Published: Friday, May 17, 2020
In 2013, I was about four years into my job at a Black owned newspaper when Augusta, Georgia voted to lift an old desegregation law.
I was sceptical of the decision because the promises of progressivism had not been met, as evidenced by the middling test results and the literal erasure the city’s Black education past.
Why We Wrote this
The story of a woman who was abused by her husband
Our commentator weighs what the Brown v. Board of Education ruling still holds for students in comparison to the reality of their schools today.
On the 70th Anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education U.S. Supreme Court decision that presumably made Integration the Law of the Land, I also feel a similar ambivalence. There’s also the promise of equal education for all students, regardless their race or background. The reality of resegregation is a much more bleak picture.
The Civil Rights Movement was a time of intense physical violence, but today segregationist policies and attitudes are affecting schools in a more overt way. A report released in April by the Civil Rights Project of the University of California Los Angeles provides a snapshot of current conditions: the proportion of schools that are highly segregated has risen to 20% and nearly tripled over the last 30 years.
In 2013, I was about four years into working at a Black newspaper in Augusta, Georgia when the city voted to end a desegregation law that had been in place for decades. I was sceptical of the decision because progressivism had not lived up to its promise in education, as evidenced by the middling test results and the erasure of Black educational history.
In Augusta, less than a week after the lifting of the order, the Augusta school system acknowledged that plans were being made to demolish the Cauley-Wheeler Building, an important and historic structure located on the campus at Lucy Craft Laney High. The building was the only remaining structure of the Haines Normal and Industrial Institute that Ms. Laney established in 1886 for the education of Black children. I took photos at various events along Laney Walker Boulevard with alumni and fans in attendance. But when it came to preserving a piece in history, you could hear a penny drop.
On the 70th Anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education U.S. Supreme Court decision that presumably made Integration the Law of the Land, I also feel ambivalence. The promise of equal education for all students is a great thing. The reality of resegregation is a much more horrifying picture.
Why We Wrote this
The story of a woman who was abused by her husband
Our commentator weighs what the Brown v. Board of Education ruling still holds for students in comparison to the reality of their schools today.
The Civil Rights Movement was a time of intense physical violence, but today segregationist policies and attitudes are affecting schools in a more overt way. A report released in April by the Civil Rights Project of the University of California Los Angeles provides a snapshot of current conditions: the proportion of schools that are highly segregated has risen to 20% and nearly tripled over the last 30 years.
Haines Normal and Industrial Institute is a school for kindergarten children in Augusta, Georgia. Lucy Craft Laney founded the school in 1886 to educate Black Students. This photo was taken around 1899.
Robert Greene II is a history teacher at Claflin University in Orangeburg, South Carolina. He says that Brown’s legacy is one of “continued promise.” But it goes beyond that.
In an online interview, Dr. Greene wrote: “It is important to remember Brown v. Board while acknowledging that there are still many things to do in education. This will help us to make positive changes in our society.” “There are already far too many leaders who call for a retreat away from the ideals set forth in Brown v. Board. We need to ensure that this legacy is translated into real and substantial reforms in education.
Reform was more radical and difficult for the Black experience. Clarendon County in South Carolina was the setting for the Brown Showdown in Topeka, Kansas. In the 1940s, the dream of equality in education began to take root in Clarendon County. Clarendon County, South Carolina, was the first to offer bus transportation to Black children.
The schools in Clarendon County that serve 2,296 white children are worth $390,600, while the 6,081 Black students’ schools are worth $64,285. Clarendon County schools that serve 2,296 black children and 6,081 white children are worth $64,285.
The law emphasized “Separate, but equal”. The NAACP special counsel, Thurgood Marshall (future Supreme Court Justice), was contacted by the Pearsons. The suit he filed on behalf of the Pearsons was dismissed. Levi said that God wanted him to make the sacrifices. God wants me make sacrifices.
Topeka High School in Topeka (Kansas) will change its classes on May 10, 2024. The city’s schools were the focus of the Brown V. Board of Education ruling that ended segregated education.
The champions of Clarendon County are directly related to the efforts made today by local and state government officials to teach a historical period that is being attacked. Dr. Greene, the principal at the Modjeska Simkins School named after a pioneering educator who was an activist and helped to write the Declaration of Equality for the lawsuit calling for equal access in Clarendon County.
Justice Marshall’s call to desegregate school “with deliberate speed” is a well-known historical figure. It has been echoed in educational history and textbooks. Ms. Simkins and Rev. Joseph DeLaine and Harry and Eliza Briggs, however, are less well-known. Mr. Briggs is the lead plaintiff in Briggs v. Elliott. This was the first of the five cases which laid the foundation for Brown.
In this celebration of Brown V. Board’s milestone, we must not only appreciate the people who were involved in the movement but also pay attention to the details of education. This goes beyond the constant and unhistorical railings against critical race theory or pitting private and public schools against one another. Since years, many people have been concerned about the “literacy crisis” that is affecting education. Maybe it’s the challenge of malnutrition, specifically students who arrive to school without food. This brings the issue of economic disparities to light.
A cyber center in Augusta, less than five minutes away from the Board of Education Building, has been praised for its forward-thinking approach. A historical marker is located in front of the parking garage. It recognizes Ware High School which was the first African American school to open in Georgia in 1880. After the Plessy-v. Ferguson ruling in 1897 that argued for the “separate, but equal” philosophy which enforced legal separation, the school closed due to financial reasons.
When I pass that marker, which I do twice a week I am reminded of the Cauley-Wheeler Building, of homecoming parades and of all the joys and sorrows that are the foundation of education. In the name of “Ware,” it is important to me that I stay informed about what’s happening in education and civics. Now I realize that only living documents are not enough to preserve civil rights history. We who are still alive must also do our part.
Source: The Christian Science Monitor