Project Director

Russell, James M.

Department Examiner

White, Michelle; Brodsky, David; O'Dea, Gregory

Department

Dept. of Humanities

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Abstract

In Memphis, the desire of white parents to keep their children out of integrated schools stemmed partially from their fear of contact with blacks. This push factor may seem obvious; surely misconceptions about race contributed to nearly every instance of white flight in the South. I argue that in Memphis, however, racial tensions caused many whites to harbor an especially acute fear of contact with blacks. By the time of the debates over busing, two traumatic events had lodged themselves in the recent memories of white Memphians: the sanitation strike of 1968 and the Black Monday school boycotts of 1969. These events, during which black protestors appeared violent and unruly, informed white perceptions about blacks in the early 1970s. Consequently, a massive number of whites chose to abandon the city schools rather than send their children to desegregated institutions where they feared anarchy would reign. This situation resulted because white leaders in Memphis had ignored the city's racial problems for over a decade. City officials, businessmen, and members of the press constructed and sustained a myth of racial harmony in the city that allowed racial tensions to grow unchecked until they exploded in the large-scale protest movements of 1968 and 1969. After these conflagrations, race relations in Memphis were so poor that when confronted with a major desegregation plan in 1973, white students abandoned the Memphis City Schools en masse, thereby rendering meaningful desegregation impossible.

Degree

B. A.; An honors thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Bachelor of Arts.

Date

11-2008

Subject

School integration--Tennessee--Memphis; Segregation in education--United States--History

Discipline

United States History

Document Type

Theses

Extent

ii, 51 leaves

DCMI Type

Text

Language

English

Call Number

LB2369.5 .B373 2009

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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