The 70 years that have passed since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision make plain one thing if nothing else: contrary to popular belief, the mere passage of time does nothing to guarantee progress.
As Dr. Jawanza Eric Clark argues in his book “Reclaiming Stolen Earth: An Africana Ecotheology,” this very Western (Eurocentric) view of “progress” as movement toward a more “advanced” future simply by the passing of time, ignores African and indigenous-centered ways of looking at the world, while also ignoring the power of the present moment and the wisdom and “advanced” ways of being from the past.
There are Brown v. Board-related issues that rarely garner the attention they deserve. Yet, grassroots activists and scholars alike contend these often-ignored issues offer us wisdom and insights from our past that could and should instruct the steps we take in this present moment so that 70 years from now, we don’t find ourselves in the same place as a people and society.
Number of Black Teachers and Principals Lost
Leslie T. Fenwick’s book “Jim Crow’s Pink Slip: The Untold Story of Black Principal and Teacher Leadership,” focuses on the systematic dismissal of Black teachers and principals from public schools after the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision ended segregated schooling. Based on transcripts and congressional testimony, Fenwick estimates that the release of 100,000 Black teachers and principals led to a loss of about $1 billion in income from the Black community, which is equivalent to about $2.2 billion in today’s money. This figure does not calculate the amount Black students were harmed emotionally and psychologically after having to attend school in racially hostile environments, with teachers who most often didn’t want them in their classrooms.
False Narrative: Desire for white Proximity
According to nearly everyone involved in Brown v. Board and all the cases connected to it, integration (sitting next to white kids) was never the goal. In the Briggs v. Ellison case, for example, Black parents wanted their tax dollars to go toward one school bus for their children instead of their taxes only paying for the transportation needs of area white students. One of the participants of that lawsuit recently told a gathering commemorating that legal battle, “All we wanted was a bus.”
Brown v. Board is Not One Case
The Brown v. Board decision didn’t stem from a single case. The challenge to racial segregation in public schools actually arose several times from communities all across the country. Five of those communities, along with the NAACP, bravely sought the elimination of segregation in the United States in pursuit of true equality. They shared a common goal, and were bundled together by the Supreme Court. These cases led to a single ruling on this national issue. Those cases included:
Briggs v. Elliott: When their petition for buses was ignored, 20 parents in South Carolina filed suit to challenge segregation itself;
Bolling v. Sharpe: John Phillip Sousa Junior High School in Washington D.C. refused to admit 11 African Americans despite having several empty classrooms;
Brown v. Board of Education: Started by the NAACP, 13 parents in Topeka, KS. enrolled their children in white schools but were refused;
Davis v. County School Board: Following a 400-student strike in Farmville, VA, the NAACP agreed to help them file suit against segregation itself; and
Belton (Bulah) v. Gebhart: Two cases of inequality, Belton v. Gebhart, and Bulah v. Gebhart argued by Louis Redding, Delaware’s first African American attorney.
Quality of Segregated Instruction
Though segregated schools of the early-to-mid 20th century suffered from a gross lack of resources (as predominantly Black and Brown schools do today), according to students of those segregated schools, their parents and the transcripts of their teachers, Black children on average received a much highly quality of education from teachers who were often over-qualified, with multiple degrees (often master’s and doctorate degrees). Many of those teachers had the credentials to become scientists, engineers, mathematicians, etc., but because they were blocked due to racism, they poured themselves fully into educating younger generations of Black youth. Testimonies of students who experienced those initial years of integration regularly speak about the radical drop in teacher quality and intelligence at their integrated schools. The quality of teachers and their instruction in those segregated schools were far superior to the teacher quality Black students found once “integrated.” And those teachers possessed what modern researchers say is the most important determinant of student success – teacher expectations; they believed in the abilities and intelligence of Black children.
Pushback on Black
Cities, counties and entire states refused to comply with the Brown v. Board decision. The state of Virginia, for example, shut down its public school system for five years rather than allow for integrated classrooms. In the immediate aftermath of the Brown v. Board decision, “segregation academies” were founded across the South as city, county, and state governments diverted tax dollars meant for public schools (including tax dollars paid by Blacks) and sent that money to pay for essentially private, all-white church schools.
Recognizing the powerful and “progressive” individuals, actions and examples from the past, then using those pieces of wisdom in our present to make a better future is called honoring the African principle of Sanfoka, described as looking back in order to move forward, reaching back and fetching it and/or, according to one newly minted Howard University doctoral student/graduate, “remembering forward.” Regularly practicing Sankofa allows us to avoid the Western trap of believing that progress is simply a matter of time.
(Sources: www.nps.gov/brvb/learn/historyculture/fivecases.htm and “In Class with Carr”)
