| Summary |
This thesis examines the development of the public education system in Montgomery County, North Carolina. The county, though rural and poor, recognized the need to educate its youth and sought to do so as early as 1831. The county first developed private schools for white children and then separate public education facilities for black and white students, which lasted until 1965. Following the 1954 United States Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education, North Carolina lawmakers devised plans to cautiously desegregate, but those actions did not facilitate change. Montgomery Coimty also made slow progress toward desegregation. This thesis will also examine the process by which Montgomery County moved to desegregate and integrate schools, made in several steps. The coimty Board of Education did not even acknowledge Brown for four months and then announced that schools would open as usual. Later in 1961, the country consolidated white high schools as a step in the process toward compliance with Brown. Then in 1965 the Board of Education allowed school transfers of black students to white schools under "freedom of choice." Operating under school choice, however, prolonged segregation. Finally, in 1968 the Board of education closed the county's only black high school, forcing black students to attend the consolidated white high schools, largely making integration the burden of the black community. Finally, this thesis will compare and contrast how desegregation occurred in various communities in the state, explain the ways in which Montgomery County differed from the other rural North Carolina communities, and address some of the failures of integration. |
