Brown vs. Board: Then vs. now

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen
• Videos

By

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.