Despite its aggressive stance, the Little Rock chapter of the NAACP didn't design the plan that eventually desegregated its schools. It was actually the local school board that took action, and they chose Virgil Blossom, the local superintendent, to come up with a plan.
Like people who have argued so much that they can't trust each other, the NAACP and white authorities in the South found it hard to believe that one would ever work in the other's interest. |
The NAACP's reaction to the plan was mixed. Daisy Bates and her husband thought the Blossom Plan would progress too slowly, and they worried that the slow pace was a cover for some alternate plan that would minimize the effect of desegregation. However, most members of the local NAACP wanted to give local leaders a chance, so they approved it.
Unfortunately, the suspicions of Lucius and Daisy Bates proved to be correct. After its approval, the Blossom Plan was slightly altered to allow students in the minority at any school to transfer. The school zones were also realigned so that one school would be predominantly black and one would be predominantly white.
The combination of those two moves ensured that all white students at the predominantly black school could transfer to the larger, predominantly white high school. Desegregation would be minimized--a few black students would attend Little Rock Central High School, and that was it.
Question
How would the Blossom Plan's amendment (which allowed white students to transfer out of black schools) weaken the process of desegregation?