Introduction

I change my topic from Walbrook Junction to The Desegregation of Baltimore City Public Schools. Maryland as a southern state did not actually practice segregation as its southern counterparts but it did nothing to prevent the way that the educational system was set up either. There were three major issues that emerged that seem to have a strong impact on the situation that Baltimore found itself in. First, were the racial dividing lines that had been in place since the 1930’s and 1940’s. Second, was the sudden movement into rural Maryland. Later the impact that was felt from Brown v. Board of Education did little to change the situation. Finally the school system felt an impact from the crisis that occurred in the 70’s, which left an already troubled school system open for ridicule. I will begin by describing the area in which Baltimore was growing and the direction its population was being drawn to. Next, I will describe the impact that was felt because of the case cited above as well as those cases that were combined into this one. Then I will talk about the problems that occurred within the school system itself. After evaluating the evidence I will present one will come to the conclusion that Baltimore City never really complied with the changes lawmakers had hoped to accomplish with Brown v. Board of Education.

Let’s begin with the location of the city at that time. Baltimore was a Mason-Dixon metropolis; it was right on the border line. This meant there was a one hour drive from the heart of the north or the south. Baltimore always had a large population of free African-Americans. “Baltimore still suffered from de facto segregation. Movement away from the city were brought about by several different reasons. Industrialization, congestion, and social groups viewed as undesirable made relocation to the city limits and beyond more attractive. In the beginning blacks and whites lived closed to each other in what was known as a “walking city”. After the Civil War Baltimore’s black population experienced a growth spurt. More blacks were moving out of the south to seek opportunities in the north. A lot of them made Baltimore their home. The white population began looking at the rural areas surrounding Baltimore as an option for the rising taxes and better schools. With the invention of better transportation and the expansion a pattern of segregation began that was preserved by law and custom. The black population inhabited northwest and northeast Baltimore in the downtown area. Fulton Avenue was the Westside racial dividing line in the 1930’s and 1940’s. “Old West Baltimore was bounded by North Avenue on the north, Franklin Street on the south, and Madison and Fulton Streets on the east and west.” Before WWI the Baltimore City Council passed ordinances three times to forbidding blacks from moving into white neighborhoods.

“On the 3800 block of Juniper Road, no one cares about the fate of Baltimore city schools for the simple reason that not one of the families sends its children to them”. The children from this neighborhood attended expensive private schools. So these parents voices can’t be hear arguing for increased school funding. The people are looking to surrounding Baltimore County to find relief from high taxes and better schools. School officials were echoing the slave masters fear of and resistance to educating blacks “The original funding formula stipulated that school taxes paid by the whites would go to white schools, while taxes paid by blacks would go to black schools, in this way black schools would remain inferior.“In 1920, the Maryland public schools spent $36.03 per year for each white child but only spent $13.20 for each black child.