As Brown v. Board turns 70, we still have work ahead to make schools equitable for all | Opinion
This year marks the 70th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, the unanimous Supreme Court ruling declaring that racial segregation in public schools violated the U.S. Constitution. To honor the moment, teachers of color from the Kansas City area will gather in Topeka, where the case was filed, to reflect on the progress and promise of education for people of color.
Here's a preview of our conversation, which will be part of the larger Amplify: Empowering Educators of Color for Student Success, an annual event hosted by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.
First, let's reflect on what we can celebrate: Graduation rates have risen . The Black middle class has expanded significantly in recent years. And historically Black colleges and universities remain a crown jewel in the constellation of American higher education.
On the downside, students of color participate in fewer science, technology, engineering and math Advanced Placement courses than their white peers. Black boys still remain on the margins of gifted programs , and Black girls remain at the epicenter of disciplinary infractions at higher rates than their peers. Also, the persistent and concentrated poverty and chronic health challenges for Black Americans serve as barriers to progress.
The politics of race remains a central issue in any discussion about education 70 years after the Brown v. Board decision. While elected officials in Washington and state capitols throughout the country debate the culture wars, it falls to our teachers — especially teachers of color — to help students make sense of all this. This is a herculean task — though not a new cross for educators of color to bear.
Brown v. Board-era educators faced similar battles during the era of massive resistance of the 1950s and 1960s. The 2018 book " Recovering Untold Stories: An Enduring Legacy of the Brown v. Board of Education Decision " remains one of the best collections of stories told by relatives of children and adults who were part of the 1954 Brown decision. It reminds today's educators of color to draw on a long tradition, dating back to Jim Crow, when Black educators labored with low pay and limited resources to teach the children and grandchildren of formerly enslaved Africans — creating the social and intellectual conditions for the modern civil rights movement to unfold.
Ironically, the legal end of segregation set back many Black teachers who found that the teaching profession remained closed to them. Leslie T. Fenwick's " Jim Crow's Pink Slip " chronicles the dismissal of more than 100,000 Black teachers and principals from the profession during the school desegregation movement. Even today, teachers of color represent around 20% of the education field while students of color are now a majority.
As we look to the future and the upcoming gathering in Topeka, there is much to discuss:
Diversifying and strengthening the teaching profession: It is unacceptable for young people of color to go through 13 years of public education without learning from teachers who look like them.
Creating greater opportunities in the education sector itself: We will never approach the aspirations of Brown v. Board if students and parents of color are locked into, or out of, certain ZIP codes.
Finding ways to empower students, parents, and teachers to utilize lessons from the Brown v. Board generation: They should not be drowned out by politicians and elites. They have the most at stake.
Acknowledging that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 turned 60 this year: We have to learn how to strategically utilize Title IV to address discrimination that endures in our schools.
The conversation moves forward in Topeka on Nov. 8, at Kauffman's Amplify conference Nov. 8-9, and — I hope — in thousands of schools and millions of classrooms in America in the months and years ahead.
Gerard Robinson is a professor of practice in public policy and law at the University of Virginia and has written extensively about K-12 and higher education, public policy, economic mobility, after-school programs and race.
