Chapter 5: The History of Schools in the United States

During the Purtian times school was required for well-to-do children with the purpose of preparing them for high end jobs (like political positions), and the average people had to go to school for one reason; they had to be able to read, and obey, the law of God. As the 1800's rolled around people began to realize that their wealth relied on everyone else, like a chain reaction, so they began to invest in public schools. In the 1830's the idea of mixing social classes came to light with the hope of instilling wealthy family morals into poor children in a hope to improve their economic status. Then around 1850 Elementary Schools began to be based on grades which then led to High School, which were before the higher education school that only the wealthy could afford. Finally in 1910 Jr./Middle Schools became popular simply out of necessity, for the Elementary Schools were becoming overcrowded.
In the Plessy v. Ferguson Homer Plessy, a mixed black and white man, refused to sit in the back of a train because he claimed that it deprived him of his 14th amendment rights. the U.S. Supreme Court disagreed saying that "Separate but equal" facilities were okay. In Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, Briggs v. Elliott, Gebhart v. Belton, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, and Bolling v. Sharpe were all cases that had to do with desegregating public schools. Bolling v. Sharpe eventually made the federal government declare that they could not segregate their schools. Another case is Mendez v. Westminster which occurred in the 1940 which ended up with the decision to allow a Mexican American girl attend a white school.