Happy Birthday to Integrated Schools!!

Today marks the 60th anniversary of the landmark US Supreme Court case of Brown v Bd of Education, 347 U.S. 483, which outlawed racial segregation in our nation’s schools.

Click here to read the historic Supreme Court decision that was handed down 60 years ago today.

Click here to read more about the Brown case at the Bill of Rights Institute.

Click here for Cornell University’s Case Brief.

But change is painful and moves slowly. I did not attend school with a black person until September 7, 1971 when I started the 10th grade- 17 years after Brown. That year, my hometown finally implemented a so-called “forced bussing” program to integrate our schools. That first week of school, I was horrified and frightened to see front-page news stories and photos of riots at two local high schools. We had no trouble at my school, but the whites mostly kept to themselves and the blacks did the same. I was great at acting like an advocate for integration, but I don’t think I ever had a meaningful conversation with a black person until I was out of High School. Click here for an article about the history of school integration in Pinellas County, Florida where I grew up.

The subject of forced bussing is controversial, and I think I understand the arguments against it. The popular visual argument about little children of both races spending hours on the bus while they pass other neighborhood schools much closer to their homes tugs at my heart strings. But, I remain in strong support of integration and I think it is absolutely necessary. We have never achieved separate but equal and I don’t think we can get there from here. Even if we could, I don’t want to. With all due respect to everyone’s cultural heritage, time continues to pass and change occurs. We can all honor where we came from without living in the past.

Furthermore, we must integrate to live lives of integrity. It is easy to misunderstand, or even to believe lies about people that you don’t know. It has taken many, many years of working and living with African Americans for me to become convinced that there are no inherent biological differences between “them” and “us,” and that there is no “them” and “us.” They are us and we are them. As long as we keep apart we will continue to look askance at each other and that isn’t good for any of us. It isn’t good for our country either.