Separate and Still Unequal

Friday, May 17th marked the 60th anniversary of the historic Brown vs. Board of Education decision in which the Supreme Court declared separate public schools for blacks and whites were unconstitutional. There was little fanfare marking this landmark but it was one of the defining moments of the civil rights movement of the 20th century.

The Brown vs. Board of Education decision overturned the Plessy vs. Ferguson decision of 1896 which allowed state sanctioned segregation in regards to public education. In the Plessy case, the Supreme Court held that separate facilities for the separate races did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment as long as the facilities were equal. Unfortunately throughout the south, facilities for Blacks were not only unequal but shabby in comparison. Public bathrooms, water fountains and especially schools were first rate for Whites while Black facilities were often unclean, unsanitary and the schools were run down with children using out of date books and hand me down materials including desks and seats. For years, Blacks were told to make do and be grateful for whatever they received regardless of the condition. They had to endure these atrocities from the Reconstruction era through the Jim Crow years with seemingly no end in sight. The Brown decision was not only a step in the right direction but the beginning of Black people deciding that they, too, deserved to equal citizens in the country of their birth.

There have been some great steps forward since the Brown decision of 1954 but separate but equal is still a part of the education system across the United States. In Chicago, the public education system is majority Black and Hispanic and the poor condition of education reflect the separate but equal mentality of the city council and the county. Schools with new books, quality buildings and up-to-date technology are found in the areas where middle to upper class Whites reside. Schools that need the most get the least and are told the only way to give the children a viable education is to make the school a charter school. Last year, over 50 public schools were closed and the school one block away from my home is under siege. Instead of finding out why schools are not performing, the political answer is to close the schools and turn the remaining ones over to corporations who know nothing about education. They merely want to turn the schools into little factories that will turn out peons who will serve the corporations upon graduation. Those who don’t graduate are already being assigned to the prison industrial complex before they've even thought about committing a crime.

To commemorate the anniversary of the decision, First Lady Michele Obama gave a speech in Topeka, KS where the class action decision. Further south in Greenville, MS, it is apparent that the 60 year old decision is still a foreign concept. The Today Show recently aired a report highlighting the public school system in that town where the schools are still separate and still unequal. Greenville, located in the Mississippi Delta, is a victim of the socioeconomic issues that are plaguing cities and towns across America. Whites makeup more than 20% of the population yet make-up only 2% of the public school system. The Blacks how make up 98% of the students in the public schools qualify for reduced breakfast and lunch programs because of the disparity of income between Blacks and Whites. Yet Mayor John H. Cox III states that this disparity is not just a race issue however does admit that he raised his two daughters in the town but did not send them to the public schools because he felt education in the public school system was lacking. One would think that the mayor of the town would be doing everything possible to make education a priority in his town but he instead chose to allow others to have a substandard education while he paid for private school for his children. I don't fault anyone fault anyone for wanting the best for their children but as mayor, isn't part of his duty to make sure every child in his town has a quality education. Silly me.

The argument made by Mayor Cox is one heard across the US and heatedly debated between wealthy suburbanites and poor city dwellers. Given the consistent song everyone sings about all children being the future, it would seem we should be able to make public education a quality institution for all children and not just for those who can afford better. Do we as a nation not realize that by allowing education to be another commodity to be purchased like clothing that we harming ourselves and our future? Or are we waiting for another decision that reflects our inequities as a have and have-not society? Whatever decision we make, our future is intertwined with that of our children. I don’t know about you but my dreams of a happy retirement sitting on a beach are over. The age of The Terminator are coming sooner and faster than you think and it won’t be Arnold Schwarzenegger on a blue screen.