Final answer:
School integration was not quickly achieved in the South after the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. The decision faced considerable resistance, with states and localities employing various tactics to delay or avoid compliance, and the shift towards integration was often slow and turbulent.
Step-by-step explanation:
The assertion that school integration was quickly achieved in the South after the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education is false. The landmark decision in 1954, which overturned the 'separate but equal' doctrine established by Plessy v. Ferguson, declared that separate educational facilities were inherently unequal. This Supreme Court ruling was pivotal in promoting equality and the civil rights movement.
However, the implementation of school integration faced substantial resistance. In response to the decision, many Southern states employed tactics to delay or avoid integrating their schools. The phrase 'with all deliberate speed,' coined in Brown II, was interpreted loosely, with some areas interpreting it as allowing for slow progress. Civil rights activists urged the federal government to enforce integration, but it wasn't until the intervention of federal troops, as seen in Little Rock, Arkansas, that integration began to be effectively enforced in certain areas.
Moreover, the reaction to this ruling was far from uniform. While some school districts voluntarily integrated, others closed their public schools to avoid integration, and defiance such as the 'Southern Manifesto' expressed opposition to the ruling's enforcement. Furthermore, private schools were not initially affected by the Brown decision. As a result, school integration in the South was a protracted and turbulent process, not the swift and smooth transition that some might have hoped for.