Brown vs. Board: Then vs. now

Fifty years will soon pass since the May 17, 1954 Supreme Court’s landmark Brown vs. Board of Education decision barred state-sanctioned racial segregation. Time flies. How are we doing? You may have noticed that we still have segregation. But it’s not like it used to be.

Back then: Black kids went to all-black schools and whites went to all-white schools because the government told them to.

Today: Schools still are largely segregated by race because our housing and social patterns are segregated by race.

Conclusion: You can have as much integration as you want in schools and neighborhoods, as long as you can afford it.

Back then: State-sanctioned segregation divided students by race into separate all-white and all-black schools.

Today: Academic “tracking” in integrated schools divides students into classes that end up largely divided by race: whites and Asians to “gifted and talented programs,” blacks and Latinos to “special education.”

Conclusion: It is not enough to put students of different races into the same buildings. We also need to close gaps in achievement.

Back then: White segregationists helped white parents avoid integration by sending their children to all-white private academies.

Today: White conservatives help black parents avoid poorly performing public schools in Milwaukee, Cleveland and Washington, D.C., with vouchers to send their children to mostly-black private schools.

Conclusion: You don’t have to be a segregationist to end up with a segregated situation.

Back then: Thanks to dedicated teachers and parents, a lot of black graduates of under-funded, segregated, all-black schools managed to go to fine universities and succeed professionally.

Now: High-stakes testing actually may be preventing youngsters like Ashley Johnson, of Orlando, Fla., from having a chance to prove themselves in college.

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