("Students at Garrison School," Black Archives of Kansas City)
Tragedy
Separate educational facilities are inherently inequal.
Chief Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren
Despite Plessy v. Ferguson's ruling, "separate but equal" rarely meant equal. African-American schools in Missouri had very little funding.
Supplies the white schools didn't want were often given to them. Students could never achieve full educational equality without the chance to learn and grow from others different than themselves. |
New seats are being placed in the . . . public school building. The old ones will be put in the colored school. |
Garrison's students had neither assembly room facilities, gymnasium, nor current textbooks. The students used obsolete texts that were castoffs from white schools.
Clay County African American Legacy, Inc.
Segregation is a tragedy with long-lasting consequences. The unfair treatment given to African-American citizens lasted for decades and continues to this day. However, despite these injustices, individuals and communities throughout the years have demonstrated the triumph of the human spirit in the face of persecution, giving us hope for the future.