"Brown" v. Board of Education

Today is the 60th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education!

On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court issued its famous ruling in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case. The court declared that racially segregated public schools were inherently unequal. The decision overturned the 1896 Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson, in which the court egregiously ruled that "Jim Crow Laws" were constitutional if equal facilities were provided to whites and blacks. One year later, in a seperate case that became known as Brown II...the court ruled that school districts in the 17 states that required segregation and the four that allowed it (including Kansas) must integrate their school systems “with all deliberate speed"...this phrase provided enough ambiguity to allow these states to resist integration for over a decade.  But, now the rest of the story...

 Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez

Before (in 1947) Brown v. Board of Education, Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez, were fighting for school  integration in California. The Mendezes and 4 other Mexican-American families, (Estrada, Guzman, Palomino, and Ramirez) challenged the practice of school segregation in Orange County, California schools on behalf of over 5,000 Latino students based on the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

In Mendez v. Westminster, the California Courts ultimately decided to desegregate the schools in those districts and then desegregate the entire state of California in regard to housing, restaurants, swimming pools, etc. and helped provide legal precedent and hope for Brown v. BOE in 1954.

Listen to Sylvia and Gonzalo Mendez share their experience...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMX6wITZVuE (3:44)

"I went to court every single day not knowing what they were fighting for...I was only 9 years old...I just thought my parents wanted us to go to the nice-looking school."

 

Unfortunately, school segregation is still widespread in American public schools...African-American and Latino students are more likely to attend "segregated" schools. In New York, California and Texas, more than half of Latino students are enrolled in schools that are 90% minority or more. In New York, Illinois, Maryland and Michigan, more than half of African-American students attend schools where 90% or more are minority...and recently a local story commented on the highly segregated schools in Minnesota....

 http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentaries/259463401.html

Sylvia Mendez laments...

 "We're more segregated in schools today than we were in 1947." 

Although it seems as though we have given up on each other...by choosing self-imposed Defacto Segregation...I hope we never give up on pursuing the "better angels of our nature."