It's a Long Way to Topeka

In 1954 legalized segregation ended when the Supreme Court of the United States sided with Brown in the case of Brown V. the Board of Education of Topeka Kansas.  In 1955 the court followed up its decision with a mandate that school segregation come to an end "with all deliberate speed."  This year marks the 50th Anniversary of Brown V. the Board of Education and communities across America are taking a good look at their schools, evaluating whether or not that mandate has been met.  Many know from experience that their schools are still very segregated and are sizing up the obstacles to integrated equal education that confront us today.   

Pittsburghers stepped out once again on the road to Topeka at a Teach-In and Speak Out hosted by Good Schools Pennsylvania on Saturday, February 21 attended by nearly 80 participants, civil rights activists, teachers, students and parents.  The tone for the day was set by a group of early morning panelists.  Here is some of what they had to say.

"We have not come as far as we had hoped in the last 50 years.  White flight from the cities to the suburbs has helped keep this city extremely segregated in 2004. The push for neighborhood schools and against bussing guarantees segregated schools. People have circumvented the intention of the ruling," said Tim Stevens.

Dr. Stanley Denton grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas where he saw his older cousins make the transition from segregated high schools to integrated ones.  "School officials thought nothing good could happen between a white kid and a Black kid."  He went on to talk about the quality of education he received in a segregated elementary school, the quality of education that his African American teachers provided and the high expectations his teachers had for him.  "If we had known that the fight for desegregation would end this way we would have thought about it in a different way.  One of the beliefs was that the achievement gap would go away when we mixed things up.  Instead it’s the other way around, kids go into kindergarten and the longer they stay in the public school system the wider the achievement gap grows.

"Another assumption was that mixing students of different backgrounds up would make it more difficult to have two tiers of public education, but in many cases we have these tracking systems, where Black and white kids walk into the same school but don’t share an educational experience that is similar at all.  The systems that are dedicated to maintaining the status quo have been ingenious."

Martha Conley Esq., picked up, "Students are more segregated now than they were in 1974, 20 years after Brown."  She pointed out that much of the progress that was made has been reversed.  "70% of Black students in the US attend primarily segregated schools.  Another decision by the Supreme Court where it refused to mandate metropolitan schools, where city and suburban districts would be combined, fueled white flight and now residential segregation seems to be beyond the reach of the law.  We’ve got more Black men in jail than in college.  It seems a decision has been made to spend $25,000 a year keeping people in jail instead of sending them to college."

Discussion during the rest of the day focused largely on understanding the Achievement and Opportunity Gaps that persist between schools in affluent and poor communities. Because our communities and schools are so segregated, these gaps often mirror racial divisions.  The root of funding inequities is that schools are primarily funded through a system of property taxes.  Good Schools PA has been lobbying and mobilizing to substantially increase the percentage of school funding coming from the state.  This year’s state budget included only a very modest, several percentage point increase in state funding. 

The day finished with a Speak Out, where Teach-In participants were joined by many others from the community who shared experiences with the education system and compared those experiences to the expectation that came with the victory of Brown in 1954.  Thurgood Marshall, the pioneer civil rights lawyer who went on to assume a seat on the Supreme Court himself, said it this way...

"Equal means getting
The same thing
At the same time
In the same place."

Many at the Teach-in and Speak Out talked about going to Topeka to bring our expectations the reality of Pennsylvania schools to the national discussion of the case on May 17, 2004.  It’s a long way to Topeka, 50 years and a few hundred miles.  Celeste Taylor, the Allegheny County Field Director for Good Schools Pennsylvania, suggests, "It’s time to get on the bus.  We’ve got to go back to Harrisburg a few more times - then we are going to Topeka - and then we are going back to Harrisburg.  A promise was made to our children and it must be kept."

For more information visit www.goodschoolspa.org

- Kenneth Alan Miller

Tim Stevens-NAACP, Dr. Stanley Denton-Pittsburgh Public Schools Administrator, Martha Conley-Esq. and Lai-San Seto-ACLU, were moderated by Eleanor Chute of the Post-Gazette in a discussion of Brown v. Board of Education on Saturday, February 21. Panelist agreed that after 50 years the promise of integrated schools has not been met and progress has been reversed. (Photo by Kenneth Alan Miller)