![]() ![]() Jones, whose parents had urged kindness, was upset when she found out about violence that erupted in other places across the nation. “ It turned out to be one of the best things of my life,” Worswick recalled in an interview years later.ĭuring Boston’s school desegregation debate in 1974, there was cheering as well as violence. It was a decision that indirectly supported the integration of Black teachers. ![]() The parents of Randolph Elementary School student Mike Worswick were among those who chose the latter. And even then, anticipating what it called “social hazards,” the School Board let white parents choose whether they wanted their kids to only have white teachers or to let the district assign students and teachers without regard to race. ![]() Jones’ parents advised her to “ be friendly with the new students and to treat them with kindness and respect.”Īlthough Black students began attending integrated schools in Topeka in 1954, it wasn’t until 1957 that the city assigned Black teachers to predominantly white schools. Other white parents embraced the new desegregation policy, like the parents of Clay Elementary School student Nancy Jones. Those records also showed that some white parents threatened to withdraw their children if they were expected to share classrooms with Black students or Black teachers. So eight months before the landmark Supreme Court decision, the board members reversed their prior stance, resolving “to terminate … segregation in the elementary schools as rapidly as is practicable,” according to meeting minutes. The segregationist Topeka School Board was embarrassed by the publicity associated with the case because of the history of Kansas as a state where slavery was illegal. The Supreme Court case was named for a lawsuit that originated in Topeka, Kansas, in 1951, opposing public school segregation. Stories of peaceful transition to integration are less known than stories of white defiance. ![]()
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