We're for Integration

Black text on a white background.

The struggle for desegregation in schools was a major component of the Civil Rights Movement, and the landmark Supreme Court case, Brown v. Board of Education outlawed school segregation in 1954.  Despite this ruling, actual change was slow to occur, and it took years for many schools to be integrated. 

Despite the fact that desegregation efforts in northern cities received much less attention than those in their southern counterparts, the integration process in Philadelphia was not an easy one. The city had a long history of keeping Black and white students and teachers separated. District policies kept Black teachers from teaching white children and Black administrators from supervising white teachers.  In 1961, the NAACP in Philadelphia started a school desegregation lawsuit in federal court, and in 1963 the court ordered the school board to develop a desegregation plan and file regular progress reports. Although the school board organized committees and ordered studies and reports, led largely by school employees,  change was limited to symbolic victories.