School Integration: The Long, Difficult, Road to Compromise

The History of School Integration in Cecil, Kent, and Queen Anne’s Counties

Analysis & Interpretation

                 The Supreme Court ruling on Brown vs. Board of Education on May 17, 1954, required integration of schools.  It was understood that such an important social decision took time to become a regular part of the educational system in the United States.  As the implementation played out, many school districts in the south tried to avoid integration.  As the situation for a conflict was set-up with the initial decision, local school boards needed to decide how they were going to comply and how they would deal with the conflicts the situation presented.  Some districts tried to “fudge” their way through this process, some simply stalled, and some moved ahead. 

The Eastern Shore was no exception for this study revealed that compromise and resolution occurred in the following ways:

1. Cecil County— The northern most county with the smallest African-American Population of 6% had a unique situation.₁₈  It had a large military base, the Bainbridge Naval Center, in its territory and the President Truman had fully integrated the Navy by the late 1940s.  Thus when a group of African-American children of Navy personnel attempted to enter the school designated for the Navy personnel, Superintendent Rannels refused to admit them.  The students were told to attend the “Negro school in Port Deposit,” the Cecil Whig reported, and so the NAACP and other interested partners filed a suit against the county.  By the summer of 1955, Superintendent Rannels said the county would “attempt to eliminate housing of school children on a racial basis.”  But this process actually got its start that year by admitting the African-American students of Navy personnel and by the system agreeing to review individual requests for children to attend other schools.  The process was completed when the two final segregated schools were closed at the end of 1965.

2. Queen Anne’s County — This county, with an African-American population of 26%, was the second district to fully integrate, which it did in 1966.₁₉  The county, did much to stall integration and it apparently never accepted the choice plan.   According to a report of the U. S. Department of Education, published in 1964 this county was one of two in Maryland that had made no effort to integrate.  Consequently action was taken against the county that would result in a loss of federal aid so the county agreed to a desegregation plan with the U.S. Department of Education.₂₀  It became the second county to fully integrate, the compromise coming about as a result of federal pressure.

3. Kent County— African-Americans made up 23% of the population in Kent.₂₁  While the county was slow to integrate, it did take steps, unlike Queen Anne’s.   In 1964, the AP reported that it would have its “first taste of integration” when as “many as six of the county’s 951 Negro pupils were expected to attend all previously white schools.₁₅  The reality is that with this number a very small percentage of students had decided to take the “choice plan.”  In short order the federal government stepped up the pressure and required a formal plan of integration, which was adopted in 1966.  In 1967, the system, the last to integrate, completed the process.