For decades Memphis has been segregated in the school
systems. Most prominent before brown vs. board of education. This segregation
has cause a huge difference in academic success between the white community and
the black community. Different funds, newer books, better building, and better
lunch food. I attend one of the most known segregated schools in Memphis, Whitehaven
High. We were 99% African American and occasionally we had a Latino or white
student come in. Being in programs in Memphis like Bridge Builders and Memphis
Ambassadors Program you are able to witness the differences between schools that
are predominantly black and schools that are predominantly white. Most of our
building are worn down and the books we receive have been used for almost a
decade. The lunch served is disgusting and the staff is shorthanded. Compared to a predominantly white school were
there building have been built in the last 5 years, there books are brand new, and
they receive better lunches. One way they keep this segregation in place is by
zoning kids to the area they live in. The zoning rule is that the student can only
go to a school in his neighborhood and if that student wants to go to a school
out of his neighbor he/she must apply for the optional program. Seeing that in Memphis
neighbors are segregated by income, more people from the rich neighbors are white
and the people in the lower-class communities are black. This makes schooling
segregated and harder for kids of color to learn and achieve more. Even when
the presumably black schools (Memphis city schools) and the presumably white
schools (Shelby county schools) merged they still found ways to separate the
two. They started their own school district called the Germantown municipal school
that features nothing but predominantly white schools. They said that they didn’t
feel “safe” taking their kids to school after this merger happened. Also, these
schools receive more funding from programs to help make sure kids success in
school. With the lack of books and funding for schools, more and more schools
in black communities are being taken over by the state. Which means less jobs
for people at those schools and all the benefit goes to the state. Why will Memphis
not integrate their schools? Is it the cities fault these schools are not prospering?
What can Memphis do to make a change in the school systems?
MLK in context - an exploration of King's life and work from an historical perspective
Being from a suburb of Memphis, I completely agree with your stand that you have taken about the segregation of schools within the city. I went to a private school in Mississippi, but most times we played schools within the Memphis area. I remember there was a specific time that we played Whitehaven in softball at Whitehaven. While we had traveled and seen most of the fields and facilities of Memphis, Whitehaven was one of the hardest ones to see. Being a mostly white private school, it was easy for us to get into this bubble, so it was difficult to see the poor conditions that the student athletes had to play on. I think you are right when you talk about the different zoning policies. I also think that a lot of times different schools get donations and special privileges because of who their parents are or who lives within the community. When you have a school zoned within a poor community, then it is much harder for schools to receive the extra privileges that other communities can provide for their local schools. Being a student athlete really opened my eyes to the differences in privileges of predominantly white institutions verses institutions that are predominantly black within Memphis.
ReplyDeleteBeing from Memphis as well, my experiences have totally supported this claim. I went to St. Michael School on Summer from Kindergarten to 8th grade and was one of maximum three white kids in the class, surrounded by people who I know now many of whom are DREAMers. When we would compete in sports against schools like St. Francis, it was white kids, and when we competed against schools like Memphis Catholic, it was black kids. This article also made me think of Bishop Byrne, and the conditions the students from there were under (poor facilities, lack of staff, etc.) before the school closed. Even after the school was closed, I know many of them came to Memphis Catholic (another predominantly black school). You also bring up a really good point about zoning, especially since they just rezoned recently, which has been a bit of a big issue.
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