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Brown v. Board of Education

• A 50 Year Retrospective

• New Mexico Highlands University

• School of Education

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Brown v. Board of Education A 50 year Retrospective

1954 - 2004

New Mexico Highlands UniversityMr. Jesse Miller

Dr. Michael Immerman

March 2003

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Brown v. Board of Education1954-2004

• Remembering 50 years of civil rights struggles

• Looking ahead to the future of equality

• Commemorating those who fought for justice

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“The strength of Brown is not that it is a point in time – it’s that Brown is a living legacy. We may commemorate

and observe, but the state of public education today prohibits us from celebrating.”

Elaine R. Jones, President and Director

Council NAACP Legal Defense Fund

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As an eight year old Linda Brown had to walk across Topeka Kansas to get to school, while the white students in her neighborhood were able to attend classes at a public school just a few blocks away. The Topeka School system was segregated on the basis of race, and under the “separate but equal doctrine.”

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Linda's parents sued in Federal District Court on the basis that separate facilities for blacks were inherently unequal. The lower courts agreed with the school system that the facilities were equal, the child was being treated equally with whites as prescribed by the Fourteenth Amendment.

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The Browns and other families in several school systems appealed to the Supreme Court stating

that even facilities that were physically equal did not take into account "intangible" factors, and that

segregation itself has a deleterious effect on the education of black children.

First grade classroom, Washington School, Topeka, Kansas. 1956

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Their case was encouraged by the National Association For the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and was argued before the Supreme Court by Thurgood Marshall, who would later become the first black justice on the Supreme Court.

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“Segregation of white and colored children in

public schools has a detrimental effect upon

the colored children. The impact is greater when it has the sanction of the law, for the policy of

separating the races is usually interpreted as

denoting the inferiority of the Negro group.”

*Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954) (USSC+)

The Supreme Court’s ruling reflected the intangible effects of segregation

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“A sense of inferiority affects the motivation of a child to learn. Segregation with the sanction of law, therefore, has a tendency to [retard] the educational and mental development of Negro children and to deprive them of some of the benefits they would receive in a racially integrated school system.”

*Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954) (USSC+)

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“In each of the cases, minors of the Negro race, through their legal representatives, seek the aid of the courts in obtaining admission to the

public schools of their community on a

nonsegregated basis. In each instance, they had been

denied admission to schools attended by white children

under laws requiring or permitting segregation according to race. This

segregation was alleged to deprive the plaintiffs of the equal protection of the laws

under the Fourteenth Amendment.”

*Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954) (USSC+)

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“The plaintiffs contend that segregated public schools are not "equal" and cannot be made "equal," and that hence they are deprived of the equal protection of the

laws …We come then to the question presented:”

“Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other "tangible" factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities? We believe that it does.”

*Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954) (USSC+)

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The Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown v. Board of Education ended the legal practice of segregation in

America. Unfortunately the transition was not a smooth one. The nation paid a high price for its

moral conversion.

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Violence, hate speech, riots, assassinations, and intolerance plagued the civil rights movement.

Although America has moved toward the ideals of equality and tolerance there is still oppression and injustice.

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In August of 1955 in Money Mississippi, a fourteen-year-old black boy named Emmit Till made the irreparable mistake addressing a white woman in a familiar manner. Emmit who was from Chicago was visiting family down south and liked to boast how different life was in the big cities up north. As he was leaving a store in the evening he said “bye, baby” to the woman.

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That night the woman’s husband and brother in law kidnapped Emmit from his uncle’s home at gunpoint. They drove him to the woods where they tortured and eventually killed the boy. Emmit Till’s body was found the next day in the Tallahatchie River attached to a cotton gin fan, and rattled with bullets. A jury of twelve white men deliberated for only one hour and acquitted both defendants.

The brothers smiling as they leave the court house.

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“Nothing very significant is accomplished really, in offering physics or calculus to Negro boys who intend to drop out at the ninth grade level and go to work farming or cutting pulp wood.”

James J. Kilpatrick editor of the Richmond News-Leader

On February 1, 2003 Michael Anderson was one of seven astronauts who died aboard the shuttle Columbia. The research being done aboard the shuttle focused upon a cure for prostate cancer, which has a high rate among black men

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“The loveliest and the purest of God’s creatures, the nearest thing to an angelic being that treads this terrestrial ball is a well-bred, cultured Southern white woman or her blue-eyed, golden-haired little girl.”

Tom Brady author of Black Monday (a response to Brown V. Board of Education)

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Today another type of segregation can still be

seen in many schools and neighborhoods. It is known as "de facto" segregation, and it

results from prejudices and stereotypes that

separate our communities.

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In some regions of the country, our schools are

as segregated and profoundly unequal as

they were when the U.S. Supreme Court declared

segregated schools unconstitutional fifty

years ago.

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Voting districts created to provide fair representation have been undermined by lawmakers

and by the courts, and felony disenfranchisement laws have robbed hundreds of thousands of minorities of their right to

vote.

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so that today, one-third of all black men in their twenties are either behind bars, on probation or parole.

The war on crime and drugs has disproportionately targeted people of color for arrest, prosecution and long, mandatory prison sentences

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“The vast majority of intensely segregated minority schools face conditions of

concentrated poverty, which are powerfully related to unequal educational opportunity.

Students in segregated schools face conditions that students in segregated white schools

seldom experience.”

*The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University

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In 2001-2002 43 percent of all U.S. schools were intensely segregated white schools (less than 1/10th black or Hispanic students)

Of those schools only 15 percent were of concentrated poverty.

*The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University

Segregation and Poverty are linked

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In contrast 88 percent of intensely segregated minority schools (less than 1/10th white) had concentrated poverty.

This means that students in highly segregated neighborhoods are many more times likely to be in impoverished schools. Concentrated poverty is directly related to both school opportunities and achievement levels.

*The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University

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Hispanic students confront very serious levels of segregation by race and poverty. Non-English speaking Hispanics tend to be segregated in schools with each other.

The data shows no substantial gain in segregated education for Hispanics even during the civil rights era. The increase in Hispanic segregation is particularly notable in the West.

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80% of Hispanic students in

Western states attend schools

that are predominantly segregated to

people of color.

* The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University

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“In these days, it is doubtful that any child

may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the

opportunity of an education. Such an

opportunity, where the state has undertaken to

provide it, is a right which must be made

available to all on equal terms.”

*Oliver L. Brown, et al. vs. Board of

Education of Topeka Kansas United

States Supreme Court May 17 1954

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“Numerous studies show that student body diversity promotes learning outcomes, and better prepares students for an increasingly diverse workforce and society, and better prepares them as professionals! …

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These benefits are not theoretical but real, as major American business have made clear that the skills needed in today's increasingly global marketplace can only be developed through exposure to widely diverse people, culture, ideas, and viewpoints…”

-Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor

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0.000.050.100.150.200.250.300.350.400.450.50

1954

1964

1968

1972

1980

1988

1994

1998

2001

Percent of Southern Black Students inMajority White Schools 1954-2001

*The Civil Rights Project Harvard University

From this chart you can see that major strides were made in desegregation through the 1970’s; however, since the 1990’s schools have become less and less diverse.

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White32.8%

Native American

11.1%

Hispanic 52.5%

Black2.4%

Asian1.2%

White

Black

Hispanic

Asian

NativeAmerican

Student Enrollment by Ethnicity in New Mexico 2003-2004

Total Enrollment: 322,790

*New Mexico Department of Education

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White9.6%

Native American

0.6%

Hispanic 86.5%

Black2.4%

Asian0.9% White

Black

Hispanic

Asian

NativeAmerican

Las Vegas City Schools 2003-2004

Total Enrollment: 2200

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Asian0.0%

Black0.5%

Hispanic 94.1%

Native American

0.4%

White5.0%

White

Black

Hispanic

Asian

NativeAmerican

West Las Vegas Schools 2003-2004

Total Enrollment: 1999

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Civil Rights Timeline• 1954

Brown v. Board of Education Decision

• 1955

Montgomery Bus Boycott

• 1957

Desegregation at Little Rock

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• 1960Sit-in Campaign

• 1961Freedom Rides

• 1962

Mississippi Riot

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• 1963Birmingham

• 1964 March on Washington

• 1965Selma

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• Today 87% of Americans believe that Brown v. Board of Education was decided correctly.

• In the early 1960’s only 63% felt that Brown v. Board of Education was decided correctly.

• Today 62% feel that desegregation has improved race relations.

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"Young people tend to take their education for granted. And when you start taking something for granted, it's not valued the way it should be," - Cheryl Brown Henderson

Linda Brown (left) with her sister and mother

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Discussion Questions –

• If you were a Supreme Court Justice in 1954 how would you explain your decision to the media?

• How would you handle being the first minority student in an all white school? Do you think a white students in minority schools face similar problems?

• Do you think that minorities have equal access in our society? How about women, disabled, and gays and lesbians?

• How has Brown v. Board affected your life?

• What do you want America’s educational system to look like in 2054 (100 years after the Brown v. Board of Education decision)?

Thanks for participating Jesse Miller, 3/04

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For additional information consider the following website:

cain.ulst.ac.uk/csc/ reports/parents.htm

Centre for the Study of Conflict

School of History, Philosophy and Politics, Faculty of Humanities,

University of Ulster

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For additional information consider the following series of 5 newspaper articles:

www.newspress.com/.. segregation_index.html

Santa Barbara News Press