Brown vs. Board of Education (1954) ended segregated education in the
United States. Before this decision, were there cases when white
students attended "black only" schools? If so, what were the
circumstances? In particular, I have heard that the children of
enlisted servicemen (Army, Navy, etc.) were forced to attend Jim Crow
schools in the South, regardless of their race. I am looking for
documented evidence (primary or secondary resources) or memoir of
white students attending a "black only" / Jim Crow school.

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Request for Question Clarification by tutuzdad-ga on 08 Apr 2006 12:02 PDT

Mostly what I was able to find was information related to early
integration rather than information about "white" children attending
"black" schools:

The State of Texas eliminated segregation long before any other
southern state, but it soon went back to its old way of doing things:

?The Reconstruction legislature of 1870, by eliminating segregation,
gave Texas a single educational system in which all children shared,
but in 1873 and 1875 the state legislature repealed most of the laws
of the Reconstruction period.?
THE HANDBOOK OF TEXAS
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/EE/kde2.html

On February 18, 1946, a Supreme Court Judge, Citing Plessy v. Ferguson
(1896), which held that states could segregate schools as long as
there was separate and equal opportunities for minorities, pointed out
that California did not accommodate minorities with said ?separate but
equal? facilities, therefore rendered a decision that the schools were
effectively integrated. Local officials chose not to press the issue
any further and in September 1947, integrated schools located in
Westminster, Garden Grove, El Modeno, and Santa Ana allowing backs,
Mexicans and Chinese to attend schools that were previously restricted
to white children only. Nearby school boards quickly followed suit
with Riverside also choosing to voluntarily permit the opening of
integrated schools.

A HISTORY OF MEXICAN AMERICANS IN CALIFORNIA
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/5views/5views5h99.htm

There are other instances but if you are satisfied I?d be delighted to
post this an answer.

Tutuzdad-ga

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Clarification of Question by bubnyc1974-ga on 08 Apr 2006 15:20 PDT

I am more interested in the presence of white students in "black only"
/ Jim Crow schools before any legal action barred segregation. In
particular, I want to know the fate of the children of American
service men stationed in Jim Crow states. Did black children of
servicemen living in the Jim Crow South have to attend area "black
only" / Jim Crow schools? Did white children of servicement living in
the Jim Crow South attend the white public schools, or did some attend
the Jim Crow schools?

Tutuzdad has, no doubt, searched better than I can, but I can comment
from  personal experience, have gone to school in the Deep South
before desegregation.

Segregation was not just in the schools.  Blacks lived in different
areas and had their schools in those areas.  There was also busing
before desegregation to get kids to "their" schools.  If military
families lived off base, they lived in their "appropriate"
neighborhoods, and the military could not force the kids to go to some
other school.

Furthermore, the military only really started to desegregate during
and after the Korean war, as you can read on this site:
http://tuskegeeairmen.org/pages/2/index.htm

And this one points out that desegregation of housing came even later:
http://www.gaymilitary.ucsb.edu/Publications/evans_Minority200306_3.htm
    Scroll down about half way.  (It is not about gays.)

Here is an interesting letter from 1953 that points out that schools
on some military bases were segregated, others not.
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/desegregation/large/1953/daf424-1.htm

Just my opinion, but I suspect the segregated schools were in the
South and stayed that way for a couple of years more.

I believe the story you "heard" is an urban myth and would be
interested to learn where you heard it.

Hope this helps, Myoarin

The information on segregated and desegregated schools on military
bases is very interesting. Thank you. I heard about children of
military families attending "black only" schools from a second-hand
source, so I will try and track down the first-hand source and get
more details. Perhaps she attended a DE FACTO segregated school in the
American South after Brown vs. Board of Education was struck down? It
may be possible that after Brown, counties and school districts in the
South adopted certain measures (loopholes) to keep all black children
out of certain schools. If this was the case, I can see how a
county/school district would assign children of military families
living locally to attend particular schools: better to send some white
kids to the black schools than allow any black kids to attend the
white schools, that sort of thing.

I will try and track down the first-person sort of the story. If
anyone is still willing to research laws or stipulations that sought
loopholes in anti-segregation laws for schools, that would be helpful.
In particular, I am looking for post-Brown regulations that were
designed to keep black students out of certain schools, even if it
meant some white students attended majority black schools. Remember,
there's $20.00 riding on this!