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Should Schools Serve as Laboratories for Social Change?

I. Brown v. Board of Education (II), 349 U.S. (1955)

The unanimous Brown decision in 1954 didn't specify how (or how quickly) desegregation was to be achieved in the thousands of segregated school systems. The case was reargued on the question of relief, and on May 31, 1955 (almost exactly one year after the first decision), the Court issued an opinion, commonly referred to as Brown II.

The NAACP urged desegregation to proceed immediately, or at least within firm deadlines. The states claimed both were impracticable. The Court, fearful of hostility or even violence if the NAACP views were adopted, embraced a view close to that of the states. . . . [e]ssentially return[ing] the problem to the courts where the cases began for appropriate desegregative relief -- with . . . "all deliberate speed." . . . By 1964, a decade after the first decision, less than 2 percent of formerly segregated school districts had experienced any desegregation. -- Dennis J. Hutchinson, "Brown v. Board of Education," in the Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States

[image:] Cartoon showing a man (labeled "SOUTH") using a horse (labeled "GRADUALISM") to plow a field (labeled "STEADY PROGRESS IN RACE RELATIONS"). Another man comes from behind him leading a horse while saying, "YOU'RE NOT GOING FAST ENOUGH -- TRY THIS ONE." The Cartoon is captioned: "No job for a race horse." Attributed to John Kennedy, May 22, 1954, Arkansas Democrat. Reprinted with permission of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

II. Little Rock Central High School, 1957

Little Rock Central High School was supposed to be desegregated by the beginning of the 1957 school year. On September 2, the night before the first day of school, Governor Faubus ordered the Arkansas National Guard to monitor the school. The next day, the Guardsmen prevented nine black children from entering the school. On September 20, a Federal District Court issued an injunction that prevented Governor Faubus from using the National Guard to deny the students admittance to Central High. When the nine students returned to the school, however, police removed them for their own protection after a mob of 1,000 people around the school grew unruly. President Eisenhower intervened, sending 1,000 paratroops and 10,000 National Guardsmen to Little Rock. The Little Rock Central High School was finally desegregated on September 25, 1957.

Looking back on this year will probably be with regret that integration could have been accomplished peacefully, without incident, without publicity. -- Georgia Dortch and Jane Emery, co-editors of The Tiger (Little Rock Central High student newspaper), October 3, 1957

Focus Questions

1. Reaction to the first Brown decision was fierce in the Southern states, with newspaper editorials predicting violence and political leaders promising defiance. How do you think the Court's ruling for desegregation with "all deliberate speed" should have been interpreted? Do you think it gave too much deference to white resistance in the South? What do you think the result would have been had the Court demanded immediate desegregation? What would you have done as a justice in the same situation?

2. What can the Supreme Court do to enforce its decisions? What is the role of the other branches in enforcing Court decisions? What can the Court do without the full support of the other branches?

3. Why do you think schools were the focus of the litigation that led to the decision in Brown v. Board? Is it more important for schools to be diverse and desegregated than the rest of society?

4. What do you think are the possible problems and risks involved in using schools as the site of social reform?

5. Statistics show that schools that once were segregated by law have often "resegregated," not as a result of law but of housing patterns and other circumstances. Is the "voluntary" resegregation of our nation's schools harmful? In terms of effect on students, is there a difference between legally m andated segregation and segregation due to other factors? What should national, state, or local governments do about this issue?

ABA Division for Public Education

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