Beginning with Brown

This month commemorates 50 years since the Supreme Court's unanimous ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. This landmark case had a seismic impact upon our society, as it knocked down—with just a few choice words—the walls of legal segregation.

Photo by Sandy Schaeffer

But Brown is a beginning, not an end.

The daily injustices in 1954 are inconceivable to our students today: separate water fountains and doors labeled "Whites Only"; amusement parks and movie houses that barred people of color from entering; cemeteries that separated the races, even in death.

We are an unmistakably improved society because Brown struck a decisive blow to Jim Crow. Our country began to make strides in education, and African Americans, Latinos, and many other students began showing progress in high school graduation rates while making impressive gains in college enrollment and graduation.

Taking down the "colored only" sign was no small victory, but we cannot undo Jim Crow's 100-year reign of harm and terror in just 50 years. Just as earthquakes do not topple all structures, neither was Brown able to topple all barriers to a free, quality, public education for all children and students. Ending legal segregation, difficult as it was, was the beginning of the fight, not the end.

Despite the Court's call, far too many of our schools remain separate and hardly equal. Today, segregated African-American and Latino schools are more likely than segregated white schools to be rundown, overcrowded, and lack basic supplies. And a gap in academic achievement levels persists between many Latino and African-American students and their white counterparts. It's very easy to wonder what, if anything, has changed. And yet, there has been change—deep and profound.

The question we now need to ask ourselves is this: Are we truly resolved to fulfill the promise of Brown?

Some in Washington are anxious to rob the cloak of righteousness and wear it as their own. By touting the so-called "No Child Left Behind" law and vouchers in the same breath, they want us to believe that they are somehow delivering in the spirit of Brown. Yet the law is full of false promises and vouchers are themselves tools to forestall and prevent desegregation.

We cannot allow a wedge to be placed between our position and the truth. We fully support the laudable goals of improving academic achievement, closing the achievement gap, ensuring every child has a highly qualified teacher in every classroom, and having high expectations and shared accountability.

But the law, as it is currently crafted, doesn't move us any closer to those goals. It's the ultimate education reform hoax!

We know what will close the achievement gap—it's been done. During the mid-1970s and 1980s Latino and African-American children made their highest educational gains. Unfortunately, that trend reversed as desegregation efforts began to be undermined in the late 1980s under the watch of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist (who as a law clerk had written in favor of Plessy v. Ferguson's "separate but equal" doctrine.)

This trend toward retrenchment has consequences. Research shows that the gap between African Americans and whites in college education, employment, and earnings, has persisted, and is growing. I believe that this gap has its roots firmly planted in racial disparities, and the lack of accessibility to adequate and equitable resources in our elementary and secondary schools.

Many believe that the forward march of history compels progress and makes right that which is wrong. That is a mistaken view, for time guarantees nothing but its passing. We can't expect to advance without being involved.

If we are serious about providing every child with what should be his or her birthright—a quality public education—then we must continue to fight for what works: small class sizes, highly qualified teachers and education support professionals, up-to-date books and materials, parental involvement, and yes, adequate and equitable funding. Only then will we have Great Public Schools For Every Child—schools worthy of Brown's promise.

NEA President Reg Weaver