To Disturb the People as Little as Possible: The Desegregation of Memphis City Schools

This study will look at how school desegregation in Memphis unfolded according to the phases of desegregation as argued by J. Harvie Wilkinson in From Brown to Bakke and in relation to the evolution of the Supreme Court’s interpretation of Brown’s meaning. This study will also examine how mob violence was avoided as desegregation took place in the city. Evidence for this study was gathered from the oral histories of Judge Robert McRae and Maxine Smith, executive secretary of the Memphis chapter of the NAACP, newspaper coverage, NAACP records, and John Egerton’s report to the Southern Regional Council as well as secondary works on school desegregation.

School desegregation in Memphis occurred in three phases: absolute defiance, token compliance, and massive integration. The Memphis Board of Education as well as city leaders were committed to fighting desegregation in the courts and avoiding mob violence in the streets. In the phase of massive integration, busing proved to be the tool capable of creating a unitary school system. Opposition to busing caused over thirty thousand students to flee the public school system creating an African American majority school system. The Court’s retreat from strong support of school desegregation and white flight counteracted the successes made toward creating an integrated school system in Memphis. In the end, Memphis failed to create an integrated school system.