Talking Point #7

"One More River to Cross"-Recognizing the Real Injury in Brown: A Prerequisite to Shaping New Remedies

by Charles Lawrence

Premises:

• Brown v. Board of Education
• Segregation
• Desegregation
• Race
• School system
• Power
• Privileges

Argument:

Charles Lawrence argues that the Brown v. Board of Education was not the ending to segregation in America. Even there was a law passed stating that all school had to integrated, there are still schools in America who are segregated. He also argues that Brown v. Board of Education was based more towards the south not north as much.

Evidence:

"...where Brown has left us...where we stand so that we may better chart the course to our ultimate goal." (Page 53)

Where Brown has left us is what we have to be thinking about. Instead of just saying "oh Brown v. board of education was successful because now EVERYONE CAN GO TO ANY SCHOOL THEY WANT", We have to think is it REALLY TRUE??????? Of course not because even though schools are required to integrate many schools are not because

"It could be argued that the Northern and Southern cases are distinguishable on the basis of state action; in the South, state action is present because state laws required the operation of dual school systems, while in the North, state action is absent because segregated schools occurred as the result of segregated housing patterns." (Page 57).

"The court's refusal to recognize and articulate the real nature of segregation in Brown and its progeny has fostered an attitude approach to the elimination of segregation that necessarily be unsuccessful." (Page 58)

Comments:

Where Brown has left us is what we have to be thinking about. Instead of saying that Brown was so successful we have to think WAS IT REALLY SUCCESSFUL? If it was really that successful WHY ARE THERE STILL SEGREGATED SCHOOLS IN AMERICA? For instance, the city that I am from has a high poverty rate. Most of the schools in the city are very diverse however, the percentage of white people is very low. Now if I was to compare the school in my city to the schools in Barrington we can pretty much predict that the majority of students in Barrignton are white and the majority of students in Central Falls School District are Hispanics. See there is no 50-50 in the race population in school. So whenever this situation changes so that all of the schools are 50-50 that's when I can say that the Brown V. Board of Education was successful. Until then, we can only see it as a step. I also want to conclude that in order to make a change in this world we all need to keep on working on it every minute of our lifes. I do not believe that one event like this one will completely end the problem. The problems are never going to be resolved completely if we stop working on it. Problems like this one we all need to think of it as "there would always be one more river to cross".