Civil Rights Movement
School Desegregation Resources

This page provides links to Civil Rights Movement Archive resources that have significant content related to the struggle to desegregate schools.

Contents:
Photos
CRMA History Articles
Speeches and Articles
Original Documents
Interviews, Stories & Oral-Histories
Film, Video and Audio

School Desegregation: Photos

These Photo Album pages contain images related to school desegregation.

Young People Lead the Way
Keep Your Eyes on the Prize

School Desegregation: CRMA History Articles

Student Strike at Moton High VA, 1951

Students and Paraents Challenge School Segregation, 1951-1952

NAACP Builds the Case, 1951-1954

Brown v Board of Education, 1954

"Massive Resistance" to Integration

Brown II "All Deliberate Speed" Decision, 1955

Southern States Try to Destroy NAACP, 1956-1964

Autherine Lucy at the Univ. Alabama, 1956

Clinton TN & Desegregation of First White Schools in the South, 1956

Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom, Washington, DC, 1957

Nashville "Grade-a-Year" School Desegregation Scheme, 1957

The Little Rock Nine, 1957

Youth March for Integrated Schools — Washington, DC, 1958
Second Youth March for Integrated Schools — Washington, DC, 1959

Prince Edward County, VA, Closes It's Public Schools, 1959

New Orleans School Desgregation, 1960

University of Georgia Desegregated, 1961

Alabama Governor Wallace Takes Office, 1963

Standing In the Schoolhouse Door, 1963

Massive Evasion of School Integration, "Freedom of Choice", 1964

Crawfordville GA School Bus Struggle, 1965

End of Dual White & "Colored" School Systems, 1968

School Desegregation: Articles & Speeches

What Negroes Want Now, Walter White, NAACP. U.S. News & World Report, 1954.

Desegregation at Work: Progress and Problems, Henry Lee Moon. NAACP. Nation, 1954.

Desegregation in the Public Schools: Role of the NAACP, Roy Wilkins, NAACP. Social Problems, 1955.

Next Steps in the South, New South, Southern Regional Council, 1956

Robeson Urges Government Defend Constitution, Paul Robeson. September 23, Regarding school desegregation in Little Rock Arkansas, 1957.

A First Step Toward School Integration, Ann Holden, Nashville CORE, 1958.

School Desegregation: Documents, Letters & Reports

4/55 It CAN Be Done! Desegregation - A Progress Report, 12-page pamphlet about schools. Unsigned NAACP. April 1955

9/21/57 Statement by the President (re Little Rock school crisis), President Dwight Eisenhower. September 21 1957

23/57 Letter to Roy Wilkins re Little Rock Nine, Daisy Bates. December 1957

10/58 Presidential Delegation Statement (Youth March for Integrated Schools, 1958)

6/25/59 Report on the Youth March for Integrated Schools, Bayard Rustin, (DC)

1959 Why We March (Youth March for Integrated Schools, 1959)

1961 New Orleans Schools Crises, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 1961

1962 Public Schools Southern States, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 1962

3/2/64 Dear Family, letter from Pat Vail re Boston school integration and other matters.

8/18/64 Report Desegregate Sand Springs Schools, James Russell, CORE. (OK)

9/12/64 Letter from Lois Chaffee, COFO to Norma Becker and Sandra Adickes re school boycotts (MS)

9/15/64 Letter from Norma Becker to Lois Chaffee re school boycotts (MS)

9/30/64 Letter from Connie Curry & Marian Wright re leadership training re school desegregation (MS)

1965 The School Boycott, Moultrie, GA, Herman Kitchen, 1965

1966 Letter to H.E.W. head, criticizing the department failure to enforce the school desegregation provisions of 1964 Civil Rights Act. Marion Barry, Betty Garman, SNCC. February 16, 1966

4/6/66 Invitation from Marion Wright to school desegregation conference, (MS)

9/16/66 School Integration Report, Bruce Hartford, SCLC. (Grenada, MS

12/66 Cunningham v Grenada School District Henry Aronson, Marian Wright, Jack Greenberg, LDF. 1966

12/66 To Parents of Schoolchildren, Marian Wright, Paul & Iris Brest. December 20, 1966

School Desegregation: Interviews, Stories & Oral-Histories

Black Students Talk About Their Experiences in Desegregated Schools

James Armstrong Interview by Kimberly Hill re school integration and the movement in Birmingham AL, 1963-1965
PDF transcript Audio + bio metadata

Julie Armstrong Interview, re Birmingham school integration, by Willoughby Anderson (SOHP), 2005

Gwendolyn Matthews Oral History (School integrator, NC)

Carol Poe Interview by Willoughby Anderson (SOHP) re Birmingham marches and school integrator in 1963

Alice Tucker My Integration SuperHero Mississippi

Raquel Williams Interview (Birmingham school integrator), by Willoughby Anderson, SOHP. 2005

Film, Video, & Audio

Films & documentaries & videos related to school desegregation:

CRMA Video Channel:
The Intolerable Burden: 50th Anniversary of the Integration of Schools in Drew Mississippi, by COFO and Fannie Lou Hamer Institute at Jackson State Univ. Film and discussion, 108min.

Connie Curry, by Carole Merritt. Along with Ella Baker was a SNCC "adult advisor", active in Greensboro sit-ins and Mississippi school desegregation. 2005. 62min.
Muriel Lokey. By Carole Merritt. Re support for Atlanta school desegregation. 42min.

Portia Harden Potts, by Carole Merritt. One of the first African American students to desegregate schools in Atlanta, GA. 2006. 48min.

External Links:
40 Years Later: Now Can We Talk? Hancock Productions. Documentary about the first African Americans to integrate the white high school in Batesville, Mississippi in 1967-69.
Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment, ABC News/Drew Associates. Documentary about University of Alabama's integration crisis of June 1963.
Nine from Little Rock. United States Information Agency. Short documentary about the lives of the nine African-American students who integrated Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas, during the fall of 1957.
Ruby Bridges, Buena Vista. Historical drama about the first African-American student to integrate the local elementary school in New Orleans, Louisiana, 1960.
A Child Shall Lead Them: the Desegregation of Nashville's Public Schools, Magellan Press Films.

4/55	It CAN Be Done! Desegregation - A Progress Report, 12-page pamphlet about schools. Unsigned NAACP. April 1955
9/21/57	Statement by the President (re Little Rock school crisis), President Dwight Eisenhower. September 21 1957
23/57	Letter to Roy Wilkins re Little Rock Nine, Daisy Bates. December 1957
10/58	Presidential Delegation Statement (Youth March for Integrated Schools, 1958)
6/25/59	Report on the Youth March for Integrated Schools, Bayard Rustin, (DC)
1959	Why We March (Youth March for Integrated Schools, 1959)
1961	New Orleans Schools Crises, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 1961
1962	Public Schools Southern States, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 1962
3/2/64	Dear Family, letter from Pat Vail re Boston school integration and other matters.
8/18/64	Report Desegregate Sand Springs Schools, James Russell, CORE. (OK)
9/12/64	Letter from Lois Chaffee, COFO to Norma Becker and Sandra Adickes re school boycotts (MS)
9/15/64	Letter from Norma Becker to Lois Chaffee re school boycotts (MS)
9/30/64	Letter from Connie Curry & Marian Wright re leadership training re school desegregation (MS)
1965	The School Boycott, Moultrie, GA, Herman Kitchen, 1965
1966	Letter to H.E.W. head, criticizing the department failure to enforce the school desegregation provisions of 1964 Civil Rights Act. Marion Barry, Betty Garman, SNCC. February 16, 1966
4/6/66	Invitation from Marion Wright to school desegregation conference, (MS)
9/16/66	School Integration Report, Bruce Hartford, SCLC. (Grenada, MS
12/66	Cunningham v Grenada School District Henry Aronson, Marian Wright, Jack Greenberg, LDF. 1966
12/66	To Parents of Schoolchildren, Marian Wright, Paul & Iris Brest. December 20, 1966

Black Students	Talk About Their Experiences in Desegregated Schools
James Armstrong	Interview by Kimberly Hill re school integration and the movement in Birmingham AL, 1963-1965 PDF transcript Audio + bio metadata
Julie Armstrong	Interview, re Birmingham school integration, by Willoughby Anderson (SOHP), 2005
Gwendolyn Matthews	Oral History (School integrator, NC)
Carol Poe	Interview by Willoughby Anderson (SOHP) re Birmingham marches and school integrator in 1963
Alice Tucker	My Integration SuperHero Mississippi
Raquel Williams	Interview (Birmingham school integrator), by Willoughby Anderson, SOHP. 2005

Civil Rights Movement School Desegregation Resources