Reactions of High School Students to School Desegregation in a Southern Metropolitan Area

Abstract

In a preliminary study of attitudes and emotional reactions of Negro high school students who desegregated formerly all-white schools in a Deep South city, it was determined that there were many forebodings, unpleasant experiences, and emotional upsets, but that on the whole no deep emotional disturbances resulted. In the main study, an objective approach to attitudes and emotional reactions did not confirm hypotheses that length of desegregated experience results in lessened ethnic prejudice on either a cognitive or non-cognitive level, that state anxiety is altered by vicarious “formal” or “informal” interracial situations, and that Negro girls react more intensely to such situations than white ones. However, differential reactions did result from vicariously experiencing “formal” versus “informal” situations.