Title: Why Are All the White Students Sitting Together in College? Impact <em>of Brown v. Board of Education</em> on Cross-Racial Interactions among Blacks and Whites
Abstract: This year commemorates the 60th anniversary of Brown v. Board of the 1954 Supreme Court decision that mandated desegregation of America's public schools. By all accounts, Brown was a watershed moment in the nation's history, nullifying exclusionary policies and practices in public services that characterized de jure segregation and challenging the separate but equal'' doctrine that had been order-of-day since Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). Although few rulings have ever been [both] so extravagantly praised and condemned (Patterson, 2001, p. xi), historians and legal scholars agree that Brown is arguably one of the most time-honored decisions in American constitutional law (Anderson, 2006).There are good reasons for Brown's popularity. landmark decision precipitated racial integration in public spaces first through education, then later housing and transportation, to name a few. Brown attempted to redress past inequalities, promote equality of opportunity in public education, and extend equal protections of law for racial minorities who at the time were legally denied access to adequate education, which, in part, set precedence for outgrowth social movements (Jasper, 2010) toward disability, gender, sexuality, bilingual education, children of undocumented immigrants, and a menu of other civil rights issues (Anderson, 2004). Consequently, Brown became known for more than what it was-an education policy case-but also for what it could mean for others denied equal protections of law.For all its immediate good, the enduring effects of Brown are still in question. Derrick Bell (2004), often touted as a leading voice of critical race theory, once asked: How could a decision that promised so much, by its terms, accomplished so little, have gained so hallowed a place . . . that its mere mention. . . sparked a contained but very real demonstration? (pp. 1-2) Others have raised similar poignant questions, challenging the legacy of Brown and its failure to eliminate a constitutionally-protected system of racial discrimination and inequality in education (Patterson, 2001). following titles of more recent books and articles reflect this sentiment of Brown's inability to achieve the desired outcome of educational equality: A Tale of Two Browns: Constitutional Equality and Education, Still Separate and Unequal and The Broken Promise of the Brown Decision (Anderson, 2006; Gold, 2007; Irons, 2004). All of these, and swells of empirical essays, imply that Brown's intended effects have been minimally achieved or muted at best, if at all.Despite the debates, Brown had undeniable effects on public education, especially at the K-12 level (Spencer, 2008), but its influence seems to be more nuanced than some suggest. For instance, the Brown decision promised to integrate 11.5 million Black and White students enrolled in schools across nearly 11,200 districts in the United States (Patterson, 2001). And while the decision did lead to more integrated schools, it did not completely dismantle predominantly White or predominantly Black schools settings, as many districts remained de facto segregated for years after Brown (Wallenstein, 2003).Related, the unanimous ruling of the Supreme Court in Brown provided access for Blacks to avenues of educational opportunity in once all-White schools (Patterson, 2001). Of course, there were unintended consequences of Brown at the K-12 level too; scholars have documented how desegregation of public schools displaced, dismissed, and all-too-often decimated Black educators including qualified teachers and well-intended principals (Karpinski, 2006; Tillman, 2004).That Brown extended equal protections of law (i.e., 14th amendment) to Blacks in public education and lead to them-few initially but many more over time-gaining access to higher quality White schools is consistent with the Court's rationale in the majority opinion. Recall the majority opinion held:Segregation of White and Negro children in public schools of a state solely on the basis of race deprives Negro [emphasis added] children of equal educational opportunities . …
Publication Year: 2014
Publication Date: 2014-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 17
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