About Legacies of Brown

This book illuminates the effects of segregation, desegregation, and integration on students, practitioners, communities, and policymakers in the fifty years since the landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling. Articles by leading legal and education scholars address questions that are central to the Brown rulings' complex and immensely influential legacy: Has the promise of Brown been realized for all students in public schools? What effects, both positive and negative, have occurred throughout educational communities in the United States as a result of this court decision? How has the process of integration fared in the educational outcomes of African American, Latino, Asian American, Native American, and immigrant youth?

In an essay written expressly for this volume, Harvard Law Professor Martha Minow offers her assessment of what has changed, and not, in the decades since Brown. Additional contributions from leading scholars offer a broad range of views on this complex and contested territory. A first group of articles focuses on desegregation policies and legal issues. Another section of essays examines the educational effects of integration policies on a wide range of racial and ethnic groups. As these latter articles clearly suggest, the implementation and consequences of integration policies in U.S. schools have turned out to be far more complex and various than the education community ever imagined in 1954.

Both timely and of enduring significance, Legacies of Brown is a unique contribution to our current reassessment of the Brown decision and its many consequences for American education and society.

Contributors include Michelle Fine, Richard J. Hiller, David L. Kirp, Martha Minow, Sonia Nieto, Leona Okakok, Imani Perry, Linda C. Powell, Catherine Prendergast, Guadalupe San Miguel, Jr., Herbert Teitelbaum, Richard R. Valencia, and Lois Weis.

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Table of Contents for Legacies of Brown

Editors' Introduction

Surprising Legacies of Brown v. Board
Martha Minow

Part I: Desegregation Policy and the Law

Race, Politics, and the Courts: School Desegregation in San Francisco
David L. Kirp

Bilingual Education: The Legal Mandate
Herbert Teitelbaum and Richard J. Hiller

From the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo to Hopwood: The Educational Plight and Struggle of Mexican Americans in the Southwest
Guadalupe San Miguel, Jr. and Richard R. Valencia

The Economy of Literacy: How the Supreme Court Stalled the Civil Rights Movement
Catherine Prendergast

Part II: The Practice of Integration

Communities of Difference: A Critical Look at Desegregate Spaces Created for and by Youth
Michelle Fine, Lois Weis, and Linda C. Powell

Serving the Purpose of Education
Leona Okakok

Fact and Fiction: Stories of Puerto Ricans in U.S. Schools
Sonia Nieto

A Black Student's Reflection on Public and Private Schools
Imani Perry

Holistic Integration: An Anniversary Reflection on the Goals of Brown v. Board of Education
Imani Perry

Afterword
Dorinda J. Carter, Stella M. Flores, and Richard J. Reddick

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Online Resources

Links to the legal cases of importance:

Our online resource for most of the complete cases listed here is the FindLaw website (http://www.findlaw.com/).

The complete text of Brown v. Board (1954) can be found on the FindLaw website at:
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=347&invol=483
The complete text of Brown v. Board (1955):
http://laws.findlaw.com/us/349/294.html

A very helpful page dedicated to the 1945 case, Mendez v. Westminster, is available on the California Heritage Project website (http://sunsite3.berkeley.edu/calheritage/) at
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/calheritage/latinos/mendez.html

The complete text of Keyes v. Denver Public Schools (1969) can be found on the FindLaw website at
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=396&invol=1215
The complete text of Keyes v. Denver Public Schools (1973) can be found on the FindLaw website at
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=413&invol=189

The complete text of Lau v. Nichols (1974) can be found the FindLaw website at
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=414&invol=563

The complete text of Grutter v. Bollinger (2003) can be found on the FindLaw website at http://supreme.lp.findlaw.com/supreme_court/briefs/02-241/02-241.resp.lb.html
The Supreme Court decision:
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=US&navby=case&vol=000&invol=02-24

The complete text of Gratz v. Bollinger (2003) can be found on the FindLaw website at
http://supreme.lp.findlaw.com/supreme_court/briefs/02-516/02-516.mer.ami.usa.html
The Supreme Court decision:
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=US&navby=case&vol=000&invol=02-516

Annotations, the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution, "Separate but Equal":
http://supreme.lp.findlaw.com/constitution/amendment14/25.html

Another very helpful site for Supreme Court legal documents is available at the Legal Information Institute
http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/

History:

For an easy to understand overview of the Brown decision and how one educator created a web project, there is Lisa Cozzen's "Early Civil Rights Struggles: Brown v. Board of Education" at http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/early-civilrights/brown.html

Did you know that the school that Linda Brown attended before the Brown case is a national park? You can view it at http://www.nps.gov/brvb/ There is an expanded website listing other pivotal cases and press releases at http://www.nps.gov/brvb/home.htm

Realize the Dream Website. Provides the history of Brown, links to activities and events related to the 50th anniversary, and educational research related to the Brown decision. http://www.civilrights.org/campaigns/brown/index.html

The Brown Foundation for Educational Equity, Excellence, and Research in Topeka has an expansive site with a case summary, online exhibit, virtual tour, and research section featuring a bibliography at http://brownvboard.org/

http://www.voicesofcivilrights.org/ is a site that is a collaboration between the AARP and the Leadership conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) featuring personal accounts of men and women who lived through the Civil Rights Movement. A civil rights timeline featuring Brown is at the site at http://www.voicesofcivilrights.org/timeline/aarpTimeline.html, and a quiz is at http://www.voicesofcivilrights.org/quiz/aarpQuiz.html.

10 Things Every American Needs to Know About Brown v. Board of Education. http://www2.edtrust.org/EdTrust/Federal+and+State+Policy/ross+10things.htm

We Shall Overcome is a project highlighting historic sites in the Civil Rights Movement. There is a page on Brown at http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/ka1.htm

The wording of the implementation decree for Brown is often criticized for slowing the progress of desegregation. With All Deliberate Speed shows the draft of the decree with the amended verbage from Justice Felix Frankfurter at http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trr007.html

The Mexican American Legal Degense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) has a paper on desegregation cases in history at http://www.maldef.org/news/press.cfm?ID=221&FromIndex=yes

The companion website for Yale Law Professor Jack Balkin's recent book, What Brown v. Board of Education Should Have Said (NYU Press 2001), features excerpts from the book as well as a chronology of events from 1502 to 2000 at http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/jbalkin/brown/

The plaintiff lawyers in Brown were Howard Law School graduates, and their alma mater has commemorated their work at the Brown@50 website featuring biographies, a timeline, educational resources, and links at http://www.brownat50.org/

Meta-Sites:

The Department of Education houses the site of the Brown v. Board 50th Anniversary Commission at http://www.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/brownvboard50th/index.html. At the site you can read speeches, view a schedule of events, and view press releases.

A more informative site for Brown and educational equality hosted by the Department of Education is at http://www.ed.gov/free/bvbe.html. There are links to several sites on desegregation.

The NAACP meta-site commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of Brown features the court decision, a timeline, listing of commemorative events, photo gallery, and links at http://www.naacp.org/BvBE/

The University of Michigan Library has created a digital archive of pictures, documents, and oral histories concerning Brown. There are sections on Supreme Court cases, busing and integration in the North, integration in Ann Arbor, and current resegregation trends in American schools at http://www.lib.umich.edu/exhibits/brownarchive/

NPR's Looking Back: Brown v. Board of Education site has several audio interviews of key players in the Brown case (Thurgood Marshall) as well as lawyers, policymakers, students, and activists involved in desegregation, busing, and attempts at integration: http://www.npr.org/news/specials/brown50/

The NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund has a site with the Brown chronology and links to the NAACP and the Howard Law School at http://www.brownmatters.org/

The Washington Post online has an interactive special on Brown with video, transcribed interviews, and news reports specific to the DC area at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/education/specials/brown/

The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University - http://www.civilrightsproject.harvard.edu

Inside Schools/Curriculum Materials:

From Canterbury to Little Rock is a lesson plan that highlights the historic sites that were pivotal in the struggle for educational equity for African Americans. It is hosted by the National Parks Service at http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/crandall/crandall.htm

The National Archives has a timeline of events leading up to Brown at the Digital Classroom: http://www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/lessons/brown_v_board_documents/timeline.html
There are also digital documents relating to Brown at http://www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/lessons/brown_v_board_documents/brown_v_board.html

LandmarkCases.org (http://www.LandmarkCases.org) has an excellent meta-site on Brown with activities, case studies, and biographies of key role players in the Brown case at http://www.landmarkcases.org/brown/home.html

The University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana dedicated their academic year 2003-2004 commemorating Brown - their calendar of events is viewable at http://www.oc.uiuc.edu/brown/

The Smithsonian National Museum of American History has a site on Brown based on an exhibit with a feedback section and educational materials for teachers at http://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/

The Constitutional Rights Foundation has lesson plans on Brown and equality in education at http://www.crf-usa.org/brown50th/brown_v_board.htm

National Campus Diversity Project - http://gseacademic.harvard.edu/~ncdp/

On-line Media:

The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow is the PBS site for a series detailing the pivotal developments during that time-the Emancipation Proclamation, the Compromise of 1877, the Brown v. Board of Education decision, at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/

A PBS series on Thomas Jefferson juxtaposes the philosophy of the Enlightenment and his own contradictory beliefs in an analysis of Brown and presents discussion questions at http://www.pbs.org/jefferson/enlight/brown.htm

The May 12, 2004 NewsHour with Jim Lehrer feature story was entitled "Fifty Years: Brown v. Board of Education" written by Jule Gardner and features the story transcript, discussion questions for educators, and links on Brown at http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/jan-june04/brown_5-12.html

The Seattle University School of Law (http://www.law.seattleu.edu) has a exhibit on Brown featuring photo galleries at http://www.law.seattleu.edu/information/brown/home.asp

A documentary film by Peter Gilbert (Hoop Dreams) entitled With All Deliberate Speed opened in May 2004. The film focuses on the legacies of Brown and the resegregation of schools. The official film site is http://dsc.discovery.com/docs/wads/email/wads.html

Africana.com (http://www.africana.com) has several Brown articles, most notably reviews of other books on the topic at http://www.africana.com/articles/daily/bk20040517brownbooks.asp

Journal Articles and Highlights:

NEA Special Issue - http://www.nea.org/brownvboard/

EdWeek - http://edweek.org/sreports/special_reports_article.cfm?slug=brown.htm

Chronicle Of Higher Education - http://chronicle.com/prm/weekly/v50/i30/30b00801.htm
NOTE: This is not a public site, it's intended for CoHE subscribers only. Input your CoHE username and password to gain access.

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Publishing Information

Legacies of Brown: Multiracial Equity in American Education
Edited by Dorinda J. Carter, Stella M. Flores, and Richard J. Reddick
©2004
ISBN 0-916690-43-1
$29.95 paperback, ORDER
300 pages

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