The end of the separation of white and black students in US schools and the iconic photo

For too many decades their classes schools in the US (especially in the south of the country) they only accepted white students. A decision based on the racist law on slavery and the separation of whites and African Americans that was only one manifestation of the systemic racism which is still largely lurking in the country.

In a landmark judgment issued on May 17, 1954, in the case that became known in the United States as “Brown v. Board of Education, the federal Supreme Court has declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional, ending the horrific segregation of people based on their skin color.

Following this decision, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) decided to enroll black students in schools that until then were only for whites in various states in the southern United States.

Vanita Gupta, head of the US Department of Justice’s Civil and Political Rights Division, commented: “Six decades after (that decision), the decision (concerning Cleveland) comes as a reminder to local authorities that the delay in enforcing the obligation “It is unacceptable and unconstitutional for them to abolish racial segregation.”

Following the historic court ruling, African-American parents began sending their children to school, breaking a decades-old racist taboo. Historic is the moment when elementary school student Charles Thompson goes to his school in Baltimore for the first day. For Thomson’s presence, there has been an iconic photo shoot by photographer Richard Stack for the Baltimore Sun newspaper showing the warm welcome of the African-American student by his white classmates. The photo was taken in September 1954, less than 4 months after the abolition of color separation in schools.

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