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• 2 • “TOKEN BEGINNINGS” The Battle to Desegregate Southern Schools and Workplaces, 1965–1968 The Johnson administration’s record was not so impressive when it came to desegregating southern schools and workplaces. In these areas, white resistance was greater, and the civil rights legislation was less effective. Rather than moving quickly, the administration took its time in establishing the new EEOC and drawing up school desegregation guidelines. The lack of progress was also related to weak enforcement; the new EEOC lacked the authority to compel violators to change, while HEW rarely used its powers to cut off funds from recalcitrant southern school districts. The implementation of Title VI proved to be particularly difficult ; as the civil rights aide F. Peter Libassi concluded in 1967, “School desegregation is still a highly controversial subject. . . . The more progress made, the more intense becomes the opposition. This nerve-wracking process can be expected to continue.” In the end, Johnson’s officials recognized that they had done little more than make a start in these areas, and it would be up to others to build on their work. Future policymakers , however, would also have to confront the persistent gap between black and white expectations about how much desegregation there should be in workplaces and schools.1 Freedom of Choice? School Desegregation in the Johnson Years When the Civil Rights Act was passed, the South’s schools remained substantially segregated. At the start of the 1964–1965 school year, just 2 percent of black children in the eleven southern states attended desegregated schools, and there were more than fifteen hundred districts that had made no voluntary movement toward complying with Brown. The main reason for this situation was that, until 1964, Congress had not “Token Beginnings” • 35 given statutory recognition to school desegregation as the law of the land.2 In both rural and urban areas, only minimal breakthroughs had occurred. As The Crisis reported in May 1965, “There has only been meager compliance with the Court’s order [in Brown].”3 As these statistics indicate, resistance to school integration was deepseated , and the implementation of Title VI was clearly going to be difficult . According to the historian James T. Patterson, the Jim Crow system was “anchored on segregation in schools.” Schools aroused strong feelings because both races understood that a good education was vital if their children were to achieve professional success. Parents, moreover, cherished their children so deeply that they were prepared to fight hard if they thought that their education opportunities were being impeded. After 1965, many whites believed that race mixing would undermine the learning process, whereas most blacks felt that desegregated schools offered their best hope of advancement. As a result of these conflicting perspectives , the battle to desegregate schools was long and fierce, and most whites gave way only when decisive federal authority forced their hand.4 After the passage of the Civil Rights Act, the pace of school integration did pick up. Title VI banned discrimination in federally assisted programs, and any school district that wanted to receive federal funds had to satisfy HEW’s Office of Education that it was no longer maintaining a dual system. Change happened slowly, however. Staff shortages meant that HEW did not publish its first guidelines until May 1965, almost a year after the act’s passage. At the start of that year, the agency had only twelve staff devoted to enforcing Title VI, but this increased to seventy-four within twelve months. In subsequent years, the number continued to rise as officials gradually realized that implementing Title VI was a task of “staggering dimensions.” Short of personnel, HEW officials decided to issue blanket guidelines, a move that southerners ironically interpreted as a sign of dictatorial behavior. In the first guidelines, Commissioner of Education Francis Keppel specified that school districts had to make a “good faith start” toward desegregation in the 1965–1966 term and to complete the process by the end of 1967. Faculties also had to be desegregated, but, during the first year, districts could prepare for this simply by holding integrated staff meetings.5 While the law gave HEW the power to cut off funds, the tactic was used sparingly, partly because the department was anxious not to deprive schools of income. A former schoolteacher, Johnson endorsed this policy . As HEW secretary Joseph A. Califano Jr. explained, “The President wants to make sure that we are doing everything possible so that he does...

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