United States : At School, Racial Segregation Continues | FULL DOCUMENTARY

[Music] Selma Alabama a typical rural town in the Southern United [Music] States but this town has a special place in the history of the [Music] country it was here in the 1960s that one of the most significant chapters in The Struggle against racial segregation in the United States was written Selma has since been closely associated with the history of emancipation of African-Americans segregation for a Time banned by law is making a return in Selma the town is once again cut in [Music] two to the east the poor neighborhoods where the black population lives to the West the upscale neighborhoods with their well- tended golf courses and luxurious houses where the white folk live this split between the rich and poor between white and black is not unique to Selma but here the separation has extended to a part of life no one would have imagined in Selma children now attend schools according to the color of their skin Unfortunately today school systems are more racially segregated than previously [Music] as the first black president is leaving the White House the myth of an America where the color of a person's skin is no longer important lies in tatters we just need to open our eyes and our ears and our hearts to know that this nation's racial history still cast its long Shadow upon us we know the March is not yet over we know the race is not yet won there's new ground to cover there are more bridges to be crossed we shall overcome having a black president suggests to the world that America has somehow achieved this Racial equality it's not real life this new segregation is the result of deep-seated prejudice old hatreds and an increasingly wide economic Gulf I believe it's one of our nation's greatest is our children are not able you know to go to school [Music] together my name is Sarah Crum I'm in the 12th grade in s Alabama my mom had six kids and most of us are in the Army we have a long history of our family members going going to the Army I'm going to college Sarah Crum is 18 for the past four years she has attended the public high school in Selma Sarah was born here and has always gone to school in the [Music] town Sarah is a saint the name given to the school's students inherited from the time of Martin Luther King with armed guards in every Corridor and security gates at every entrance Selma High School has a bad reputation Sarah's school is considered a violent failing establishment some people they still have the same mindset about all these crazy kids they oh cuz you know they want people to grow older and bump their head before they can learn learn my class I feel I might be at the bottom of the class I have a 3.4 GPA people have 3.7 68 even above a 4.0 scale they're smart they are so very smart they don't act like it every day but they're extremely smart like if you look at from the outside you be like oh those kids are just crazy and everything but if you're on the inside and you know your class you know these students they're smart at first glance the high school is like most others throughout the United States but there is one small difference I've never had a white student ever in one of my classes in my life High School Middle School elementary school my entire life but I've never had actual white classmate I've never had a white student to actually like talk to on a daily basis of anything it's always been black black black black black and it's normal it's normal phone my 12th grade year this year is my first time seeing at least two white people two white students that's the first time seeing someone white who came to sell Maha actually that's probably why you see like let's say you see the white girl walking through the hallway and everybody looking like it's cuz it's it's not normal and I actually made jokes about it cuz I was like what is she from the KKK society and they trying to infiltrate us cuz like it's not normal all right everything on the table except your all right once you get your paper you make start in the context of Selma I believe that you don't see as many white children in the school system is because of the perception that some white families have about the quality ofed education a lot of our children um live in very high PR situations and that can present some problems and some barriers to learning and their well-being however the graduation rate has improved and it's currently 89% uh and the Statewide goal is 90% so we're very close to the expected um goal for the state of Alabama little boy dour you go to be a nappy boy the world yourself right my uh uh what was the title note to little self note to little some children attend private school as a choice of their parents and that may do be due to I want to keep my children separate uh realistically speaking about the realities uh some families May uh believe that they want to keep their children separate from another race that may be part of the issue as well and the unfortunate part of that is that when children are kept separate um a stereotype and a perception is perpetuated from generation to generation in American terminology this High School is what's called segregated on a day-to-day level Sarah doesn't pay too much attention to this racial divide living amongst blacks is just the norm in a few days time the seniors will receive their High School diplomas at a grand ceremony Sarah will sing in front of her classmates and all the families I've Always sung like I've been singing since I was a child so choir has been my life from 5th sixth 7th 8th and all to graduation I will continue be a choir even in [Music] college Hallelujah I went through a school system that was integrated in Nevada and then moving to the South and seeing more segregation it is very disheartening because when you enter into society into the workforce you work with all people and so I believe that we are doing our children a disservice and that we are perpetuating a lot of stereotypes and divisions by keeping our children separate as surprising as it may seem the situation in this High School reflects what's going on throughout the [Music] country at the University of Alabama the phenomenon has recently become a topic for academic study renowned sociology Professor Nala everes is looking into the mechanisms that are taking her country back to a new segregation in schools I said black suffering is suffering whether it's in tuscala Cleveland Mississippi or New York New York it's the same black suffering is black suffering I had to learn when I came to the South that while the South had this Rich history of racial segregation um racial segregation is something that's pervasive in the US and that it is not unique to the South this is the new South and yes there's been a lot of progress but yet yes there's also a lot of racial segregation but it is not that radically different from the rest of America some people one of the coolest things about teaching here is some of my students will say yeah my grandfather is racist yeah what you're saying is true they may not agree with me but they will my students are honest enough to admit that we do live in a racialized society it's ridiculous to me cuz I don't understand why some like there are white people who believe in coming together but if you really want us to come together why haven't we seen no one come to this school and just say hey guys we need these type of people to come and everything cuz I really want to have this thing where all the schools get together and like really just mingle and integrate and everything because it's not we don't have that chance it breaks my heart because actually been 51 years since you know that and the mindset of Selma and people of Selma is still the same the mentality Sarah is referring to is one which was widespread from much of the 20th century in in the Southern United States a mentality that most thought was long gone the states here used to apply what were known as the Jim Crow laws which structured Society according to the color of people's skin blacks didn't have the same rights as whites they lived apart segregated and unequal schooling was no exception on the contrary it was one of the pillars of racial segregation this open officially sanctioned racism regularly spilled over into violence the white supremacist organization the Klux Clan used to terrorize the local black population there were frequent lynchings this period is still fresh in the collective memory at Selma children who lived through such experiences are today's grandparents James Perkins junor pastor and former mayor of the town was 12 in 1965 I can recall growing up as a child the clue clug Clan driving through our neighborhoods and uh my grandparents and parents telling us to go into the bedroom and lie on the floor until they left and then I recall the last time the clan rode through our neighborhoods a group of teenage boys me included through rocks at the cars and so it was a it was an evolving process that that took place over a relatively short period of time we've lived with slavery and segregation 345 years we waited a long time for Freedom now is the time in 1965 the black community in Selma had had enough of suffering this kind of racism and decided to protest on March 7th hundreds of inhabitants began a peaceful march to demand respect for their rights many of the Marchers were women and children the March was broken up using unprecedented violence coverage of the events was shown on live TV and led to a historic Turning Point March 65 uh I was sitting at the dinner table with my parents uh they would not allow me to March that day because uh we heard rumors of violence um uh and so I really cried because I really had been I had participated in many of the marches before wanted to go uh but they said no but the phone rang during dinner um and my mother was told that um what happened on the bridge I defiantly left home and ran to uh Brown Chapel Church where the Marchers were returning it was a pretty traumatic experience because what I saw uh was adults crying I saw I smelled the tear gas and the clothes and and uh it was um it was just kind of a a real shock following the marches in Selma and after years of struggle black Americans finally obtained the right to vote for the first time Public Schools were obliged to accept black children resistance to this new law was such that the Army had to physically protect the first black children who attended white [Music] schools in Selma they had to wait another 5 years before the first mixed race class came into existence in 1970 James Perkins Jr was one of the pupils I remember my first day at so my high school very well uh as we approached the campus there had been a lot of graffiti uh written on the pavement the gem floor lockers and Floors go home was written all over everything and uh that was that's that was our first experience my class when we graduated we were about 50% white 50% black it was not an easy thing to do but we did it I know the discussions that we had to determine what the mascot would be I.E Saints uh and it was tough trying to figure out what band would play at your prom when you're bringing two different cultures together who prevails who's going to be the coach who's going to be the fullback you got two you got two first class fullbacks and two teams who's going to run the ball gradually over the course of the 1970s students of color joined universities and schools elsewhere in the country without anyone raising an [Music] eyebrow but opposition in Alabama was such that the governor himself took a stand against mixed race education George Wallace never missed an occasion to remind people how segregation was firmly rooted in the state's culture and I say segregation now segregation tomorrow and segregation [Music] forever in response to this forced integration hundreds of schools reserved for white children had opened their doors throughout the country but in Selma some families founded the John Tyler Morgan Academy John Tyler Morgan was a pro-slavery American Senator and leading member of the Klux clan in this southern town giving a school that name was a clear message to the black residents they were not welcome on the first page of their honor book it is written here free of political pressure students would be provided all the best of modern and traditional education without being subjected to transan educational fads or sociological [Music] experiments 50 years later the Morgan Academy still exists does this concept of segregation which was widespread at the time still lie the origin of the separation of the two [Music] communities in 2007 a foundation with the name something new was set up in Selma with the specific aim of encouraging racial intermingling through culture and dance talsa black arrived in the early days with her daughter shanai then 5 years old in the course of the activities organized by the foundation the little girl forged friendships with white children and asked her mother if she could attend their school the Morgan Academy once we started to um challenge some of the the status quo and US pursuing that really changed things drastically people went from really welcoming us and like loving that we're here and loving our programs to like you need to leave like this is not our Selma was fine like what you're doing is causing problems this is our heritage and she shouldn't be coming to our school and so it definitely changed drastically when we started when we pursued putting her in school with the other volunteer kids people got really upset I mean they got really upset um live talk radio talked about about how pretended that our daughter was white so she can go into the school you guys think blacks and wh should be together I don't think black and white should be together I think that black should go their Skuse and white should go their Skuse I don't think black should be with wies why do you think black should be with wies you you what you feel like is we still need to segregate Society yes that's exactly how I feel I don't think that they should they white girls or date black guys or whatever however you want to do I don't go along with that there was um graffiti about like with her hanging from a tree I mean there was just all kinds of our people our volunteers yards were spray painted go home um one of the moms that Shia car pulled with um they would be driving to school and it was nothing for a pickup truck full of young boys to pull up inside and give her flip her the middle finger and call her a [ __ ] lover I mean it was just like it just changed it changed and she doesn't actually even remember a lot of it because she was only five and so nothing really came directly at her because that's that would be blatant racism right and so what happens is that they pick on the friends who are the same color cuz I'm not racist if I'm picking on you you're the same color as me you I'm not racist or they would you know create a Facebook page that had you know go home and I mean just all this really nasty stuff 2 years later shenai left the Morgan Academy but tension was running High regarding the foundation where TSA worked its president having received threats of violence Gwen Brown was our president at the time of our organization and she had received some threats from a gentleman who lived here locally who had been building bombs in his basement and so um just from what she told me that there was like an agent was like Homeland Security was following her at times and just making sure that she was never approached or anything like that but it had gotten to the point where this raises another question what do white families think about this return of segregated education in one of the town's historic neighborhoods as they do every morning Suzanne and Maddie are preparing preping to go to high school they both attend the Morgan Academy and have never set foot in any of the town's Public Schools really your first day of true vacation how L you sleeping yes but why would I try hard enough to be that lazy I've got a 5:00 better things look you're so okay so that's your first day of vacation so what you going to do on your second day vacation sleep in sleep in as sleepy read books I guess their mother Jessica hope attended Public School throughout her education but she thinks things have changed now for her daughters they go to John Tyler Morgan Academy Morgan offers a very strong academic program and the decision to take your your child and plop them into a school system um where they are the only person that looks like them is a difficult decision to make when we can take the burden and the whatever may come with it um that's one thing but when you're putting your child into the middle of that that's a whole different kettle of fish how do you feel about the fact that your kids goes to the school called John T Morgan well um it's [Music] um it's not comfortable you know when you when you stop and think about the things that were I just have to focus on the fact that it's a school and there are lots of schools that are named after people who did some pretty shady things and so some pretty downright awful things but that doesn't Define the students the student body and it doesn't Define the nature and the character of the school yes Matt's giv away have mental really changed at the Morgan Academy as Jessica suggests is this establishment racially mixed today Donal on their way to school Suzanne and Maddie agreed to tell us about what daily life is like for the few black students in their school listen to our music don't expect any real diversity in our school because it's for the most part white people and they all think the same way I mean if you're different you better expect that a crap storm is going to hit you sadly one of our friends Krishna is leaving school she's a yeah that's really sad yeah also Terren is apparently leaving no yeah no he's leaving he's like I'm probably not going to be here next year recently we had vandals in the locker room they wrote a horribly offensive name on Terrence Wilson's freaking helmet it makes me so mad and then they wrote I wish you would die in someone else's Locker it's just it was heinous we don't know what did they ride on his helmet huh what did they ride on his helmet um it's not a very polite term the N word the N it's the n word [Music] the Morgan Academy categorically refused us permission to film in the school or interview their students according to the official statistics in 2015 there were only two black students out of 500 in the entire school and both left the school before completing their studies I believe it's one of our nation's greatest ills our children are not able you know to go to school together they're not able to integrate and learn together and work together and play together in a school environment to be sure they don't encounter any racial mixing whatsoever hundreds of white families have chosen to move out of town altogether in 25 years the town has lost 10,000 inhabitants which has had dire Economic Consequences the rate of unemployment is rocketed in the absence of qualified labor here black people earn 70% Less on average than [Music] whites this is a wider Gap than in South Africa under [Music] apartheid in short segregation impacts us economically socially culturally it also talks about unemployment it talks about I mean it talks about then the racial tensions I mean how do you build relationships how do you build a kind of community there's also an anger and that anger gets contained does not get contained and it comes out in ways in the last 3 days you've already had like three murders man is behind bars tonight for capital murder after shooting last night in town Selma police say 21-year-old has been charged with capital murder he's currently being held without bond this comes after a new report ranks the city among the most dangerous in the country and his segregation has regained ground in Selma as a result crime has soared most youths who fail at school end up joining local gangs showing off their weapons in ultraviolent videos with a crime rate four times higher than the US average the town is ranked among the 10 most dangerous in the country most black people live in certain areas of the town they call Smoky City if you go down there you'll see people walking around on the streets but at the same time some people just ignore it and don't try to help they be like oh them black folks just crazy and they need to stop killing people but they're not doing anything to help or change it I don't think I'm going to live here hopefully not nothing against them is just I feel like some other places I might get attached to you know I think it it's devastating for our country um I think we're creating um a country of halves and Have Nots I think we are creating um a situation where black parents and black children are being stigmatized ized they're being treated as second class citizens um I think it is it's terrible in term and tragic in terms of the impact on those families and children today we know that sociology tells you that the level of education is inversely proportion to your to to people being in prison education and prison is an inverse proportion but I think I think it's also very damaging and harmful for our country as a whole um not just for africanamerican or [Music] minority this debate on a divided Society played heavily in the race for the White House with the nomination of Donald Trump as Republican candidate racial tensions have come to the Forefront the candidate has played on every stereotyp type to set communities against each other especially the young go home and get a job go home get a job get a job these are not the people that made our country great but we're going to make it great again but these are not the people these are the people that are destroying our country if you're an African first come back to Africa if you're an African go back to toity [ __ ] you yeah [ __ ] you too [ __ ] insidiously throughout his campaign Donald Trump used a double discourse which alluded to segregation going as far as legitimizing a certain form of violence in the good old days they'd rip him out of that seat so [Music] fast but today everybody's politically correct our country is going to hell with being politically correct you and you have created this in Selma the black population watches this debate from a distance the inhabitants don't expect anything from America's politicians and would sooner look to [Music] God Sarah spends most of her free time with the choirs in her [Music] Parish [Music] her father is a pastor and leads the service every Sunday come on you can be better than that if the Lord have brought you he regularly tries to pass a message to his parishioners you are not I heard shooting all night laugh tonight come on come on and I don't care you can try to take the guns away but they still going to have for somebody guns don't kill people that's right that's right it's people that kill other people that's right so what I'm trying to say the situation is that Washington DC cannot fix the problems that we in now amen State House is montgom can't fix the problem that's right the mayor's office cannot fix legislations cannot fix the problem that we're facing now we need to make a change in our lives amen amen it needs to change now or for it will forever go on the exact same way and history will repeat itself more people will die and I just feel like it needs to change now or it will never change because this generation is going to they they're going to influence people throughout the [Music] years the history of the United States is made up of paradoxes and the Paradox of racial integration is no exception since today's students are are the children of the only generation to have really known racially mixed schools going to school at the end of the 1970s and the 1980s they joined the advances gained by Martin Luther King's Civil Rights Movement Terry suul spent her whole education in Selma's public school system in 1982 she graduated from a fully integrated [Music] class since then she's become the first black woman representing Alabama at the US Congress my classes were 55% African-American 45% white uh I go back to my class reunions and it's a very healthy mix of black and white uh in my high school I was blessed to have grown up in a community where my mom and dad as Educators really promoted education um but at every turn I felt that their um that I was that their teachings were reinforced by a community black and white that nurtured me from My Girl Scout Troop leader to my Sunday school teacher to my debate coach to my first grade teacher who was white to my sixth grade teacher who was black and it it flourished and that and it allowed people to have other opportunities so I was told that I was smart that I could do and be anything I want it to be and I believed it and I think that that's the greatest gift that a community can give a child at the time that Terry Su attended Selma High School her mother worked there as a librarian at that time for us in the city we were fully integrated in the city and it was working it was truly working our kids were benefiting and I said my daughter is a prime example of the product of it our children were achieving because they were learning from each other and they had the best of all worlds we went to school together I literally I mean I literally love those kids I did not see color and those kids I knew love me it's right today I can you know I hear from them I mean I was their student council advisor I was their librarian I mean I was close to those kids black and white and I just didn't I thought we had really cross I thought we had manage at the time everyone believed that integration was a total success the High School proms illustrate ated the ground that had been covered since Martin Luther King's [Music] struggle Jessica Hope was also part of that golden generation when lightning stries Ain pns are what form everything was normal you you just didn't feel any kind of tension or anything it was just you know we were all just kids nobody thought about about anything you know that was your friend and that was your friend and nobody thought anything differently or otherwise it was just everything was as it always had been what was unusual about Selma is all over Alabama the South the United States in the in the 80s um we saw this peak of integration uh which I enjoyed I they were just the best academic experiences of my life and I'm including my my University and I it was just fabulous it was a great environment during the 1980s things insidiously changed all over the country judges considered that racial integration had been a success from their point of view the laws introduced in the 1960s to force racial diversity were no longer necessary in Selma as elsewhere the law was repealed without anyone paying much attention the schools know that once they get unitary status uh they then won't have to go into court to seek approval for assigning black children to schools that are 99 to 100% black that they can do it there's no court approval required and if parents wanted to challenge it now they would have to go in and file an entirely new lawsuit and they would be subject to much stricter standards of proof to be able to establish racial discrimination now in Selma in 1990 an apparently minor incident would fan racial attention after the first black superintendent of schools was fired African-American students went on strike almost overnight white families decided to remove their children from the school it was If part of the town was just waiting for it the black community protests against the majority white school board they refused to renew the contract of the first African-American superintendent he start pulling out Mass it was a mass flight and then he went to the white schools and they not all white school some went to Dallas County High School and Southside they just pulled out from Selma High School and this left us with one or two whites the the groups weren't as mixed anymore and I remember one specific instance I had called a friend of mine and said hey I'm coming coming to town um oh great okay you know hopefully we'll we'll catch up and um when I when I got here you know oh hey and and we saw each other and I went to run and hug him and it was whoa whoa whoa whoa and I I couldn't give him a hug and he explained he said I I can't I can't really kind of be close to you or hug you or anything like that because that would look bad I don't want I don't want to get in any kind of trouble I don't want to get any kind of anything stirred up I don't want to I don't want to risk anything and that was so bizarre to me that was so weird um that had never happened we had gone to school together since fourth grade I didn't believe it I could not believe it that they would be out that the whites would leave us that white flight would stay away for 25 years I did not the history of race relations in Selma once again came to symbolize what was going on in the whole country official statistics show that in just over 20 years once the law no longer imposed racial diversity segregation once again gradually crept back into every state the resegregated of America if you will is something that's occurring nationally it's not just a problem of Selma I think that in Selma you see a small microcosm of what is happening globally frankly some have used the term um educational apartheid to describe the number of schools where 99% of the students are black it is true that by law uh there are no school systems that can by law say only white children go to this school only black children go to this school but it's not that much of an exaggeration to use that [Music] [Music] term what really bothers me is that there are generations of children who cannot imag imagine that there is something called racial integration like some of my some of my the classmates in my daughter's class right now she's a sixth grader in a school that's completely almost completely [Music] segregated only 178 Boards of Education throughout the United States still remain governed by laws forcing desegregation elsewhere officially integration has been a success back in 1954 we could have said the racial segregation was wrong right now people are like yeah it's segregated but it's something that people choose and it's not something that we do it's something that happens attending an educational establishment that is exclusively black is not only discriminatory for these young people above all it means greatly reduced opportunities for higher education the attribution of University places is a key event in the American High School calendar the students gather for a ceremony during which they find out which university has accepted them and the amount of any scholarships they may have been awarded present arms I to of the United States of America and to the rep forains one nation God indivisible thank you seated good morning everyone morning you know you have sacrificed to be recognized today and just remember this is the beginning of many many great things that will come if you continue to work hard and focus on your goals and be appreciative for the many blessings that have been bestowed upon you for some like Sarah this day leaves a bitter taste their choic is often one made by default since they have neither the financial means to apply to nor offers of places from the major American universities I wanted to go to Savannah College of Art and Design and it's a private school and the tuition is like seriously high so I was like how am I going to you know and I wasn't really like they didn't my school never brings art schools down here for any type of college fair so I really didn't have a good connection with that and the application fee for colleges they usually are like $20 all and up and it was $40 so I didn't want to give out any money knowing that I wouldn't be able to get anything but they had everything in art that I can imagine but it it kind of broke my heart but I was like it'll be I'll find somewhere else I thought about going to the r but think I'm a more artistic person so I think I should just stay how I am you know and finally Miss we don't have every academic opportunity over here cuz I know it been some colleges that come down here it be the same colleges but she don't ever hear some colleges from like way across the country they usually go to somewhere else other schools cuz mostly HBCU come down here historically black colleges so you don't you know cuz it's majority black people here you don't really have no school with majority white people come over here we don't think that what black kids are experiencing in schools and I use black in a broader sense I'm also meaning Latino Latino kids and kids of color black kids are experiencing are suffering we allow kids to suffer and we because we don't see black children children as if they're human we naturalize their suffering and I can I see that on a daily basis because my daughter is one of the few privileged kids in a classroom and her kid the the students have the same dreams and hopes you know from clo what to wear like very superficial the music they like but they also have dreams about their lives but you can see how their dreams get like the Langston Hughes poem right what happens to your the dream deferred the town's black neighborhoods are quiet most of the families are preparing for the year's big event today the students schooling comes to an end and they officially receive their diplomas it's a source of Pride for all these families think that's good I know my mom and my dad is going to be there and my sisters and brothers and I really want my boyfriends family to come there cuz I really love them and they really love me and I want them to come I think they I think they're proud of me they say it a lot nowadays but they're proud of [Music] me I was a little a little nervous cuz I was like I felt like I might mess up or something but I felt pretty good I felt proud to be able to represent my class in that way and I think the crowd really enjoyed that please stand for the national [Music] an you see studying and obtaining a diploma at an exclusively black school will have lasting consequences for these young people according to a recent US Government report students like Sarah will on average earn 15% less during their careers than black students who attended racially diverse high [Music] schools as they celebrate this important milestone in their lives Selma's young blacks are not thinking about that kind of thing what counts for them right now is enjoying the [Music] [Applause] moment [Music] the I officially announce that you are graduated you may [Applause] [Music] your Sarah will attend a university in Florida where she will continue to study singing [Music] a university where out of 4,000 registered students more than 3900 are black old battles have become new again we have to be ever Vigilant in fighting to keep the progress that we've made that if we're not ever Vigilant in continuing to fight for um progress that we will see um regression and that's what we're seeing you know I think that it's uh the great irony of our democracy the black community in Selma seems resigned to this new segregation they look at the end of Obama's second term disillusioned at their president's powerlessness yet more and more Community leaders are calling for the nation to wake up to what's going on in their eyes this is what's needed if future generations of black children as well can dream of being president of the United [Music] States