WHAT IS THE CENTRAL IDEA 1) Education was mandatory across the entire United States by the 1930s. Every state had a segregated school system, where White children were separated from Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color. Legally, these schools were required to be "separate but equal." This belief claimed that even if they were not in the same building, all students had the ability to prove their intelligence and be selected for higher education tracks if they worked hard enough. By the 1950s and 1960s, however, it was extremely obvious that segregated schools were not equal to each other, and children were not being given the same opportunities to compete in a meritocracy. This reality went directly against the popular theory of Functionalism, and raised a crucial question: what was the purpose of school, if not to provide equal outcomes, or even equal opportunity?