Brown v. Board of Education Topeka, Kansas 50 Years Later Celebration or Commemoration? Jean L. Konzal

O, yes, I say it plain, America never was America to me, And yet I swear this oath— America will be! — From Let America Be America Again by Langston Hughes

Two Cases Brown I: May 17, 1954 Separate But Equal Unconstitutional Brown II: May 31, 1955 With All Deliberate Speed

Clarendon County, S. C. Clarendon County, SC Briggs et al. v. Elliott et al. Place: Clarendon County in rural South Carolina Grievance: Starkly unequal, segregated schools for black and white children Plaintiffs: Harold Briggs and 19 other parents in the county Decision: A federal district court ruled against the plaintiffs. Their appeal reached the U.S. Supreme Court.

Topeka, Kansas Topeka Kansas Brown v Board of Education Place: Topeka, Kansas Grievance: Segregated elementary schools, and the harmful psychological effects of segregation on African American children Plaintiffs: Oliver Brown and 13 other parents from Topeka Decision: A three-judge federal court ruled against the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs’ appeal reached the U.S. Supreme Court.

Prince Edward County, Virginia Farmville, Virginia Davis v. the School Board of Prince Edward County Place: Rural Farmville, Virginia Grievance: Overcrowded, underfunded segregated schools for African American children Plaintiffs: Ninth-grader Dorothy Davis and 116 other students and parents of Farmville Decision: A federal district court ruled against the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs’ appeal reached the U.S. Supreme Court

Wilmington County, Delaware Wilmington County, DE Bulah v. Gebhart and Belton v. Gebhart (Justice Collins Jacques Seitz) Place: Wilmington County, Delaware Grievance: Segregated schools far from the homes and neighborhoods of African American children Plaintiffs: Two mothers of children in the county schools, Sarah Bulah and Ethel Belton, and seven other parents in the community Decision: A state court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs. An appeal to the state supreme court and the U.S. Supreme Court followed.

Washington, D. C. Bolling v. Sharpe Place: Washington, D.C. Grievance: Black students were segregated in overcrowded schools and denied admission to new, well-equipped schools for whites only. Plaintiffs: Twelve-year-old Spottswood Bolling and four other students from Washington, D.C. Decision: A federal districtscourt judge ruled against the plaintiffs, but the U.S. Supreme Court asked to review the case.

Historical Context: America’s Shame

Black Code or Jim Crow Laws First established in Louisiana 1890 The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow /jimcrow/index.html

Plessy v Ferguson United States Supreme Court Decision 1896 Separate But Equal Public facilities were constitutionally permitted

A Century of Segregation Ku Klux Klan 1866 Enforcement Acts Civil Rights Act (CRA) 1875 End of Reconstruction 1977 CRA declared unconstitutional 1883

A Century of Segregation Atlanta Compromise 1895 Booker T. Washington “In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the finger yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.” Williams v Mississippi 1896 Blacks disenfranchised W.E. Dubois, Souls of Black Folk "The problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line." Niagara Movement 1905 NAACP Founded 1909 Woodrow Wilson 1913 Moore v Dempsey 1922 Scottsboro Case 1931 Graines v Canada 1938 Charles Houston/Graduate School

A Century of Segregation March on Washington 1941 Smith v Allright 1944 Thurgood Marshall “The right to vote in a primary for the nomination of candidates without discrimination by the State, like the right to vote in a general election, is a right secured by the Constitution." Morgan v Virginia 1946 Interstate bus segregation outlawed Truman supports civil rights-- Desegregates the military 1948 / row/segregation.html

The Aftermath: Southern Manifesto Resistance

Farmville, Virginia Schools closed White children attend Private Academies Tuition paid by state Black children locked out of schools

finally… Alexander v Holmes County (Mississippi) Board of Education Desegregate Schools Immediately

Supreme Court unanimously declared that desegregated school systems be achieved “at once” and “…operate now and hereafter only unitary schools.” Gary Orfield Dismantling Desegregation

Keyes v Denver School District No. 1 First ruling re: de jure segregation in North and West “Once intentional segregation was found on the part of the school board in a portion of a district, the whole district was presumed to be illegally segregated.” Gary Orfield Dismnantling Desegregation

Desegregation in the North Resistance in South Boston 1974 "... [Assistant principal] Bob Jarvis [knocked] at the door to report that police had isolated the whites on the staircase, freeing the fire stairs on either side. Buses were drawn up in the adjacent alley, ready to receive the minority students. Detectives would lead them to safety.... Just then, the whites got wind of what was happening. 'They're getting away!' they shouted. 'They're going out the side!' Around the corner raced a dozen white boys, heaving stones at the buses as they rumbled down the alleys." Charlestown HS, South Boston

Miliken v Bradley, 1974 “Supreme Court blocked efforts for interdistrict, city-suburban desegregation remedies as a means to integrate racially isolated city schools….Milliken effectively shut off the option of drawing from heavily white suburbs in order to integrate city districts with very large minority populations.” Gary Orfield Dismantling Desegregation

Miliken v Bradley II, 1977 “Supreme Court ruled that a court could order a state to pay for educational programs to repair the harm caused by segregation.” Riddick v School board of the City of Norfolk VA, 1986 “Permitted a school district, once declared unitary, to dismantle its desegregation plan and return to local government control.” Board of Education of Oklahoma v Dowell, (1991) “The court held that ‘unitary status’ released the districts from its obligation to maintain desegregation.” Freeman v Pitts, (1992) “The Court ruled that school districts could be partially released from their desegregation. responsibilities even if integration had not been achieved.” Missouri v. Jenkins (1995) “The Supreme Court ruled that Milliken II equalization remedies should be limited in time and extent and that school districts need not show any actual correction of the education harms of segregation.” Gary Orfield Dismantling Desegregation

The Legacy: The Good and The Bad

The Good………The Bad Ended legalized separate but equal Beginning of the end of Jim Crow laws Symbol for other rights movements Black teachers and administrators lost their jobs by the thousands. Black communities lost their schools. Black children lost the love and nurturing of teachers who believed in their abilities.

Where Are We Now?

Where are we now? More segregated than in NJ is the 5th most segregated state in the country. Achevement gap between Blacks and Whites Middle class flight from cities (Black and White) We live separately. We can’t talk about race. Some people say racism is a thing of the past.

Are we better off? Where do we go from here?