Desegregating Ramsay School

Desegregating Ramsay School. March Route for Education. Many African Americans continued to push for the right to an equal education that the 1954 Brown decision gave them. Despite angry threats of violence and intense economic pressure, those first few African American families in Birmingham who chose to enroll their children in better-funded and better-equipped, all-White public schools opened the door for other Black parents to get the best education possible for their children. But most parents who tried to enroll their children in White schools between 1963 and 1966 still did not get in. It would take more lawsuits and federal court orders as late as the 1970s before integrated public schools became the norm in Birmingham., Paired marker , September 11, 1963 , Alabama state troopers sent by Gov. George Wallace guard the door to stop Richard Walker and his family in their first attempt to integrate Ramsay High School. He later returned, with his parents and a court order, and was admitted. Walker spent his two years at Ramsay in relative isolation from his White classmates, sitting in the same seat in each class and eating alone at the same table in the cafeteria. He recalled that a few White students came to his lunch table and tried talking to him; officials later suspended them for it. Like other Black families with children in formerly all-White schools, the Walker home was threatened by anti-integration bombers. Community protectors who were part of local civil rights organizations guarded his home. , "Most important triumphs for justice are measured by personal sacrifice." , Dr. Richard Walker , Former child foot soldier and now a leading Birmingham Ear, Nose and Throat Surgeon., Lesson D 13: Discuss ways to reach out to peers in your school and community who are different from you.