Printer-friendly versionEvery morning at 7:15, the doors of our school open wide to a line of bus riders ready to come inside. "Hello, Jaheem. Hi, Kiara. Hey, Imani. Hope you're having a good day, Omar," I call out as the students walk past me to the cafeteria for breakfast. I stand at the doors for a moment and watch the big, yellow buses puff their diesel exhaust and chug their way to the garage until it's time for their afternoon run.
Is there a more universal symbol for public schools than a big, yellow school bus?
There was a time in the 1940’s when the school buses were not so universal. In fact, the Brown v. Board of Education lawsuit began with a school bus in South Carolina. I was getting my master’s degree before I took a civil rights course and learned of Levi Pearson and his determination to get his children and all the other African-American students seats on school buses. The first chapter of Richard Kluger's monumental book Simple Justice, which is about the Brown decision, outlines the steps to the case.
In 1947, about 74 percent of Clarendon County, S.C.'s 8,906 public school students were black. There were 30 school buses in the county. All of them were used for white students. When the African-American community asked the superintendent of schools to provide bus transportation for their children, he explained that black citizens didn't pay much in taxes and it wasn't fair for white citizens to pay for buses for black children.
So on July 28, 1947, Levi Pearson, a farmer, legally petitioned the superintendent, asking for school buses for African-American children. His three children had to walk to school each day while their white counterparts in school buses passed them by in clouds of dust. The petition was met with months of silence.
On March 16, 1948, attorneys Harold Boulware and Thurgood Marshall filed a brief in United States District Court in Florence County, S.C., asking the court to prohibit the Clarendon County School District from "making a distinction on account of race and color." Pearson v. County Board of Education would eventually evolve into Briggs v. Elliott and then into Brown v. Board of Education.
On a day when two of my third-grade girls were suspended from their bus for a week after fighting each other, I felt compelled tell them a story about buses.
Both of these little ones struggled to listen and focus. But their eyes stayed on mine as I told them about Levi Pearson and the courageous, dedicated people from Clarendon County. I ended by telling my students not to fight each other and to only “fight against wrong and try to right it."
It is crucial for students to know this history. It is imperative that we know it and teach it. Consider Wake County, N.C. The school board in Wake County is taking a step back toward 1940's Clarendon County, where the white folks went to their schools and the colored folks went to theirs. How long would it take to get back to the time when all of the school buses are used for the folks who can pay most of the taxes? A new story must be written.
I want my students to know the courage and commitment of people like Levi Pearson so they can find their own dedication and determination to build a better community. I want them to have schools where they’re encouraged to be all that they can become. I want them to stay on the bus and keep moving forward.
Barton is an elementary school teacher in South Carolina.
Comments
Formal Education is key. I
Formal Education is key.
I recently read in a magazine that people who drop out of school, and do not attempt to get their GED are more likely in their younger years to have trouble with the law and are more likely to spend a lot of time behind bars, and people who stay in school and complete their education and pursue their college goals end up making a very good living and stay clear from trouble and crime, and I believe that in order to make a more perfect country for ourselves and for our future generations we should work very hard on our school systems and make it very possible for everyone smart or stupid to have a great life ahead of them.
Wake County, NC is NOT taking
Wake County, NC is NOT taking a step backwards. They are striving to provide great schools (which they do have) without having to force students to ride buses all over the county just because of their race. Isn't that the original premise of Brown v. Board of Education? So that the children could attend their neighborhood schools? It is illegal to assign schools based on race, but that is exactly what you are asking to happen in Wake County. The citizens of Wake County voted for a board that would stop the ridiculous waste of funding and allow students to attend schools where they live. The school board is doing what they were elected to do by a majority of the populace. Wake County is the most economically, socially, and culturally place I have ever lived. You don't have to force busing for diversity. It's already in all the neighborhoods.
Hi Kristi. Thank you for
Hi Kristi. Thank you for commenting on my post. I appreciate the dialogue.
The original premise of Brown was to outlaw segregation. The cases brought by the NAACP before Brown were an attempt to make states spend the money to make African-American schools equal with white schools. In the years leading up to the Brown decision, the newly elected governor of my state, James F. Byrnes, said in his inaugural address in 1951-
"The overwhelming majority of colored people in [South Carolina] do not want to force their children into white schools. Except for the professional agitators, what the colored people want, and what they are entitled to, is equal facilities in their schools. We must see that they get them."
I interpret his words to mean that the overwhelming majority of white people in South Carolina did not want children of color in their schools. He was politely affirming the old sinful idea of white supremacy.
I fear that idea is still driving the decisions of the Wake County school board and similar school boards across the south.
I question whether or not the Wake County neighborhoods are culturally diverse. I graduated from UNC Chapel Hill and my parents-in-law live in Cary so I visit that area from time to time. Like most southern cities and towns, the neighborhoods do not seem to be economically diverse. Economically poor people seem to be confined to pockets of poverty surrounded by middle to upper class neighborhoods.
My questions are - If the Wake County school board follows through with it's plan, will there be a high percentage of economically poor children in one or more schools? If there are, will these children be valued and protected like children in more affluent schools?
History answers 'yes' to my first question and 'no' to my second.
If buses aren't the solution, how can we make sure we don't go backwards to the Clarendon County of 1947?
Hi Trevor, Thank you for
Hi Trevor,
Thank you for telling your students the history of one of the first cases that started Brown vs. Board of Education. I'm the great niece of Levi Pearson and the grandaughter of Hammett Pearson. My grandfather Hammett is often left out on alot of the history. If you would like more information on the case and personal accounts from Hammett's oldest son who was part of the Brigg case before the petitioners were narrowwed down please feel free to send me a reply back.
Once agian I thank you for telling your students about Levi Pearson vs. Claredon County case.
Shameeka Pearson
Hi Shameeka. You're welcome.
Hi Shameeka. You're welcome. Thank you for responding to my post. I would love to talk more with you about the case! I've been studying it for the past year and am writing about it.