In order to understand why education for Cassie and her family was substandard, you need to know a little about the court case of Plessy v Ferguson. You also need to know what rights are guaranteed uner the 14th Amendment.
Blacks - walk (for up to an hour) to school
Whites - ride a bus to school
Blacks -four weather-beaten wooden
houses on stilts of brick
Whites - long white wooden building with a
sports field and rows of benches
Blacks -discarded old books in poor condition
Whites - new books
Blacks - 7 teachers for 320 students, a short
school year that runs from late fall to early spring
(when students aren't working in the fields)
How did Homer Plessy's arrest for sitting in a white car lead to the Supreme Court Decision that whites and blacks could have separate facilities as long as they were "equal"? How did this lead to different schools, and were they really "equal"? Homer Plessy was 7/8 Caucasian and 1/8 African American....kicked out of the seat he paid for, because of his skin color.
Click on the graphic above to learn more about this case.
Click graphic above for more information on rights guaranteed by this amendment.
In 2011, students representing Scholastic asked President Barack Obama why the Constitution is still "cool" in America.
The African American Eras e-book and print reference will be very helpful for this topic.
Context: Brown v the Board of Education occured two decades after the events in Roll of Thunder.
Linda Brown had to walk six blocks through a trainyard, cross a busy intersection, then ride another mile to Monroe Elementary School for African Americans. Sumner Elementary for Whites was only seven blocks away. Monroe Elementary had broken ceiling tiles, floors, plaster, windows, and heating ducts. Separate was not equal, and the Browns filed a lawsuit against the Board of Education in Topeka, Kansas to get their daughter the right to go to the school closer to home. Thurgood Marshall was the lawyer who argued their case before the United States Supreme Court in 1954...where 12 families won the case and paved the way for racially integrated schools across the country. It took three years, but the decision for equality was finally made!
Use the databases and e-books on the Great Depression page to research any of the topics on this page.
The Forbidden Schoolhouse by 
The Girl from the Tar Paper School by 
Separate, but Not Equal by 
Brown V. Board of Education by 
Brown V. Board of Education by 
Fire from the Rock by