segregation // Current

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1 month ago

On A May-December Romance, Part Two, Or, Las Vegas, Integrated

The second part of a tale of segregation history you probably never knew is now posted at the "advice from a fake... more

fake_consultant
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On A May-December Romance, Part One, Or, Las Vegas, Segregated

There may be no more recognizable icon of “Retro-Cool” than that photograph of the Rat Pack standing in front of the... more

fake_consultant
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The Vietnam Center & Archive Celebrates Black History Month

With the desegregation of the American military during the Korean War, military careers became increasingly attractive to the... more

covelogibbs
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John Tyler Morgan Academy uproar over first admitted black student

when white citizens of Selma founded a private segregated academy three months after the celebrated voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., they meant to send a message of militant defiance by christening it the John Tyler Morgan Academy.

First housed in Morgan's former residence in Selma's historic Old Town district, the private academy relocated in 1968 to its present location on a well-appointed, 29-acre campus in West Selma. Every year since 1965, its student body population has included not a single black student from a community of 20,000 that is 70% black.

Every year, that is, until this year.

Last May, the Morgan Academy admitted a 5-year-old black girl into its kindergarten class, marking another milestone in the slow and unsteady progress of the city that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once called the most segregated in America. To this day Selma remains a hotbed of neo-Confederate activity and racial tensions.

Two weeks after word spread that Morgan had effectively been desegregated, the school's board of directors held a regularly scheduled open meeting. "You could feel the anger in the room," said the father of the kindergartener, Sean Black, who attended with his wife Tylia. "No one said the word 'segregation' or mentioned my daughter by name. Instead they were all talking about 'this thing that happened two weeks ago.' They were asking questions like, 'What about our traditions? What about our heritage?'"

Black and his wife are newcomers to Selma. Challenging their new home's worst traditions is what led them to move there last year. They did not come alone. In all, 44 adult members of the Freedom Foundation, a faith-based, non-profit charity that was based in Colorado, have relocated to Selma in the last year-and-a-half, along with 16 of their children.

Like the civil rights activists of the 1960s, the members of the Freedom Foundation claim to be answering what Martin Luther King Jr. termed "a call of conscience" to promote racial harmony and social justice in the Deep South. Also like those activists, their presence is generating hostility and resentment among old-school racists who don't appreciate their meddling.

White supremacist organizations are paying increasing attention to the Freedom Foundation's controversial efforts. History is repeating itself in Selma. Even the epithets are the same: Troublemakers. Outside agitators. Nigger lovers.when white citizens of Selma founded a private segregated academy three months after the celebrated voting rights march from Selma... more

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7 months ago

Great Grandmama for Obama

Bertha Means, 88 year-old civil rights pioneer, reflects on the historic 2008 election through her life experience. Struggle,... more

filmmakermicah
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10 responses

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7 months ago

UN official calls Israel 'Apartheid'

President of UN General Assembly urges Israel to be recognized as an Apartheid state. UN General Assembly President Miguel... more

Vierotchka
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23 responses

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8 months ago

If you want to know how much things have changed, read this - guardian.co.uk

A Guardian article from 1958, headlined An Asian in Arkansas, shows just how much the United States has changed in the past 50... more

khaosworks
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9 months ago

New Texas Drivers License Law Segregates Immigrants

Texas became the first state in the country to segregate foreigners in their driver's licenses this month by issuing a... more

goldenways
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9 months ago

Palestinians dismantle road blockade

Palestinian residents of the Al-Mazra’a ash Sharqiya village dismantle roadblock as symbol of resistance. As Palestinian... more

Vierotchka
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8 responses

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9 months ago

Review of BLINDNESS

My review of the upcoming release, BLINDNESS, now up on CINEFANTASTIQUE ONLINE.

DanPersons
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10 months ago

Vernon Baker Hailed: African-American World War II Hero

On September 11th, 2008, the seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks, Wofford College, a small liberal arts... more

disembedded
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11 months ago

Vernon Baker: Only Living African-American Awarded WWII Medal of Honor

Wofford College, a small classical private (and once highly segregated) Southern college, will confer upon Vernon Baker an... more

disembedded
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12 months ago

Racial Segragation?--That's Cool: Mardi Gras still segregated in Deep South Video

Mardi Gras is still segregated-however they dont care... both sides love and appreciate segregation... its a tradition that they... more

kewal91
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added
12 months ago

Slovakia urged to end segregation of Romani children in the special school of Pavlovce nad Uhom

“In grade 7 of the special school I learned the same things that I learned in grade 3 of the mainstream school.”
14-year-old Romani boy, found to have been erroneously placed in the special school

In Slovakia, huge numbers of Romani children are inappropriately placed in "special schools" for children with mental disabilities, where they receive a substandard education, and have very limited opportunities for employment and further education. Independent studies suggest that as many as 80 per cent of children placed in special schools in Slovakia are Roma.

Once children are assigned to special schools, the door leading back to mainstream education for children of average or above-average ability remains shut.

Pavlovce nad Uhom is a town in eastern Slovakia, 10km from the borders with Ukraine. More than 50 per cent of its 4,500 inhabitants are Roma. There are two elementary schools in the town: a mainstream school and a special school for children with mental disabilities.

Nearly two thirds of Romani children attending primary school in Pavlovce nad Uhom are de facto segregated in the special school. 99.5 per cent of the approximately 200 pupils of the special school are Roma.

Officially, children can only be placed in special schools after the formal diagnosis of a mental disability and only with the full consent of their parents. However, many children in Pavlovce nad Uhom had not been assessed at all and the assessment process itself was deeply flawed. At the same time parental consent was often neither free nor informed.

Following inspections instigated by the Mayor of the locality in 2007, it was officially acknowledged that 17 of these pupils did not belong in the special school and had been placed there erroneously. Amnesty International believes the real number is far higher and that more Romani children - whose rightful place is in the mainstream school - continue to be denied their right to education in Pavlovce nad Uhom.

The serious human rights violations in Pavlovce nad Uhom are not just the result of individual human errors, but of a broader failure to eliminate discrimination in both the design and the implementation of the Slovak education system.

Amnesty International calls on the Slovak authorities to recognise these failings and introduce the necessary structural reforms. In particular Amnesty International calls on the Director of the Regional School Authority of the Košice region – founder of and directly responsible for the special school in Pavlovce nad Uhom – to:

* Ensure that all placement decisions are reviewed and all children currently attending Pavlovce nad Uhom special school re-assessed in order to identify pupils who may have been placed there erroneously, and ensure their swift reintegration in the mainstream school as appropriate; in those cases the Regional School Authority should also provide an effective remedy, including reparations to the children affected;
* Take appropriate measures against state employees who are found to have acted in breach of Slovak law and at the expense of the education of Romani children in Pavlovce nad Uhom;
* Ensure that the enrolment of pupils is under no circumstances approved by the special school Take Actionunless they have been clearly, objectively and unambiguously diagnosed with mental disabilities; such diagnosis must precede the placement of the child; parental request or consent should not be the decisive factor for such a placement.
“In grade 7 of the special school I learned the same things that I learned in grade 3 of the mainstream school.”... more