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Essay by Yakera Barbee
In the movie, “Hoxie: The First Stand,” the school board decided to
desegregate the schools. In the movie, “The Intolerable Burden,” after
the law, “Freedom of Choice,” came along, Mae Bertha Carter enrolled
seven of her children into all-white schools. Her children remained the
only black children in the schools for the next five years. There
freedom of choice law meant that people could send their children to
whatever school they wanted. The people who made the law didn’t think
anyone would choose to send their children to a school of children of a
different race. Mae Bertha did.
In the movie, “Hoxie,” before the schools desegregated, only certain
things were segregated. Just like today. The children loved the idea but
the parents didn’t. White parents took their children out of school.
Their racist ways rubbed off on their children. The day the schools were
desegregated was July 11, 1955. The school board stood their ground and
the desegregated schools remained. Soon everything cleared down.
In “Hoxie,” during the time of desegregation, the school was boycotted
and families were divided. In, “Intolerable Burden,” as in “Hoxie,” at
first the schools were segregated. Whites had fully equipped schools.
Blacks had bad schools and in “Intolerable Burden,” blacks really didn’t
go to school. There were mostly in the fields picking cotton.
In the few black schools, there were no black teachers. It is the same
now. We have only about five at Franklin. Blacks also received less
education. Blacks couldn’t go to the proms or dances. These facts are
true about both movies. Also something that is true about both movies is
interracial marriage. The people in both movies were scared of blacks
and whites mixing.
The school board in the movie, “Hoxie,” was completely different from
the school board in “The Intolerable Burden.” They worked hard to
maintain desegregation and the other school board tried its best to keep
segregation in its state.
There is still some segregation here today. For example, Franklin’s
honor program. The majority of the people in honor classes are white.
The few African Americans in the classes are separated by teams.
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