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Civil rights and race relations materials, 1957-1964

What You Can Do About Racial Prejudice In Housing Page 17

The second assumption is that Negro children lag behind their white age-mates when they arrive in a previously all-white school--that they bring a lower level of achievement with them and therefore lower the standards of the schools they enter.
This assumption is partly true. Centuries of segregation, discrimination and oppression; generations of second-class schooling and severe limitations on aspirations, have stunted educational desires in many Negro communities and left their mark on Negro children. The Negro child who comes from a background of deprivation and low educational motivation and incentive is often behind his white classmates' level of educational achievement.
But he doesn't remain behind! A study of migrant Negro children in Philadelphia showed that, while the Negro child was markedly inferior to the white child at the first grade level, he was able to erase the gap in a few years.[10] And the standards of the school need not be lowered. In fact, it helps to hold them higher than ever!
And, of course, this lag is not always the case. The children of many Negro families able to afford housing in white neighborhoods and suburban communities, particularly those who do not come from economically depressed areas, are equal in educational achievement and motivation to the white children whose schools they enter.
Associated with fears about educational standards are fears that Negroes bring with them traditions of violence and delinquency. There is no question that slum living conditions contribute to juvenile crime and delinquency, but these need not move into a neighborhood with the new Negro family. To a great extent, it is the slum environment and consequent breakdown of social and family standards that leads to delinquency, not something innate in the people who live there. One of the best ways to prevent juvenile crime is to keep standards of sanitation, housing and health high.
Under similar conditions, white children and Negro children have the same standards of law, order and
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The second assumption is that Negro children lag behind their white age-mates when they arrive in a previously all-white school--that they bring a lower level of achievement with them and therefore lower the standards of the schools they enter. This assumption is partly true. Centuries of segregation, discrimination and oppression; generations of second-class schooling and severe limitations on aspirations, have stunted educational desires in many Negro communities and left their mark on Negro children. The Negro child who comes from a background of deprivation and low educational motivation and incentive is often behind his white classmates' level of educational achievement. But he doesn't remain behind! A study of migrant Negro children in Philadelphia showed that, while the Negro child was markedly inferior to the white child at the first grade level, he was able to erase the gap in a few years.[10] And the standards of the school need not be lowered. In fact, it helps to hold them higher than ever! And, of course, this lag is not always the case. The children of many Negro families able to afford housing in white neighborhoods and suburban communities, particularly those who do not come from economically depressed areas, are equal in educational achievement and motivation to the white children whose schools they enter. Associated with fears about educational standards are fears that Negroes bring with them traditions of violence and delinquency. There is no question that slum living conditions contribute to juvenile crime and delinquency, but these need not move into a neighborhood with the new Negro family. To a great extent, it is the slum environment and consequent breakdown of social and family standards that leads to delinquency, not something innate in the people who live there. One of the best ways to prevent juvenile crime is to keep standards of sanitation, housing and health high. Under similar conditions, white children and Negro children have the same standards of law, order and 17