Black-White Achievement Gap

Although the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court required school integration to ensure that blacks have equal educational opportunities as whites, there is still a black-white achievement gap. School integration started slowly when the Brown v. Board of Education decision overturned the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling that legalized separate but equal facilities for blacks and whites. Black facilities, however, were never equal to those of whites. Most black school facilities lacked the basic equipment needed for learning. Regardless of age, children learned together in a single, decrepit room. The basic curriculum consisted of skills needed only for domestic and agriculture work. However, the Brown v. Board of Education ruling meant to supporters that black students would have the ...