heinous offense...[and]...we had entered the investigation with no holds barred."

And we backed that promise up. Dozens of FBI agents worked the case throughout September and October and into the new year-as many as 36 at one point. One internal memo noted that:

"...we have practically torn Birmingham apart and have interviewed thousands of persons. We have seriously disrupted Klan activities by our pressure and interviews so that these organizations have lost members and support. ...We have made extensive use of the polygraph, surveillances, microphone surveillances and technical surveillances..."

By 1965, we had serious suspects-namely, Robert E. Chambliss, Bobby Frank Cherry, Herman Frank Cash, and Thomas E. Blanton, Jr., all KKK members-but witnesses were reluctant to talk and physical evidence was lacking. Also, at that time, information from our surveillances was not admissible in court. As a result, no federal charges were filed in the '60s.

It has been claimed that Director Hoover held back evidence from prosecutors in the '60s or even tried to block prosecution. But it's simply not true. His concern was to prevent leaks, not to stifle justice. In one memo concerning a Justice Department prosecutor seeking information, he wrote, "Haven't these reports already been furnished to the Dept.?" In 1966, Hoover overruled his staff and made transcripts of wiretaps available to Justice. And he couldn't have blocked the prosecution and didn't-he simply didn't think the evidence was there to convict.

In the end, justice was served.

Chambliss received life in prison in 1977 following a case led by Alabama Attorney General Robert Baxley. And eventually the fear, prejudice, and reticence that kept witnesses from coming forward began to subside. We re-opened our case in the mid-1990s, and Blanton and Cherry were indicted in May 2000. Both were convicted at trial and sentenced to life in prison. The fourth man, Herman Frank Cash, had died in 1994.

If you are interested in learning more, please read our 3,400 pages on this case-what was called the "BAPBOMB" investigation- posted online. Also see more pictures on our Multimedia website.

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Baptist Street Church Bombing | Federal Bureau of Investigation

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The crater and other damage caused by the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, which killed four African-American girls. AP Photo. It was a quiet Sunday morning in Birmingham, Alabama-around 10:24 on September 15, 1963-when a dynamite bomb exploded in the back stairwell of the downtown Sixteenth Street Baptist Church.

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The Birmingham Children's Crusade of 1963

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The Birmingham Children's Crusade of 1963

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Instantly access over 40,000 of the best books & videos for kids on Epic

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Get unlimited access to 40,000 of the best books, audiobooks, videos, & more for kids 12 and under. Try it free.

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Instantly access over 40,000 of the best books & videos for kids on Epic

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Get unlimited access to 40,000 of the best books, audiobooks, videos, & more for kids 12 and under. Try it free.

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It was a moment that changed America.

Fifty-five years ago this month, thousands of African-American children walked out of their schools and began a peaceful march in Birmingham, Alabama, to protest segregation.

They were met with attack dogs and water hoses. The disturbing images shocked the nation and became the catalyst for the Civil Rights Act.

This moment in history has now come alive for a group of students who traveled to Birmingham.

Special correspondent Lisa Stark of our partner Education Week went along with them.

It's part of our series Race Matters.

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Children who marched for equal rights inspire a new generation

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Fifty-five years ago, thousands of African-American children walked out of their schools and began a peaceful march in Birmingham, Alabama, to protest segregation. They were met with attack dogs and water hoses. For a new generation of students, traveling to Birmingham has made that moment in history come alive.

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A Civil Rights Pioneer Seeks to Have Her Record Cleared (Published 2021)

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Claudette Colvin refused to give up her bus seat to a white woman in Montgomery, Ala., in March 1955, nine months before Rosa Parks. Now 82, she says that justice from the court system is overdue.

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Claudette Colvin: The Original Rosa Parks

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Arkansas National Guard Prevent School Desegregation - 1957  | Today in History | 4 Sept 16

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Sheyann Webb was eight years old and a third-grader when she put on her "marching shoes." As she walked to school one morning in January 1965 she happened on a meeting at the Brown Chapel AME Church that changed the direction of her days for the next few months. She stopped and stared across the street at the unusual bustle in front of the church on a weekday morning. People were gathered, talking in small groups, cars were parked in front and more cars were pulling up. Most surprising of all, some of the people clustered on the church steps were white. Something strange was going on. Sheyann was already late but she felt herself drawn across the street, up the steps and into the back of the church.

Once inside Sheyann sat in a back pew and listened to Hosea Williams, an aide to Martin Luther King, speaking to the crowd. The words that stayed with Sheyann were, "If you can't vote, then you're not free; and if you ain't free, children, then you're a slave." Sheyann couldn't stop thinking about that. She knew her great, great grandmommas had been slaves and she knew her parents didn't vote. Sheyann was hours late for school. When she arrived, her teacher reprimanded her in front of her classmates both for her tardiness and for getting involved with the dangerous goings-on at Brown Chapel.

Sheyann stopped going to school that day. She became the only child to regularly attend daytime meetings at Brown Chapel. She went to rallies and marches. She talked her best friend, Rachel West, into going with her, though only after school. She argued with her parents. She questioned her mother, "Why are we second-class citizens? Why can't we vote? Why, why, why?" Sheyann badgered her parents day after day. Sometimes her father got up and walked out of the room. Her mother listened, tried to answer her questions and considered long and hard what Sheyann was saying. Sheyann's mother also explained some reality to her. Trying to register could cost Sheyann's parents their jobs or get them kicked out of public housing. And Sheyann was facing a worse possibility. Going to demonstrations could get you hurt or even killed. Her mother told her that four little girls in Birmingham, about her age, had died in a church bombing. From the beginning Sheyann understood the danger in her actions and she was often afraid.

Hosea Williams asked Sheyann if she could sing. Soon she was up front leading hundreds of people singing Freedom Songs, like "Woke Up This Morning with My Mind Stayed on Freedom" and "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round." Rachel started singing with her. Sheyann's parents came to Brown Chapel in the evenings to hear her sing, but they would not march or register.

Sheyann and Rachel became special friends of Dr. King's. He often played a game with them, asking, "What do you want?" They would reply, "Freedom." Dr. King would say, "I can't hear you," and they would say "Freedom," louder and louder until they were all shouting and all three were laughing. One day Dr. King asked them, "Do you young ladies have your marching shoes on?" They looked down at their feet uncertainly. Rachel lifted one shoe to show him. Each girl had only one pair of shoes. "They'll do," Dr. King said, "They're just fine."

Sheyann took part in many marches. She saw people all around her beaten, hit with clubs, shocked with cattle prods. She held tight to the hand of an adult marcher, Margaret Moore. She sang to gain courage; she prayed, but the fear haunted her dreams by night and her talks with Rachel by day. She was especially afraid of the horses the mounted police would ride into the crowd. Stronger than her fear were her conviction and determination. And she saw change in those around her. She witnessed the teachers march and saw her own teacher, Mrs. Bright, among the marchers. She saw her mother's mix of fear and admiration when they talked. She overheard her mother defending her to her father when she was skipping school.

One night Sheyann stayed up late to polish her father's shoes. She rubbed until her arm was sore and the worn leather showed her blurred reflection. A few days later her mother asked what she would like for her birthday on February 17. Her answer was swift and sure: "Register." The next morning when Sheyann came downstairs for breakfast, both her parents were sitting in the kitchen. This was strange; her father had usually left for work before she was up. "Shey, you're getting your birthday present a day early," her Momma said. Shey walked between them and held their hands as they joined the long line to register. They stayed in line all day. White passersby sprayed Raid and disinfectant at them and held their noses. The courthouse closed before they reached the doors. They went home disappointed but not defeated. Their decision was made and Shey's parents did finally register to vote.

Sheyann Webb marched twice across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in the marches from Selma to Montgomery. The first time she was gassed and driven back with others, but the second time she crossed the bridge, triumphant. Dr. King sent the girls back to Selma from the Montgomery road, telling them they had marched enough. Sheyann told him, "My feet and legs may be tired, but my soul still feels like marchin'," as she boarded a bus to return home.

Two people Sheyann knew and loved died in the struggle: Jonathan Daniels, a young white seminarian from New Hampshire who lived with Rachel's family; and of course, her beloved Dr. King. Others who marched with her were killed, and most, Sheyann included, were insulted, threatened, gassed, beaten, or jailed. Sheyann registered to vote on her 18th birthday.

Related Resource:

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Sheyann Webb: A Story for First Grade - Civil Rights Teaching

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Sheyann Webb was eight years old and a third-grader when she put on her "marching shoes." As she walked to school one morning in January 1965 she happened on a meeting at the Brown Chapel AME Church that changed the direction of her days for the next few months.

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Child of the Civil Rights Movement Picture Book

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Child of the Civil Rights Movement Picture Book

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Linda Brown, central figure in school segregation case, dies

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Linda Brown, central figure in school segregation case, dies

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Newsela | Linda Brown, central figure in school segregation case, dies

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Linda Brown, the center of the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down racial segregation in schools, died on March 25 at age 75.

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Sheyann Webb - Smallest Freedom Fighter | American Freedom Stories | Biography

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No More: The Children of Birmingham 1963 and the Turning Point of the Civil Rights Movement

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'White Socks Only' read by Amber Rose Tamblyn

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When Grandma was a little girl in Mississippi, she sneaked into the town one hot summer day. But when she saw the "Whites Only" sign on the water fountain, she had no idea what she would spark when she took off her shoes and - wearing her clean white socks - stepped up to drink.

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Podcast: The Youngest Marcher: The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks

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Podcast: The Youngest Marcher: The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks

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Hey Show About Science fans! I've been working hard on a new podcast and I want to share a few episodes with you. It's called The Show About Politics and I know you're going to love it. If you do, please subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts.

Author Cynthia Levinson joins Nate on this episode of The Show About Politics to tell the story of the youngest known child to be arrested for a civil rights protest in Birmingham, Alabama, 1963. Cynthia published this story in 2017 in a book entitled The Youngest Marcher: The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks and features illustrations by Vanessa Brantley-Newton.

Learn more about Cynthia and her books at cynthialevinson.com/

This episode is sponsored by MEL Science. Support The Show About Politics by signing up for a monthly subscription at: melscience.pxf.io/nate

Call The Show About Politics Hotline at (872) 215-1966 and leave us your feedback. And make sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts!

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the youngest marcher: the story of audrey faye hendricks (bonus episode)

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‎The Show About Science: The Youngest Marcher: The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks (Bonus Episode) on Apple Podcasts

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Hey Show About Science fans! I've been working hard on a new podcast and I want to share a few episodes with you. It's called The Show About Politics and I know you're going to love it. If you do, please subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts.

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Little Rock Nine

Racial discrimination and oppression has been a shameful part of the American history. Life in the 1950's in many of the states still contain segregation policies and outright discrimination against Black Americans. These policies included the requirement that Black American children attend 'Black only' schools and were not allowed in the schools that white children attended. In the fall of 1957, nine Black American students were told by the U.S. Supreme Court that they had the right to attend the Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, and the uproar that occurred became a news item that spread across the country.

The nine students that wanted to attend the school became known as the "Little Rock Nine". They were boys and girls that made their intentions known that they were going to show up at the school to attend. Arkansas was considered to be a southern state, and they carried many of the discrimination policies.

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Racial discrimination and oppression has been a shameful part of the American history. Life in the 1950's in many of the states still contain segregation policies and outright discrimination against Black Americans. These policies included the requirement that Black American children attend 'Black only' schools and were not allowed in the schools that white children ...

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Kids learn about the history of the Little Rock Nine, African-American students who fought to end segregation by attending an all-white high school.

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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'As Fast As Words Could Fly' read by Dulé Hill

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Young Mason Steele takes pride in turning his father's excited ramblings about the latest civil rights incidents into handwritten business letters. One day Pa comes home with a gift from his civil rights group: a typewriter. Thrilled with the present, Mason spends all his spare time teaching himself to type.

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Skip to main content

Enjoy this free article courtesy of Junior Scholastic, the Social Studies classroom magazine for grades 6-8.

This Student Helped Desegregate America's Schools

Courtesy of Joan Johns Cobbs

Behind a deep-purple curtain on the stage of her school's auditorium, Barbara Johns, 16, stood waiting. What she was about to do could put her-and her friends and family-in danger. But she wasn't afraid. The curtain rose. A gasp rippled across the room as hundreds of students-expecting to see their principal-looked up at her with surprise.

It was the spring of 1951 in the rural community of Farmville, Virginia. At the time, African Americans like Barbara were often treated with hatred and bigotry. In the South, Jim Crow laws and customs prevented many Black people from exercising their right to vote and forced them to use separate public facilities, including parks, movie theaters, swimming pools, and water fountains (see "You Might Need to Know . . . ," below).

In Virginia-and 20 other states-Black students and white students were also required to attend segregated schools. The schools reserved for Black kids and those for white kids were supposed to be equal, but they never were.

Barbara's school, the all-Black Robert Russa Moton High School, for example, was literally falling apart. The ceilings were so cracked that Barbara and her classmates had to use umbrellas indoors when it rained. The toilets barely worked, and the one-story building had no gym, cafeteria, or science lab.

The school was also severely overcrowded. It was built to hold 180 students, yet 450 were enrolled there. To create more space, some classes were held in a run-down bus in the parking lot or in shacks in the schoolyard made of wood and paper.

Meanwhile, the all-white Farmville High School just minutes from Moton had spacious classrooms, modern heating, and a real cafeteria.

When Moton parents and teachers complained to the school board, they were told that a new school would be built soon. It was clear, though, that "soon" would probably never come.

Barbara Johns, 16, stood waiting behind a deep-purple curtain on the stage of her school's auditorium. What she was about to do could put her and her friends and family in danger. But she was not afraid. The curtain rose. A gasp rippled across the room as hundreds of students looked up at her with surprise. They had expected to see their principal, not her.

It was the spring of 1951 in the rural community of Farmville, Virginia. At the time, African Americans like Barbara were often treated with hatred and bigotry. In the South, Jim Crow laws and customs prevented many Black people from exercising their right to vote. They also forced African Americans to use separate public facilities. That included parks, movie theaters, swimming pools, and water fountains (see "You Might Need to Know . . .," below).

In Virginia and 20 other states, Black students and white students also had to go to segregated schools. The schools for Black kids and those for white kids were supposed to be equal, but they never were.

Barbara went to the all-Black Robert Russa Moton High School. It was literally falling apart. The ceilings were so cracked that Barbara and her classmates had to use umbrellas indoors when it rained. The toilets barely worked. The one-story building had no gym, cafeteria, or science lab.

The school was also very overcrowded. It was built to hold 180 students, yet 450 were enrolled there. To create more space, some classes were held in a run-down bus in the parking lot. Others were held in shacks in the schoolyard made of wood and paper.

The all-white Farmville High School was just minutes from Moton. It had large classrooms, modern heating, and a real cafeteria.

Moton parents and teachers complained to the school board. They were told that a new school would be built soon. But it was clear that "soon" would probably never come.

YOU MIGHT NEED TO KNOW...

"SEPARATE BUT EQUAL" was the legal principle used to justify racial segregation. It allowed for separate public facilities for Black people and white people, as long as they were equal. In reality, they never were; those for white people were always superior.

JIM CROW was the name for laws and customs that discriminated against African Americans in the South after the Civil War (1861-1865).

"SEPARATE BUT EQUAL" was the legal principle used to justify racial segregation. It allowed for separate public facilities for Black people and white people, as long as they were equal. In reality, they never were; those for white people were always superior.

JIM CROW was the name for laws and customs that discriminated against African Americans in the South after the Civil War (1861-1865).

Nearly 65 years after the Brown ruling, many schools nationwide are still segregated-in practice, even if not by law. Experts say that's largely because decades of discriminatory housing policies mean that Black people and white people tend to live in separate communities and, therefore, attend separate schools.

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This Student Helped Desegregate U.S. Schools

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Skip to main content Enjoy this free article courtesy of Junior Scholastic, the Social Studies classroom magazine for grades 6-8. This Student Helped Desegregate America's Schools Courtesy of Joan Johns Cobbs Behind a deep-purple curtain on the stage of her school's auditorium, Barbara Johns, 16, stood waiting.

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Deemed one of the finest contraltos of her time, Marian Anderson became the first African American to perform with the New York Metropolitan Opera in 1955.

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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With his poetry and prose, this African-American writer left his mark on American literature.

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Instantly access over 40,000 of the best books & videos for kids on Epic

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Get unlimited access to 40,000 of the best books, audiobooks, videos, & more for kids 12 and under. Try it free.

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Instantly access over 40,000 of the best books & videos for kids on Epic

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Get unlimited access to 40,000 of the best books, audiobooks, videos, & more for kids 12 and under. Try it free.

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The writer Langston Hughes was an important figure of the Harlem Renaissance. This was a period of great creativity among African American artists. Hughes wrote about the…

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PBS Kids: Learning Adventures in Citizenship: Harlem: Langston Hughes

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Hughes, who grew up in a wealthy, well-educated family in the Midwest and travelled abroad, came to New York City to attend Columbia University in 1921. At his father’s urging, he studied engineering there. He left the school, however, after just two semesters. Hughes was far more interested in a ca…

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Instantly access over 40,000 of the best books & videos for kids on Epic

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Instantly access over 40,000 of the best books & videos for kids on Epic

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Get unlimited access to 40,000 of the best books, audiobooks, videos, & more for kids 12 and under. Try it free.

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Instantly access over 40,000 of the best books & videos for kids on Epic

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Get unlimited access to 40,000 of the best books, audiobooks, videos, & more for kids 12 and under. Try it free.

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A Nation's Hope: The Story of of Boxing Legend Joe Louis

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A Nation's Hope: The Story of of Boxing Legend Joe Louis

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Born: May 13, 1914
Lexington, Alabama
Died: April 12, 1981
Las Vegas, Nevada
African American boxer

African American boxer Joe Louis was world heavyweight champion from 1937 to 1948. He defended his title twenty times in four years.

Early years

Joseph Louis Barrow, born on May 13, 1914, was the seventh of eight children of Munroe Barrow and Lily Reese. His father was an Alabama sharecropper and died when Joe was four. His mother took in washing to support her family. Joe was close to his large family, particularly to his mother, from whom he inherited a deep religious sentiment. His mother married Patrick Brooks, with children of his own, when Joe was seven, and the family moved to Detroit, Michigan, in 1926.

After Brooks lost his job, Joe and his brothers shined shoes, ran errands, and sold newspapers before and after school to help out the family. Joe also worked as an assistant to an ice-wagon driver. He later said that carrying heavy ice helped him to develop his big shoulder muscles.

As a teenager, Joe was the best boxer of his group. At nineteen he won the National Light Heavyweight Amateur Crown of the Golden Gloves in 1933.

Louis received his ring name from one of his managers, John Roxborough, who found the name Joe Louis Barrow too long. Jack Blackburn, a very knowledgeable boxing man, was Louis's trainer. He taught Louis how to punch and worked with him to develop his body coordination.

Early matches

Before Louis became champion, he was beaten once, by Max Schmeling in 1936. The following year he defeated Jim Braddock for the championship. In 1938 Louis met Schmeling again and knocked him out in the first two minutes of the first round. Louis fought boxers including Billy Conn, Tony Galento, Rocky Marciano (1923-1969), and "Jersey Joe" Walcott (1914-1994). He won nineteen other title fights.

During World War II (1939-45; a war fought between the Axis powers: Germany, Italy, and Japan-and the Allies: England, France, the United States, and the Soviet Union) Louis was drafted, served faithfully, and fought two bouts for army and navy relief.

The curse of many victories in a short period of time was the accumulation of a heavy tax burden. For example, Louis won $349,228 for his victory over Schmeling and $591,117 for beating Conn. In his entire ring career he earned $4,677,992. But his federal income taxes were $1,199,000. When penalties were assessed, taxes became astronomical.

Business ventures

Another source of trouble for Louis was his partnership in a public relations firm. In the early 1960s this firm entered into a contract with Cuba for $250,000 to promote tourism. Although this was not illegal, it was considered in poor taste to deal with a country with whom the United States did not maintain diplomatic relations.

Louis's other business ventures included the Joe Louis Food Franchise, a chain of food shops he opened in 1969 with his former ring rival Billy Conn. The former champ also served as a celebrity greeter at the Caesar's Palace Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Final years

Unfortunately, drugs took a toll on the once indomitable (not able to be beaten) champion in his final years. In 1969, he was hospitalized after collapsing on a New York City street. While the incident was at first credited to "physical breakdown," Louis later admitted to cocaine use and fears of a plot against his life. The following year, Louis spent five months in the hospital suffering from paranoid delusions (irrational anxiety and fear toward others). Strokes and heart ailments caused his condition to worsen. He had surgery to correct an aortic aneurysm (abnormal widening of a blood vessel) in 1977 and was thereafter confined to a wheelchair.

Despite failing health, Louis still found time to attend major boxing events. On April 12, 1981, he sat ringside at the Larry Holmes and Trevor Berbick heavyweight championship bout at Caesar's Palace. Hours after the fight, Louis went into cardiac arrest (a heart failure) and died at the age of sixty-six.

In 1994, the bronzed boxing glove that Louis used to defeat Max Schmeling was donated to the city of Detroit by the Michigan Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. Dubbed "The Glove That Floored Nazi Germany," it was enshrined in a plexiglass case at the city's Cobo Center, a monument to Louis's enduring legacy.

For More Information

Bak, Richard. Joe Louis: The Great Black Hope. Dallas: Taylor Publishers, 1996.

Barrow, Joe Louis, Jr., and Barbara Munder. Joe Louis: 50 Years an American Hero. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1988.

Louis, Joe, with Edna and Art Rust, Jr. Joe Louis, My Life. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978.

Mead, Chris. Champion-Joe Louis, Black Hero in White America. New York: Scribner, 1985.

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Born: May 13, 1914 Lexington, Alabama Died: April 12, 1981 Las Vegas, Nevada African American boxer African American boxer Joe Louis was world heavyweight champion from 1937 to 1948. He defended his title twenty times in four years. Joseph Louis Barrow, born on May 13, 1914, was the seventh of eight children of Munroe Barrow and Lily Reese.

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Joe Louis Facts

Joe Louis was an African-American former heavyweight boxing champion. He is thought of by many to be one of, if not the first, blacks to become a cultural icon in the United States to both black and white Americans. He boxed professionally from 1934 to 1951, compiling an astounding record of 66-3, with 52 of those wins coming by knockout. Perhaps the most widely publicized two fights in Louis' career were against German Max Schmeling, who was promoted heavily by the Nazi government. Schmeling won the first fight in New York by knockout in the twelfth round in 1936 in New York City, but Louis won the 1938 rematch with a first round knockout. Louis was born Joe Louis Barrow on May 13, 1914 to Monroe and Lily Barrow in rural Chambers County, Alabama. Joe's family moved to Detroit in 1926, many of the them finding work at the Ford Motor Plant, which is where he lived the rest of his life. Joe married four times and had six children.

Although known as "Joe Louis", those were his first and middle names and became his ring name. He never legally changed his name and there are different theories as to why he only used his first and last name in the ring.

Louis was 50-3 as an amateur boxer.

Louis defeated James Braddock by knockout on June 22, 1937 to become the African-American heavyweight champion since Jack Johnson.

He successfully defended his title in twenty-five fights, which was a record at the time.

Joe's ring nickname was the "Brown Bomber."

Although Joe Louis is today considered to be a positive black role model, he was sometimes mocked during the 1960s by black activists and boxer Muhammad Ali as being too accommodating toward whites.

Louis and Schmeling never fought a third fight, but became good friends after World War II.

Joe was an avid golfer and broke the PGA's color line when he participated in PGA events during the 1950s, becoming the first black golfer to do so.

Perhaps owing to his lack of formal education, most of the $4.6 million in purse money Joe won went to his handlers, leaving him in financial straits for most of the latter part of his life.

Bad business decisions eventually landed Louis in debt with the IRS over $1 million, which he attempted to pay through a variety of media events and stunts, such as taking part in professional wrestling matches.

Louis began a short boxing comeback in 1950 to payback the IRS. The comeback ended when he was knocked out in October 26, 1951 by another boxing legend, Rocky Marciano.

Louis died of a heart attack on April 12, 1981 in Palisades, Nevada at the age of sixty-six. As a military veteran, Louis was buried in Arlington Cemetery in Virginia.

In the years after his death, Louis was honored with postage stamps, in movies, and had the Detroit Red Wings hockey team's arena named in his honor.

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Joe Louis was an African-American former heavyweight boxing champion. He is thought of by many to be one of, if not the first, blacks to become a cultural icon in the United States to both black and white Americans. He boxed professionally from 1934 to 1951, compiling an astounding record of 66-3, with 52 of those wins coming by knockout.

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Filmakers tell story of Jackie Robinson's complicated life

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Filmakers tell story of Jackie Robinson's complicated life

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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Muhammad Ali: Boxer and Civil Rights Activist

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Muhammad Ali: Boxer and Civil Rights Activist

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Muhammad Ali | Boxer and Civil Rights Activist Video | PBS LearningMedia

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Muhammad Ali, considered one of the greatest boxers of all time, fought not only within the boxing ring but also as a vocal advocate for civil rights and other causes. Ali earned the world heavyweight championship three times, despite being banned from boxing for three years for his resistance to serving in the military which he felt served only White interests.

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The Passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

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The Passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

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Instantly access over 40,000 of the best books & videos for kids on Epic

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Colleen Fleming prepared this case under the supervision of Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer as the basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation.

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Colleen Fleming prepared this case under the supervision of Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer as the basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. Copyright © 2015 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved.

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Kids learn about the history of the March on Washington including Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech, the Big Six planners, and the results such as Civil Rights Act in 1964.