Henry Garrett: Race and School Integration in the United States After World War II

Abstract

This text aims to analyze the persistence of notions of race in the post-World War II context based on the ideas of the American psychologist Henry Garrett (1894-1973). We used his published works as a source, as well as the transcripts of the testimonies in which he was invited to give his opinion on the issue of school segregation. This study is justified both by Garrett's academic trajectory and his outstanding participation in the trials that led the Supreme Court of the United States to decree the end of school segregation in 1954 and in the successive attempts to reverse the new legislation to prevent racial integration in public spaces, established by the Jim Crow laws. As a defender of the segregated schools, Garrett used his knowledge to argue that the creation of racially mixed schools would be detrimental to the students, due to the great disparity in intelligence and personality presented between them.