Education Week’s latest issue commemorates the 60th anniversary of the landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. In the issue, Leticia Smith-Evans argues in “K-12 Education: Still Separate, Still Unequal” that Brown’s mandate of ending legal apartheid is still an ideal as racial segregation in public schools persists. She ends her piece with a call to action: “we must encourage ongoing conversations about race and education because those discussions clearly are still necessary.”
“With the milestone of the 60th anniversary of the Brown decision, some may believe that the scarring from racial apartheid in this country has faded, that racial integration has been achieved, and that racial disparities in education have been removed. The truth is that public schools remain racially segregated, and that racial and ethnic disparities in education continue. The ultimate goal of Brown v. Board of Education of ending a “separate but equal” system thus remains an ideal.
…Sixty years after the Supreme Court’s order, the existence of racial disparities throughout education systems in this country sets forth the challenges we face. This should serve as a call to action, one that requires us to move forward swiftly to address the barriers that students, particularly those of color, face in K-12 schools and higher education institutions across the country. In light of our long history of de jure segregation, we must encourage ongoing conversations about race and education because those discussions clearly are still necessary.”
Click here to read the full piece.
