Editing History of Missouri (section)

====School integration====
In the early 1950s legal challenges led to the admission of black students to the University of Missouri, which had heretofore been a white-only institution.<ref name="greene 1980 167">Greene (1980), 167.</ref> From 1950 to 1954, no less than four attempts were made by black families to enroll their students in white schools in Kansas City, St. Louis County, and St. Louis City.<ref name="greene 1980 168">Green (1980), 168.</ref> In one case in St. Louis city, a black college student attempted to enroll at the whites-only Harris Teachers College (then owned by the St. Louis Public Schools); courts rejected the student's lawsuit on the grounds that the faculties, libraries, and laboratories of the Stowe Teachers College were substantially equal to those at Harris.<ref name="greene 1980 168"/> In another St. Louis case, the schools canceled a class rather than permit a black student to enroll, after a court ordered the district to allow black students to enroll in white schools when their own schools did not offer certain classes.<ref name="greene 1980 168"/> In Kansas City, 150 black students attempted to enroll at a white school; despite their schools not offering gymnasiums or auditoriums, their attempt was rejected.<ref name="greene 1980 168"/> Finally, in 1954, a black student attempted to enroll in Kirkwood School District (in suburban St. Louis); the decision was stayed by the U.S. Court of Appeals in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's expected ruling in five desegregation cases collectively known as ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]''.<ref name="greene 1980 169">Greene (1980), 169.</ref>

After the ruling in ''Brown v. Board of Education'' Missouri Attorney General [[John M. Dalton]] issued a recommendation that Missouri's school segregation laws were void.<ref name="greene 1980 174">Greene (1980), 174.</ref> Despite this, several Missouri districts refused to comply with the ruling; schools in [[Charleston, Missouri|Charleston]] avoided integration until the mid-1960s, along with several other Bootheel districts.<ref name="greene 1980 174"/> In many cases, black students were assigned to schools more than 30 miles from their homes, beyond white schools, and many libraries and parks remained off limits to black students.<ref name="greene 1980 174"/> In addition, many black teachers were laid off after integration.<ref name="greene 1980 174"/> In Moberly, eleven black teachers were laid off in 1955, and more than 125 teachers lost their jobs in mid-Missouri.<ref name="greene 1980 174"/> Desegregation in St. Louis and Kansas City took place in 1955, but it nonetheless was a slow process.<ref name="greene 1980 174"/>

During the 1980s and 1990s inner suburbs of Kansas City and St. Louis began to lose population, while outer suburban areas increased dramatically in size.<ref name="larsen 45">Larsen (2004), 45.</ref> Wealthy suburban cities such as [[Mission Hills, Kansas|Mission Hills]] of Kansas City and [[Ladue, Missouri|Ladue]] and [[Creve Coeur, Missouri|Creve Coeur]] of St. Louis continued to exert influence beyond their size during the late 20th century.<ref name="larsen 46">Larsen (2004), 46.</ref> Many suburban communities began to accumulate traits of traditional, comprehensive cities by luring business and annexing area.<ref name="larsen 46"/> Although the two cities of St. Louis and Kansas City continued to be the urban anchors of the state, five of the six other largest cities grew in population from 1960 to 2000.<ref name="larsen 47">Larsen (2004), 47.</ref>