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Fifty Years of Challenges to the Colorline Montgomery, Alabama Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University History Theses Department of History 12-2009 Fifty Years of Challenges to the Colorline Montgomery, Alabama Alison L. Murphy Georgia State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/history_theses Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Murphy, Alison L., "Fifty Years of Challenges to the Colorline Montgomery, Alabama." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2009. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/history_theses/37 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of History at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in History Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FIFTY YEARS OF CHALLENGES TO THE COLORLINE MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA by ALISON L. MURPHY Under the Direction of Timothy Crimmins ABSTRACT After fifty years of challenges to the color line in Montgomery, Alabama, the Metropolitan Statistical Area is more integrated now than it was in 1950. Through exploring the effects of Brown v. Board of Education, the bus boycott, school integration court cases, re-segregation of schools in city and suburban districts, and federal open-housing policies, the volatile transformation appears to shows how, after fifty years, Montgomery has moved from a segregated dual society to a partially integrated society in spite of the massive resistance to integration. INDEX WORDS: Montgomery, Alabama, Integration, Desegregation, Federal Housing Policy, Fair Housing Act, Central Alabama Fair Housing Center, School integration, Dual school system, Unitary school system FIFTY YEARS OF CHALLENGES TO THE COLORLINE MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA by ALISON L. MURPHY A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University 2009 Copyright by Alison Lynn Murphy 2009 FIFTY YEARS OF CHALLENGES TO THE COLORLINE MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA by ALISON L. MURPHY Committee Chair: Timothy J. Crimmins, Ph.D. Professor of History and Director of the Center for Neighborhood and Metropolitan Studies at Georgia State University Committee: Glenn T. Eskew, Ph.D. Associate Professor of History at Georgia State University Electronic Version Approved: Office of Graduate Studies College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University December 2009 iv Dedication To Grandma May 20, 1927-August 14, 2009 v Acknowledgements This work could not have been possible without the generous patience, understanding, and guidance of Dr. Timothy Crimmins who spent countless hours molding my thought process and reading over preliminary drafts and “mini-papers” to guide me to a completed thesis. Dr. Crimmins knew how to work with me and how to help me evolve my work successfully. I also owe a lot to Dr. Glenn Eskew for being on my committee and using his knowledge of Alabama cities to help structure my research on Montgomery. I have had many mentors in my life that have shaped my education and made the completion of this degree possible including Mrs. Michelle Bostwick (high school English/Newspaper teacher), Mrs. Penny Stovall (high school history teacher), and most specifically Dr. Marylin Darling (college professor, GSU Ph.D., and long time friend). Additionally, my family who somewhat patiently accepted that I was really “writing my paper” and could not attend all family outings, specifically, Mommie Dearest, Laura, Grandpa, my best friend Wilma, and especially my Grandma. vi Table of Contents DEDICATION iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v LIST OF TABLES vii LIST OF FIGURES x Introduction 1 1. CHAPTER 1: 1954-1967 3 1.1 Patterns of Segregation in Montgomery in the 1950s 7 1.2 Segregation in Montgomery 12 1.3 School Desegregation 31 1.4 The American Dream 45 2. CHAPTER 2: 1967-1980 48 2.1 Fair Housing 49 2.2 Segregation in Montgomery 53 2.3 School Integration 61 3. CHAPTER 3: 1980-2000 82 3.1 National Political Landscape on Segregation 82 3.2 Patterns of Class Segregation: Socioeconomic Landscape in 1990 85 3.3 Suburban Integration 91 3.4 Protecting Rights Under the Fair Housing Act 94 3.5 The Fair Housing Act: Neighborhood Integration 101 3.6 Public & Private School Integration 102 4. CHAPTER 4: Montgomery: 2000 & Beyond 110 4.1 The Current State of the City: 2000 110 4.2 Governmental Leadership: National and State Government Policy 111 4.3 Patterns of Class Segregation: Socioeconomic Landscape in 2000 114 4.4 Suburban Integration 131 4.5 Protecting Rights Under the Fair Housing Act: The Fair Housing Act – 135 Did it Work? 4.6 Current State of the Schools: 2000: Dissimilarity in Public and Private 138 School Demographics 4.7 Re-segregation of the Schools: Effectiveness of Desegregation Orders 151 Conclusion: Patterns of Segregation in Montgomery in the 2000s 157 5. Bibliography 158 vii List of Tables Table 1: State of Housing Units by Wards in 1950 Table 2: Population Increase in the City of Montgomery and Montgomery's Metropolitan Area Counties from 1960-1990 Table 3: Black and White Population Over 25 Years Old for the State of Alabama in 1960 Table 4: Black and White Population Over 25 Years Old with a High School Degree for the State of Alabama in 1960 Table 5: Black and White Population Over 25 Years Old with a High School Degree for the City of Montgomery in 1960 Table 6: Public and Private High School Students for the City of Montgomery in 1960 Table 7: Public and Private High School Students by Race for the State in 1960 Table 8: Public and Private School Students by Race for the State in 1980 Table 9: Change in Private School Attendance for the State from 1960 to 1980 Table 10: Public and Private High School Students for the MSA in 1980 Table 11: Public and Private High School Students for Autauga County in 1980 Table 12: Public and Private High School Students for Elmore County in 1980 Table 13: Public and Private High School Students for Lowndes County in 1980 Table 14: Public and Private High School Students for Montgomery County in 1980 Table 15: Public and Private High School Students for all Counties in the MSA in 1980 Table 16: Population Increase for Montgomery's Counties in the MSA from 1970 to 1990 Table 17: Dwellers by County in 1990 Table 18: Dwellers in the City in 1990 Table 19: Public and Private High School Students by Race for the Four Counties in Montgomery's MSA in 1990 Table 20: Public School Data for Montgomery's MSA from 1988 to 2000 viii Table 21: Percentage Increase and Decrease in Public School Enrollment by Race for the MSA from 1988 to 1999 Table 22: Percentage of Nonwhite Dwellers by Ward from 1950 to 2000 Table 23: Average Home Values by Ward from 1950-2000 Table 24: Characteristics of Dwelling Units by Ward in 1950 Table 25: Characteristics of Dwelling Units by Ward in 1970 Table 26: Characteristics of Dwelling Units by Ward in 2000 Table 27: Characteristics of Ward 23 from 1950-2000 Table 28: Characteristics of Ward 1 from 1950-2000 Table 29: Characteristics of Ward 5 from 1950-2000 Table 30: Characteristics of Ward 2 from 1950-2000 Table 31: Characteristics of Ward 4 from 1950-2000 Table 32: Characteristics of Ward 6 from 1950-2000 Table 33: Characteristics of Ward 3 from 1950-2000 Table 34: Characteristics of Ward 7 from 1950-2000 Table 35: Home Value by Ward Compared to Percentage of Nonwhite Dwellers 1950-2000 Table 36: Population Increase by Counties 1960, 1990-2000 Table 37: Demographics of Public High Schools in the City in 2006 Table 38: Public School Data from 1950-2000 Table 39: Private School Data from 1960-2000 Table 40: Private High Schools in Montgomery in 2006 Table 41: High Schools in Autauga County Table 42: Racial Dissimilarity in Public and Private Schools for Autauga County ix Table 43: Dissimilarity in County Population and Public High School Demographics in Autauga County in 2000 Table 44: Racial Dissimilarity in Public and Private Schools for Elmore County Table 45: High Schools in Elmore County Table 46: Dissimilarity in County Population and Public High School Demographics in Elmore County in 2000 Table 47: Racial Dissimilarity in Public and Private Schools for Lowndes County Table 48: High Schools in Lowndes County Table 49: Dissimilarity in County Population and Public High School Demographics in Lowndes County in 2000 Table 50: Racial Dissimilarity in Public and Private Schools for Montgomery County Table 51: Dissimilarity in County Population and Public High School Demographics in Montgomery County in 2000 Table 52: Number of Districts Placed Under Court Order in Each State by Decade Table 53: Districts Receiving Unitary Status by Decade Table 54: Current Efforts of Districts Under Court Order to Attain Unitary Status Table 55: Public and Private School Integration for Montgomery's MSA Table 56: Public and Private School Integration for Montgomery's MSA Excluding Montgomery County x List of Figures Figure 1: Bird's Eye View Figure 2: 1950 Block Statistic Chart Figure 3: Circa 1936-Black Home in Rural Area Figure 4: Circa 1934 - White Owned Home in Montgomery Figure 5: 309 S. Jackson St., Martin Luther King Jr.'s Parsonage Figure 6: 720 S. Hall Street, Johnnie Carr's Home Figure 7: Montgomery City Code 1950 Figure 8: Montgomery Children's Zoo Re-opened in 1972 Figure 9: Claudette Colvin at age 15 Figure 10: Claudette Colvin 2009 Figure 11: Segregated Bus before 1955 Figure 12: Bus Diagram Showing Rosa Parks' Seat Figure 13: Rosa Parks being fingerprinted after violating bus segregation laws, December 1955 Figure 14: Rosa Parks' Fingerprint Card from Day of Arrest Figure 15: Carpooling During the Bus Boycott Figure 16: Marchers enter downtown Montgomery.
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