Chester school protests

Last updated

Chester school protests
Part of the Civil Rights Movement
DateNovember 4, 1963 – April 28, 1964
Location
Chester, Pennsylvania
Caused by
Resulted in
  • Pennsylvania State Human Relations Commission determined the Chester School Board had broken the law
  • Chester School Board was ordered to desegregate Chester schools
  • Formation of the Greater Chester Movement (GCM) which became a conduit for distribution of funding for President Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty
Parties
  • Chester Parents Association
  • Chester Police Department
  • Chester School Board
  • Pennsylvania State Human Relations Committee
  • Pennsylvania State Police
Lead figures

Mayor of Chester James Gorbey
Governor of Pennsylvania William Scranton

The Chester school protests were a series of demonstrations that occurred from November 1963 through April 1964 in Chester, Pennsylvania. The demonstrations aimed to end the de facto segregation of Chester public schools that persisted after the 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka . [1] The racial unrest and civil rights protests were led by Stanley Branche of the Committee for Freedom Now (CFFN) and George Raymond of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Persons (NAACP).

The protests intensified from February to April 1964, featuring civil rights rallies, marches, pickets, boycotts, and sit-ins. [2] More than 600 people were arrested. National civil rights leaders such as Dick Gregory, Gloria Richardson, and Malcolm X came to Chester to support the demonstrations.

Things came to a head in April 1964, when almost nightly protests brought chaos to Chester. The city deputized firemen and trash collectors to help handle demonstrators [3] and the State of Pennsylvania deployed 50 state troopers to assist the 77-member Chester police force. [4] The demonstrations were marked by violence and police brutality; activist James Farmer dubbed Chester the "Birmingham of the North".

The protests came to an end on April 26, when Pennsylvania Governor William Scranton convinced protestors to obey a court-ordered moratorium on demonstrations by forming the Pennsylvania Human Relations Committee to hold hearings on school desegregation. [5]

In November 1964, the committee concluded that the Chester School Board had violated the law. The Chester School District was ordered to desegregate the city's six predominantly African-American schools. The city appealed the ruling, which delayed implementation, but eventually desegregated the schools.

Contributing factors

Economic disparity

As manufacturing in Chester declined during the 1950s and 1960s, most of Chester's labor force worked in low-paying service positions or industrial work. White and educated residents of Chester fled to suburban Delaware County to pursue better jobs and housing as more black residents moved into Chester. From 1950 to 1960, the white population decreased by 19% and the black population increased by 53%. The white exodus fortified residential segregation, until 80% of the black population lived in a cluster of census tracts in central Chester. White families that remained in Chester had a higher average income than black families: the median income for white families was $5,880 and the median income for black families $4,059. Black families constituted half of the impoverished population in Chester; white families, 25%. [6]

Poor schools

Majority-black schools suffered from low funding and overcrowding. The buildings were generally old and made of weakening wood and plaster, with inadequate heating and bathrooms. Classrooms were small and stocked with secondhand books. [7] Franklin Elementary School was a prime example of decrepit school conditions; the facility was constructed in 1910 for 50 students, but over fifty years later in 1963 it served over 1,000 students, almost all black. The library at Franklin Elementary was merely a few piles of books, the gym an empty coal bin, and the playground a cement area with a dangerous 4-foot drop on one side. [4] The school's average class size was 39, twice that of nearby all-white schools. The school had just two bathrooms. [8]

Earlier desegregation efforts

George Raymond became the leader of the Chester branch of the NAACP in 1942 and began to implement programs to end racial discrimination. [9] He worked with J. Pius Barbour, the pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Chester, to adopt a gradualist approach to civil rights. [10]

In 1945, Raymond and the NAACP desegregated movie theaters, restaurants, hotels, and other businesses in Chester through non-violent protests and the threat of legal action. [11]

In 1946, a student strike organized by the NAACP and a committee of black parents led the school board to formally consent to integrating Chester's public schools. But more than two decades would pass before this seeming victory produced real change. White parents did their best to inhibit integration, and many moved their children to predominantly white schools. After the 1954 Brown decision, the school board created "neighborhood schools" that purported to eschew racial discrimination, but which reflected the surrounding residentially segregated neighborhoods. Just one of Chester's 16 public schools was substantially racially integrated. [12] When local church and civil rights leaders confronted the school board about the de facto segregation, the school board acknowledged the lack of integration but blamed it on residential issues over which they had no control. [13]

Stanley Branche arrived back home in Chester in 1962 after participating in activism in the Cambridge movement in Dorchester County, Maryland. [4] Branche recognized the dire circumstances of the Chester school system, especially Franklin Elementary School, and created the Committee for Freedom Now (CFFN) in Chester along with the Swarthmore College chapter of Students for a Democratic Society [14] and disgruntled parents. Branche became frustrated with the gradualist approach taken by Raymond and the NAACP and proposed more militant protest techniques. [15]

Timeline

Fall 1963

Substantial activism concerning school conditions took about a year to incubate in Chester after the establishment of the CFFN. On November 4, 1963, 20 protesters formed a picket line outside Franklin Elementary; 130 more joined them within two days. The day after a mass meeting of community members on November 11, 400 people blocked the doors to Franklin Elementary School, which forced the cancellation of school for the day by early morning. [16] After closing the school, protesters marched to the Mayor's chambers and the Board of Education. [4]

Protests outside of Franklin Elementary continued on November 13 and 14. Some participants lay down in front of the doors. On the morning of November 14, 83 protesters were arrested. Later that day, 50 state troopers arrived to assist the 77-member Chester police force. After media coverage of the mass arrests drew public attention, the mayor and school board negotiated with the CFFN and NAACP. The Chester Board of Education agreed to reduce class sizes at Franklin school, remove unsanitary toilet facilities, move classes held in the boiler room and coal bin, and repair school grounds. On the evening of November 14, the school board agreed to repair schools and reduce overcrowding by transferring 173 students from Franklin Elementary School. Still, the following day, hundreds of demonstrators crowded the doors of the school. [4]

Spring 1964

Protests relented for a couple of months while the CFFN established a better structure and added goals to the organization's agenda, including improving more Chester public schools, increasing the availability of jobs, improving housing and medical care, and generally ending discrimination. [4]

Protests resumed on February 10, 1964, after the CFFN planned a boycott of Chester's public schools to begin the next day. The boycott drove absentee rates in some majority black-attended schools up to 55%. [4]

The "Freedom Now Conference" was held in Chester on March 14, 1964. [17] More than 60 delegates and visitors from eight states attended the conference, including Dick Gregory, Gloria Richardson, and Malcolm X. [18] During the conference, some 200 protesters from the CFFN marched to present demands to the mayor. [4]

On March 27, 1964, 300 protestors marched from the West End of Chester to the downtown business district, escorted by the entire Chester police force. On March 28, some 200 protestors staged midday sit-down demonstrations at key intersections to disrupt downtown traffic. The protest was met by a violent police response with officers "swinging riot sticks" and arresting all protestors. [3]

The violent response by Chester police resulted in even larger demonstrations with ordinary citizens outraged by the images of peaceful protestors being dragged and beaten by police. Branche called for massive civil disobedience in response to the police violence and the nightly standoffs between protestors and police overshadowed the original intent of the protests. [3]

The height of the Chester School Protests occurred in April 1964. On April 2, Branche led 350 protestors in front of the police headquarters. On April 3, the mayor of Chester, James Gorbey, issued "The Police Position to Preserve the Public Peace", a 10-point statement promising an immediate return to law and order. The city deputized firemen and trash collectors to help handle demonstrators. [3] The State of Pennsylvania deployed 50 state troopers to assist the 77-member Chester police force. [4]

On April 20, The CFFN, the NAACP, and the Chester School Board met to discuss the legal charges brought against protesters who were arrested. Raymond presented the school board with a list of 10 demands including teacher transfers, transportation of students to schools in other neighborhoods, hiring blacks for supervisory positions and hiring more black secretaries. [19] The next day, April 21, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission admitted that it failed to bring the civil rights groups and the school board to a compromise. The school board closed all Chester public schools indefinitely on April 22, claiming the purpose of the closures was to prevent violence. [20] That night, 300 protesters rallied at the police station; after they refused to disperse, some were violently beaten by 40 Chester police officers. On April 23, another protest at the police station devolved into a rock-throwing melee that hospitalized six police officers and eight protestors. [21] Demonstrators held a rally against police brutality and linked arms to block a downtown intersection on April 24, which also ended in police violence. [22] On April 25, James Farmer dubbed Chester the "Birmingham of the North," in reference to the harsh treatment of protesters in Birmingham, Alabama around the same time. [23] [4]

Some of the white residents of Chester created the Chester Parents Association as a counter response that aimed to keep the neighborhood schools policy. The group held a rally of 2,000 people on April 26, 1964. [4]

On April 26, Governor William Scranton convinced Branche to obey a court-ordered moratorium on demonstrations. [24] Scranton created the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission to conduct hearings on the de facto segregation of public schools. All protests were discontinued while the commission held hearings during the summer of 1964. [25]

Judge John V. Diggins granted the requests of the Chester School Board on April 28 to place an injunction that would prohibit demonstrators from protesting on or near public school property, allowing the schools to reopen. [4] Over 600 people were arrested over a two-month period of civil rights rallies, marches, pickets, boycotts and sit-ins. [2]

Aftermath

On May 4, 1964, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission began hearings to determine the state of de facto segregation in Chester. The hearings included testimonies from multiple civil rights leaders in the area, including a testimony from Branche, a testimony from the school board president, Frances Donahoo, and reports from Commission investigators. The Commission finally released its verdict in November 1964, saying Chester public schools "had committed and continues to commit unlawful discrimination practices in violation of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act" and requiring the city to develop a desegregation plan for six predominantly African-American schools by January 31, 1965. The city appealed the ruling, delaying its implementation. [4]

In June 1964, Chester city leaders formed the Greater Chester Movement (GCM), an umbrella organization intended to coordinate activities of groups working toward the improvement of Chester. When President Lyndon B. Johnson initiated his War on Poverty, the GCM became a conduit through which federal dollars were distributed in Chester with Branche serving on the steering committee. [26]

The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court ruled on February 15, 1966 that the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission did not have the authority to force Chester schools to integrate. In response, the CFFN, NAACP, and Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) announced new demonstrations. Branche attempted to reinstate another school boycott beginning on April 1, 1966, but most students ignored the boycott. [4]

Over a year later, on September 26, 1967, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled to reinstate the authority of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission. Following this decision, the Chester School Board voted to "eliminate or substantially reduce" the de facto segregation at six schools on October 2, 1967. Charges against protesters who were arrested in the boycotts and demonstrations were not thrown out until 1971. [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chester, Pennsylvania</span> First city in Pennsylvania, United States

Chester is a city in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located in the Philadelphia metropolitan area on the western bank of the Delaware River between Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware. The population of Chester was 32,605 at the 2020 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Desegregation busing</span> Failed attempt to racially diversify American public schools

Desegregation busing was a failed attempt to diversify the racial make-up of schools in the United States by sending students to school districts other than their own. While the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional, many American schools continued to remain largely racially homogeneous. In an effort to address the ongoing de facto segregation in schools, the 1971 Supreme Court decision, Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, ruled that the federal courts could use busing as a further integration tool to achieve racial balance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southern Christian Leadership Conference</span> African-American civil rights organization

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is an African-American civil rights organization based in Atlanta, Georgia. SCLC is closely associated with its first president, Martin Luther King Jr., who had a large role in the American civil rights movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cecil B. Moore</span> American lawyer and civil rights activist

Cecil Bassett Moore was an American lawyer, politician and civil rights activist who served as president of the Philadelphia NAACP chapter and as a member of Philadelphia's city council. He led protests to desegregate Girard College.

This is a timeline of African-American history, the part of history that deals with African Americans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Birmingham campaign</span> American civil rights campaign in Alabama (1963)

The Birmingham campaign, also known as the Birmingham movement or Birmingham confrontation, was an American movement organized in early 1963 by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to bring attention to the integration efforts of African Americans in Birmingham, Alabama.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chester Upland School District</span> School district in Pennsylvania, U.S.

The Chester Upland School District (CUSD) is a midsized, urban public school district serving the City of Chester, the Borough of Upland and Chester Township in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The Chester-Upland School District administrative offices are located in Chester.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clara Luper</span> American civic leader

Clara Shepard Luper was a civic leader, schoolteacher, and pioneering leader in the American Civil Rights Movement. She is best known for her leadership role in the 1958 Oklahoma City sit-in movement, as she, her young son and daughter, and numerous young members of the NAACP Youth Council successfully conducted carefully planned nonviolent sit-in protests of downtown drugstore lunch-counters, which overturned their policies of segregation. The success of this sit-in would result in Luper becoming a leader of various sit-ins throughout Oklahoma City between 1958 and 1964. The Clara Luper Corridor is a streetscape and civic beautification project from the Oklahoma Capitol area east to northeast Oklahoma City. In 1972, Clara Luper was an Oklahoma candidate for election to the United States Senate. When asked by the press if she, a black woman, could represent white people, she responded: “Of course, I can represent white people, black people, red people, yellow people, brown people, and polka dot people. You see, I have lived long enough to know that people are people.”

James Henry Gorbey was an American politician and judge from Pennsylvania. He was a Republican member of the Chester City Council from 1956 to 1963 and served as mayor of Chester, Pennsylvania, from 1964 to 1967 during the Chester school protests. Gorbey was a judge of the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas from 1968 to 1970 and a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania from 1970 to 1977.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Golden Frinks</span> American civil rights activist (1920–2004)

Golden Asro Frinks was an American civil rights activist and a Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) field secretary who represented the New Bern, North Carolina SCLC chapter. He is best known as a principal civil rights organizer in North Carolina during the 1960s.

Morgan v. Hennigan was the case that defined the school busing controversy in Boston, Massachusetts during the 1970s. On March 14, 1972, the Boston chapter of the NAACP filed a class action lawsuit against the Boston School Committee on behalf of 14 black parents and 44 children. Tallulah Morgan headed the list of plaintiffs, and James Hennigan, then chair of the School Committee, was listed as the main defendant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biloxi wade-ins</span> Protests in Mississippi between 1959 and 1963

The Biloxi wade-ins were three protests that were conducted by local African Americans on the beaches of Biloxi, Mississippi between 1959 and 1963, during the civil rights movement. The demonstrations were led by Dr. Gilbert R. Mason, Sr. in an effort to desegregate the city's 26 mi (42 km) of beaches on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. This was a local effort, without involvement from the state or national NAACP.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">School integration in the United States</span> Racial desegregation process

In the United States, school integration is the process of ending race-based segregation within American public and private schools. Racial segregation in schools existed throughout most of American history and remains an issue in contemporary education. During the Civil Rights Movement school integration became a priority, but since then de facto segregation has again become prevalent.

This is a timeline of the civil rights movement in the United States, a nonviolent mid-20th century freedom movement to gain legal equality and the enforcement of constitutional rights for people of color. The goals of the movement included securing equal protection under the law, ending legally institutionalized racial discrimination, and gaining equal access to public facilities, education reform, fair housing, and the ability to vote.

Civil rights in the United States include noted legislation and organized efforts to abolish public and private acts of racial discrimination against Native Americans, African Americans, Asians, Latin Americans, women, the homeless, minority religions, and other groups. The history of the United States has been marked by a continuous struggle for civil rights. The institution of slavery, established during the colonial era, persisted until the American Civil War, when the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment abolished it. Despite this, African Americans continued to face systemic racism through de jure and de facto segregation, enforced by Jim Crow laws and societal practices. Early civil rights efforts, such as those by Frederick Douglass and the women's suffrage movement, laid the groundwork for future activism.

George T. Raymond was an American civil rights leader from Pennsylvania who served as president of the Chester, Pennsylvania, branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from 1942 to 1977. He was integral in the desegregation of businesses, public housing and schools in Chester and co-led the Chester school protests in 1964 which made Chester a key battleground in the civil rights movement.

Stanley Everett Branche was an American civil rights leader from Pennsylvania who worked as executive secretary in the Chester, Pennsylvania, branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and founded the Committee for Freedom Now (CFFN).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New York City school boycott</span> Civil rights protest, February 3, 1964

The New York City school boycott, also referred to as Freedom Day, was a large-scale boycott and protest against segregation in the New York City public school system which took place on February 3, 1964. Students and teachers walked out to highlight the deplorable conditions at public schools in the city, and demonstrators held rallies demanding school integration. It has been described as the largest civil rights protest of the 1960s, involving nearly half a million participants.

The Committee for Freedom Now (CFFN) was an American civil rights organization in Chester, Pennsylvania, that worked to end de facto segregation and improve the conditions at predominantly black schools in Chester. CFFN was founded in 1963 by Stanley Branche along with the Swarthmore College chapter of Students for a Democratic Society and Chester parents. From November 1963 to April 1964, CFFN and the Chester chapter of the NAACP, led by George Raymond, initiated the Chester school protests which made Chester a key battleground in the civil rights movement.

The Berwyn School Fight was a 1930s fight against school segregation in the southeastern Pennsylvania townships of Tredyffrin and Easttown. In 1932, local school districts attempted to segregate elementary schools by race. Black parents sued to stop the segregationists and withdrew their children from school until the school districts finally conceded defeat in 1934. Occurring 20 years before Brown v. Board of Education (1954) declared school segregation to be unconstitutional nationwide, the Berwyn School Fight was an early victory for the civil rights movement and an important moment in Chester County history.

References

Citations

  1. ↑ Mele 2017, pp. 84–85.
  2. 1 2 Mele 2017, p. 95.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Mele 2017, p. 94.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 "African American residents of Chester, PA, demonstrate to end de facto segregation in public schools, 1963-1966". www.nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu. Retrieved October 26, 2018.
  5. ↑ McLarnon 2002, pp. 318–326.
  6. ↑ Mele 2017, pp. 76–77.
  7. ↑ Mele 2017, p. 83.
  8. ↑ Holcomb, Lindsay (October 29, 2015). "Questions surround student activism 52 years later". www.swarthmorephoenix.com. Retrieved October 25, 2018.
  9. ↑ McLarnon 2002, p. 305.
  10. ↑ Mele 2017, p. 50.
  11. ↑ McLarnon 2002, p. 307.
  12. ↑ Mele 2017, pp. 82–83.
  13. ↑ Mele 2017, p. 84.
  14. ↑ Hogan, Wesley C. (2007). Many Minds, One Heart: SNCC's Dream for a New America. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. pp. 131–132. ISBN   978-0-8078-3074-1 . Retrieved March 16, 2020.
  15. ↑ Mele 2017, pp. 88–93.
  16. ↑ Hogan, Wesley C. (2007). Many Minds, One Heart: SNCC's Dream for a New America. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. p. 129. ISBN   978-0-8078-3074-1 . Retrieved March 8, 2020.
  17. ↑ McLarnon 2002, p. 318.
  18. ↑ "Chester NAACP Scrapbook 1963-1964". www.digitalwolfgram.widener.edu. Retrieved October 20, 2018.
  19. ↑ "RIOTS MAR PEACE IN CHESTER, PA.; Negro Protests Continue - School Policy at Issue". The New York Times. April 26, 1964. Retrieved July 13, 2018.
  20. ↑ Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debate of the 88th Congress Second Session - Volume 110 - Part 7. Washington: United States Government Printing Office. 1964. p. 8883. Retrieved March 8, 2020.
  21. ↑ McLarnon 2003, p. 234.
  22. ↑ Mele 2017, pp. 94–95.
  23. ↑ "Birmingham Civil Rights". National Park Service. Retrieved March 3, 2020.
  24. ↑ McLarnon 2002, pp. 325–326.
  25. ↑ Mele 2017, p. 96.
  26. ↑ McLarnon 2002, p. 335.

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.