Brown@60

1. Brown@60 Nikole Hannah-Jones ProPublica nikole@propublica.org twitter: nhannahjones

2. Have you read Brown v Board? Today, education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments. Compulsory school attendance laws and the great expenditures for education both demonstrate our recognition of the importance of education to our democratic society. It is required in the performance of our most basic public responsibilities, even service in the armed forces. It is the very foundation of good citizenship. Today it is a principal instrument in awakening the child to cultural values, in preparing him for later professional training, and in helping him to adjust normally to his environment. In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education. Such an opportunity, where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms. We come then to the question presented: does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other "tangible" factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities? We believe that it does. To separate them from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone. We conclude that, in the field of public education, the doctrine of "separate but equal" has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.

3. Key desegregation law 1) 1964 Civil Rights Act bars discrimination in public education 2) Green v New Kent County lays out six factors formerly de jure segregated districts must meet to be released from court orders 3) Swann v. Mecklenburg allows busing and numeric quotas in order to break up segregated schools 4) Keyes v School District #1 acknowledges Latinos as a class that could demand desegregation and also rules against segregation outside of the South in a non de jure segregated state.

4. What are current federal policies/programs that promote integration? (Hint, not many) And is your district implementing or participating in them? Does your state or school district have explicit policies to ensure or promote integration? If your district isn’t under a court order, it is under a voluntary plan with the U.S. Department of Education? If the answer to the last two is yes, then how is your district complying?

5. Resegregation and racially isolated schools is rarely incidental or completely unavoidable 1) Zoning and reassignment 2) School siting 3) Choice policies 4) Transfer policies 5) Talented and gifted, special programs

6. Separate but equal? 1) Teacher quality: tenure, experienced, degrees, National Board certifications) 2) Curriculum 3) Funding 4) Extracurricular offerings: sports, yearbook, newspapers clubs 5) Teacher turnover 6) Art, music, field trips, dance

7. Grandchildren of Brown

8. Resources ProPublica’s interactive school desegregation timeline: http://www.propublica.org/special/timeline-from-brown-v.-board-to-segregation-now U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights data collection: http://ocrdata.ed.gov/ April 29 ProPublica will be publishing what will be the most comprehensive and accurate list of remaining federal desegregation orders: www.propublica.com under Segregation Now project page The Civil Rights Project at UCLA National Coalition for School Diversity Life effects of school integration: http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~ruckerj/johnson_schooldesegregation_NBERw16664.pdf