Challenges and Impact: Federal Initiatives in Desegregating Rural Mississippi Schools during the Great Society

My research aims to better understand the federal government’s role in addressing educational disparities by studying the impact of two of LBJ’s Great Society policy programs, The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, on the desegregation of public schools in Rural Mississippi. It examines the state's resistance to integration from Brown v. Board of Education to the mid-1960s to analyze the structural factors that delayed integration and then moves into studying both the motives behind the policies and their implementation in Rural Mississippi. Ultimately, I found that the desegregation plans the federal government prescribed, many of which only called for “Freedom of Choice” or only desegregated two grades, were ineffective. Reasons for this include historical structural barriers, a lack of manpower in Washington, D.C. actually to enforce integration, and too much delegation of authority to the Mississippi State Office of Education. This resulted in the misallocation and misuse of millions of dollars that were intended to address rural poverty. While these Great Society programs began the process of desegregation in rural Mississippi schools after years of delays, which was no small feat, they were largely unsuccessful in achieving their goals, and educational disparities still dominate education in the state today.