Ferguson vindicated?
Jun. 29th, 2007 08:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fancycwabsI suppose that commenting on history as it's occurring is probably unwise, but really, the reversal of Brown v. Board of Education warrants some commentary.
I started elementary school in 1976, twenty-two years after the decision was handed down, and I went to what was a de facto white school in Mobile, Alabama--we had a black fourth-grade teacher, and the attached middle school had several black teachers (and a black assistant principal), but zero black students. Across town, there were a couple of "black" schools. These had not been set up by anything other than the gerrymandering of school districts, but the disparity existed until I graduated high school in 1988 from a more diverse school. Back then, we learned about Brown v. Board of Education in high school, and while I didn't wonder it at the time, I now wonder if the irony of those lessons was lost on students at Mary G. Montgomery (a "white" school) or Blount (a "black" school).
The Mobile County school board took a number of steps to try to rectify the problem without resorting to bizarre school district maps, mostly by adding special programs to the "black" schools in order to give them a specialized curriculum which would encourage white kids to make a special effort to attend the black schools, and (presumably) give the black students already at those schools a leg up on education. This was a qualified success, and resulted in slightly-more integrated schools over time.
That practice is probably illegal now, thanks to yesterday's decision.
In Memphis, the schools are somewhat more integrated, as are the neighborhoods--but I'm somewhat concerned about what the future holds in those pockets of the country where racism is still fairly rampant, and Clarence Thomas would think twice before walking down certain streets. Maybe he's not been to those places, or would prefer to pretend that they don't exist. Nevertheless, thanks to him and his associates, the state of education for African Americans took a pretty significant step backwards.
I started elementary school in 1976, twenty-two years after the decision was handed down, and I went to what was a de facto white school in Mobile, Alabama--we had a black fourth-grade teacher, and the attached middle school had several black teachers (and a black assistant principal), but zero black students. Across town, there were a couple of "black" schools. These had not been set up by anything other than the gerrymandering of school districts, but the disparity existed until I graduated high school in 1988 from a more diverse school. Back then, we learned about Brown v. Board of Education in high school, and while I didn't wonder it at the time, I now wonder if the irony of those lessons was lost on students at Mary G. Montgomery (a "white" school) or Blount (a "black" school).
The Mobile County school board took a number of steps to try to rectify the problem without resorting to bizarre school district maps, mostly by adding special programs to the "black" schools in order to give them a specialized curriculum which would encourage white kids to make a special effort to attend the black schools, and (presumably) give the black students already at those schools a leg up on education. This was a qualified success, and resulted in slightly-more integrated schools over time.
That practice is probably illegal now, thanks to yesterday's decision.
In Memphis, the schools are somewhat more integrated, as are the neighborhoods--but I'm somewhat concerned about what the future holds in those pockets of the country where racism is still fairly rampant, and Clarence Thomas would think twice before walking down certain streets. Maybe he's not been to those places, or would prefer to pretend that they don't exist. Nevertheless, thanks to him and his associates, the state of education for African Americans took a pretty significant step backwards.
