Effects of Desegregation on Gadsden County, Florida Public Schools 1968-1972

The present study researches the effects of integration on the public school system in Gadsden County, Florida between 1968 - 1972. During this time period the segregated school system of Gadsden County, Florida was finally dismantled in accordance to the Brown vs. the Board of Education Supreme Court decision of 1954 and a number of suits brought against the county by various parties. The researcher seeks to find how students and teachers were affected during the time period. Gadsden County, which is a rural county located in North Florida, is a majority minority county; Black's make up the majority of the county's population. Gadsden County's economic system is largely agrarian; plant nurseries, tobacco, tomato, cotton and various mines make up a large part of the economic base along with their related fields: refineries, storage and transportation. During the time period that is being researched, many of the students that were attending the public school system worked on various farms that were owned by several families who owned property in Gadsden County during the Anti Bellum period. These farms not only employed children and their families but also housed and transported the children to and from school; when it was time to plant and harvest the farmer would pull the children out of school. This arrangement had been in effect since Reconstruction. The integration of the public schools was thus the catalyst that significantly changed the dynamics of the county.