Educators who attended ASCD's 2004 Annual Conference were asked "This is the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education. What challenges remain?" | 
Daniel Gurany El Paso, Tex. | 
Rick Doss Brownsburg, Ind. | | The reality is that we need to revisit the past so we don't make the same mistakes in the future. Segregation is still an issue except that now it isn't based on skin color but on financial status. Where I'm at, in El Paso, there is a visible division between the haves and the have-nots, so we are making the same mistake, but in different categories—this time in economics. | I'm from Minneapolis, and in 1981 a federal judge ordered students shipped from the central school district to outlying areas. Just in the last year the percentage of minority population has increased sufficiently that they can allow those students who have been bused out to go back to their original neighborhood schools. So it has come full circle. | | 
Carolyn Graham Bolivar, Tenn. | 
Stephanie Burton Harvest, Ala. | | We still have to fully implement Brown v. Board of Education. It hasn't been done 100 percent in some areas. Throughout the country, we need to make things fully equal. It is really a cultural thing, but in some areas, particularly rural areas, it may be a financial challenge. With all the new types of optional schools, such as magnet schools, we're going back to separation. | We still need to be very aware that we have some issues out there. In a discussion I just came from, they talked about making sure that our children know about the sit-ins and the civil rights things that happened so that we don't have to go through that again. It is crucial that we make our children aware, but not in a way that causes problems, such as making them feel guilty or thinking that we have to do that again. | | 
Dianne King Laurel, Miss. | | | We have not accomplished everything, but we have made little steps with programs like No Child Left Behind to make sure we are aware of what is happening with every child in our schools, because they all have issues. This meeting, to me, shows just how much we need to provide knowledge about how many challenges we face with the diversity of students. Return to top.
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Current ASCD Articles About Brown v. Board of Education Education Update Still Striving for Equity in Education Despite the desegregation of public schools begun half a century ago, steps still need to be taken to provide a better education for minority students, particularly in high-poverty schools, said John Jackson of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) during his presentation at ASCD's 2004 Annual Conference. Brown v. Board of Education: How Far Have We Come? By Rick Allen Fifty years later, many people have only a vague idea of the details of the U.S. Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision. But since 1954, the implementation of that school desegregation ruling in towns, cities, and schools has left indelible personal memories on just about anyone who has taught, attended school, or raised children in the United States. And many would say that although great progress has been made, the promise of educational equity still remains to be fulfilled. Online Only Promises, Promises: The Elusive Quest for Equity Kathy Checkley speaks with Lorraine Monroe about Brown v. Board of Education By Kathy Checkley Lorraine Monroe, who attended segregated schools until she reached high school, believes that not enough has changed in the 50 years since the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision ended legal segregation in U.S. schools. Monroe is a staunch supporter of integration and maintains that when schools are segregated, "white kids would get a false perception that they really are superior, when all they've really had is superior opportunities," she says. "Contact makes a difference." Educational Leadership Once Upon a Time Before Brown: A Conversation with Clifton L. Taulbert By Marge Scherer The author of Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored and Habits of the Mind describes growing up in the 1950s in Mississippi. He reflects on the values his community instilled in him, the beneficial effects of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, and on current concerns about the resegregation of schools in the United States.
Education Update
Brown v. Board of Education: How Far Have We Come? By Rick Allen Fifty years later, many people have only a vague idea of the details of the U.S. Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision. But since 1954, the implementation of that school desegregation ruling in towns, cities, and schools has left indelible personal memories on just about anyone who has taught, attended school, or raised children in the United States. And many would say that although great progress has been made, the promise of educational equity still remains to be fulfilled. ASCD Infobrief Reflections on the 50th Anniversary of the Landmark Decision By Dan Laitsch and Katherine G. Rodi In the 50 years since Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka formally desegregated public schools, there has been enormous progress in the academic success of African Americans, particularly in high school completion, improved test scores, increased college enrollment, and attainment of advanced degrees, as well as full access to and participation in all areas of employment. Despite the great strides that have been made over the past half-century, however, many schools in the United States are once again segregating; previous efforts to address inequities and racial isolation, including busing and affirmative action, are being rolled back; and serious disparities remain in minority graduation rates, school achievement, and participation in higher education. Journal of Curriculum and Supervision Fifty Years Past … and Still Miles to Go: Fifty Years Past and the Brown v. Board Decision By O. L. Davis, Jr. The Court, by strokes of judges' signatures, had made possible enrollment of black children in schools that had denied their entrance that same morning. By September of the next school year, not quite four months away, many believed that racial barriers to school enrollment would be rolled aside.… Surely, many believed, improved racial relations would flower in the absence of legal barriers to school attendance. That September, however, brought almost no observable change in school admission policies. Is It Good for the Kids? Excluded from Success: The Overrepresentation of Minority Students in Special Education By Gene R. Carter, Executive Director, ASCD As 2004 dawns on the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, ASCD is preparing to celebrate the landmark Supreme Court decision that called for greater equity in our schools. But even as we celebrate, we are aware that one group of young African Americans is at great risk of not reaching its full potential—the children who are overrepresented in special education. Return to top.
 Historical ASCD Articles About Brown v. Board of Education
"Let's Face Issues of Discrimination" (PDF) by Prudence Bostwick. Educational Leadership, November 1954 "Desegregation is More Than Skin Deep" (PDF) by Earl S. Johnson. Educational Leadership, November 1954 "As Segregation Ends" (PDF) by A.G. Richardson. Educational Leadership, November 1954 Return to top.
Web Resources -
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Looking Back: Brown v. Board of Education, from NPR This page features a series of audio programs that focus on different aspects of Brown v. Board of Education, including the social science research that was cited in the case, the families affected, and the role of Thurgood Marshall. -
Brown@50, from Howard University School of Law This page features links to events, case law and chronology. -
Brown at 50: King's Dream or Plessy's Nightmare? (PDF) The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University (CRP) released a new study on national resegregation trends in American public schools. The report finds that in the past decade there has been backward movement for desegregation in U.S. schools, especially for Latino and African-American students, and particularly in the South; and, that Asian students are the most integrated and most successful students by far. -
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" Beyond Brown v. Board," the new issue of Voices in Urban Education ( VUE) from the Annenberg Institute for School Reform. Return to top. |