Earlier this month, we gathered at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in partnership with The Century Foundation's Bridges Collaborative, American Institutes for Research, and Integrated Schools (along with many, many participating NCSD members) to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Brown v. Board and build a collective vision for truly integrated and equitable schools. Watch the full event recording or listen to a recap via The Integrated Schools Podcast.

POLICY UPDATES

NCSD STAFF UPDATES

What We've Been Up to Recently

A MONTH OF BROWN EVENTS: CA, DC, NY, AND MORE

NCSD had another busy month supporting, participating in, and speaking at numerous events and panels around the country. In addition to our "Brown v. Board at 70: Fulfilling the True Promise of School Integration" event discussed above:

• NCSD Director Gina Chirichigno participated in The Educational Opportunity Project's "The Unfinished Legacy of Brown v Board of Education at 70" conference at Stanford, which unveiled a new interactive map that provides data on racial/ethnic and economic school segregation in states, counties, metropolitan areas, and school districts from 1991 to 2022.
• This new tool garnered A LOT of media attention, see a sampling here.
• Also, check out New America's suite of between-district segregation and resource inequity resources, which includes an interactive map, report, and multimedia story.
• NCSD Communications Manager Jenna Tomasello participated in a Thurgood Marshall Center Trust event, commemorating Brown v. Board and DC's desegregation case, Bolling v. Sharpe, as well as the life and legacy of Justice Thurgood Marshall. Check out this piece recapping the event (and quoting Jenna Tomasello!).

NCSD also co-sponsored and participated in a number of other events, including:

• The NAACP's "Celebrating the Past, Shaping the Future: 70th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education," where President Joe Biden spoke.
• “Remembering Brown: The Diversity Imperative 70 Years Later," hosted by Women In Government Relations.
• "Brown v. Board 70 Years Later: The State of Integration in NYC Public Schools," hosted by New York City Comptroller’s Office, New York Appleseed, and NYU Metro Center.
• Read the new report by the Comptroller's Office and Appleseed, "Intentional and Inclusive School Mergers: Prioritizing Real Integration as NYC Works to Reduce Class Size and Address Declining Enrollment," as well as the press release and media coverage here, here, and here.

BROWN ANNIVERSARY NEWS

As you know, the media has been shining a spotlight on Brown v. Board throughout the month of May, with my outlets running dozens of stories and even creating new webpages and tools to house content related to the 70th anniversary. Check out these pages and a sampling of stories below (many of which mention NCSD and/or quote our members!):

• Associated Press
• 70 years ago, school integration was a dream many believed could actually happen. It hasn’t (May 20)
• Axios
• Meet the group fighting to revive the school desegregation debate (May 15)
• Chalkbeat
• Seventy years after Brown v Board of Education, school funding is the new frontier in education equity (May 20)
• The Conversation
• How Black teachers lost when civil rights won in Brown v. Board (May 16)
• Education Week
• A New Way for Educators to Think About School Segregation (May 6)
• The Hechinger Report
• OPINION: 70 years after Brown vs. Board decision, key takeaways remain buried (May 13)
• K-12 Dive
• Are schools resegregating? Data since 1991 says yes (May 16)
• The 74
• Schools are More Segregated than 30 Years Ago. But How Much? (May 11)

Special shoutout to Smithsonian Magazine for this nice mention: "The AIR Equity Initiative is one of many organizations that is seeking to address inequity and racial isolation in our schools. The Century Foundation, Brown’s Promise, the National Coalition on School Diversity, and others are searching for new solutions to this way-too-old problem."

IN MEMORIAM

NCSD mourns the losses of two education law, policy, and research giants: Christopher Edley and Jeannie Oakes.

"Christopher Edley Jr., Berkeley Law’s dean from 2004 to 2013 and a renowned figure in administrative law, education policy, and civil rights, died unexpectedly on May 10 at age 71...Edley forged a distinguished career in both academia and public service. He spent 23 years as a professor at Harvard Law School, where co-founded the Harvard Civil Rights Project." Read the full tribute.

"AERA 2015-16 President Jeannie Oakes, 81, died on April 25. She was Presidential Professor Emeritus in Educational Equity at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a Senior Fellow in Residence at the Learning Policy Institute...Watch her 2016 AERA Presidential Address here." "Oakes’ ideas and work at UCLA set a moral compass for a department of education committed to opportunity, equity, and justice, and established a research and teacher education program to develop educators to 'change the world.'" Read the full tribute.

NCSD MEMBER UPDATES

NEWS FROM ACROSS OUR COUNTRY

National -

• Survey: 70 Years Brown v. Board, Segregation Haunts American Education System (Black Enterprise, May 19) - "A Washington Post-Ipsos survey indicates that a vast majority of Americans support the 1954 Supreme Court ruling that segregation in public schools should be outlawed, but a closer look at the education system reveals that public schools were never functionally desegregated. As BLACK ENTERPRISE previously reported, schools remain segregated largely through the practice of 'educational redlining,' which has a direct impact on which schools receive funding."
• ‘Shadow of segregation looms’ on 70th anniversary of Brown v. Board (The Hill, May 18) - "Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) was only 7 when the Supreme Court ruled in the Brown v. Board of Education case that separate but equal was unconstitutional....Now, 70 years after the landmark ruling, Green and other leading Black voices are concerned that the ruling is slowly being chipped away."
• It’s been 70 years since Brown v. Board of Education. The US is still trying to achieve the promise of integration. (CNN, May 17) - "As the nation commemorates the ruling’s 70th anniversary, civil rights leaders and advocates tell CNN the case may have paved the way for more equal and integrated schools, but fierce—and continued—opposition to integration means the ruling in no way assured the end of segregated education in the United States."
• Enrichment only for the rich? How school segregation continues to divide students by income (USA Today, May 16) - "Data shared exclusively with USA TODAY shows that even within the same metropolitan area, school districts in wealthy communities often get more dollars per pupil than lower-income districts. In many regions, state funding policies designed to offset these disparities don’t make much of a dent, according to the analysis by the think tank Bellwether." 
• Resistance to Brown school desegregation decision 'purged' Black male educators: Experts (ABC News, May 15) - "The U.S. Supreme Court's celebrated ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, ending racial segregation in America's public schools, turns 70 this week, and the anniversary is being marked as a major advance for civil rights. But less well-known is that the landmark case had a crippling impact on Black male teachers."
• Campus Protests Are Called Disruptive. So Was the Civil Rights Movement (TIME, May 9) - "Indeed, from the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955 on, King understood the need for disruptive protest to upset norms of segregation, poverty, and militarism. And he was criticized for it. Many leaders and commentators chastised King and the bus boycott for hurting the bus company and putting people out of work."
• Separate Is Never Equal: Authors Margaret Beale Spencer and Nancy E. Dowd on Ensuring Equality for America’s Children (Ms. Magazine, May 8) - "Psychologist Margaret Beale Spencer and attorney Nancy E. Dowd, authors of Radical Brown: Keeping the Promise to America’s Children, interrogate why progress has been slow and uneven. Their searing analysis zeroes in on the academic and emotional development of children of color and white children." 
• Carlotta Walls LaNier Babysat My Mom—Brown v. Board Was Watered Down (Newsweek, May 1) - "It is not a coincidence that girls and women (often mothers and teachers) led the fight for school desegregation. Black girls learn early in life that they will be expected to be poised and strong-willed in the face of danger and degradation."
• Ruby Bridges Reflects On 1960 School Integration—And Slams Book Bans Trying To 'Cover Up History' (Comic Sans, April 30) - "Civil rights activist Ruby Bridges is a crucial figure in U.S. history as the first Black child to integrate a Southern elementary school. However, right-wing culture warriors targeting books about American history, including systemic racism and discrimination against LGBTQ people, are trying to infringe on her legacy."

Alabama -

• How Residents in a Rural Alabama County Are Confronting the Lasting Harm of Segregation Academies (ProPublica, May 24) - "In Wilcox County, Alabama, many people say they want to bridge racial divides created by their segregated schools. But they must face a long and painful history."
• Segregation Academies Still Operate Across the South. One Town Grapples With Its Divided Schools. (ProPublica, May 18) - "Seventy years after Brown v. Board, Black and white residents, in Camden, Alabama, say they would like to see their children schooled together. But after so long apart, they aren’t sure how to make it happen."

Arkansas -

• Federal judge ends high school academy at University of Arkansas at Little Rock (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, April 18) - "U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr., the presiding judge in a long-running Pulaski County federal school desegregation lawsuit, directed that all remaining funds from the original $10 million for the academy be refunded to the two school districts after June 30."
• Daisy Bates statue unveiled at Capitol (Pine Bluff Commercial, May 12) - "Arkansas and national leaders gathered to unveil a bronze statue of Bates, best known for mentoring the Little Rock Nine—a group of African American students who integrated Central High School in Little Rock in 1957."
• Related: Civil rights leader Daisy Bates and singer Johnny Cash to replace Arkansas statues at the US Capitol

California -



• House passes bill to rename L.A. federal courthouse after Latino family who helped desegregate schools (NBC News, May 22) - "The House passed bipartisan legislation Tuesday evening to rename the Los Angeles U.S. Courthouse in honor of a Latino family who paved the way for school desegregation."
• 70 years later, schools—and moms—are still fighting segregation (The 19th, May 17) - "After Brown v. Board, White families pulled their kids out of Pasadena’s public schools. Decades have passed, and neighborhood parents are still working toward integration."
• Alameda playwright illuminates landmark school desegregation decision (Bay City News, May 7) - "Alameda educator Cindy Acker has written a play full of conflict and triumph about the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that made segregation in public schools illegal 70 years ago."
• A Class Action Exhibit by MOTAL in Newly-Renovated Hunt Library Opens (Fullerton Observer, May 7) - "Open through October 13, 2024, the award-winning traveling exhibition tells the story of the famous civil rights court case Mendez et al. v. Westminster et al., which ended school segregation in California and paved the way for national desegregation."
• Remembering Lemon Grove's historic battle against school segregation (NBC 7, May 2) - "The effort by the East County community was one of the nation’s first successful school desegregation cases, decades before the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling."

Colorado -



• Denver West High students call for a boundary change to boost enrollment and course offerings (Chalkbeat Colorado, May 8) - "Last month, West High students asked the Denver school board for a new system that regularly evaluates district boundaries to keep up with changing demographics in the city, and as a way to give students at West the opportunity to have more resources."

Delaware -



• Memorial honors desegregation fight: Delaware played active role in landmark court case (Cape Gazette, May 27) - "Now the memorial stands in honor of those who fought to end school segregation. Legislators attending the event say the end of segregation helped bring about change throughout the state."
• Panel Discussion Marked 70 Years Since Brown v. Board of Education: Delaware’s Role in Desegregating Public Schools (Delaware.gov, May 24) - "On Tuesday, May 21, 2024, in honor of the 70th anniversary of the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, the State of Delaware’s Department of Human Resources, Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, in collaboration with the Governor’s Office, hosted a panel discussion featuring descendants of the Delaware cases that were upheld in the Supreme Court ruling."
• New monument commemorates Delaware's role in Brown v. Board of Education (Delaware Public Media, May 16) - "A new Brown v. Board of Education Monument now stands on the grounds of Legislative Mall in Dover...It commemorates Delaware’s role in Brown v Board of Education. Friday is the 70th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 desegregation decision which included two Delaware cases."
• It is time for a new Brown-type court decision (Bay to Bay News, May 13) - "On May 17, 2024, we will mark the 70th anniversary of the Brown decision, a pivotal moment in Delaware’s and our nation’s racial history. From the late 1950s to the early 1980s, the Brown decision was responsible for producing many changes in Delaware’s education, including improving the educational outcomes of Black students. However, many would suggest that the desegregation plans in Delaware were one-sided in favor of Whites."
• Delaware marks 70th anniversary of its role in landmark Brown v. Board decision (WHYY, May 29) - "The First State still struggles with creating a quality education for all students despite its consequential role in the Brown v. Board decision."

Georgia -



• After Brown ruling, these students and teachers changed Georgia’s schools (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, May 17) - "The scale of the change is difficult to measure in Georgia, in part because the response varied by place and time.Rural Georgia reacted differently than urban Atlanta. And even in the city, there was no one narrative."
• 70 years after Brown, Georgia is moving in the wrong direction (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, May 12) - "As public school students in high schools across Georgia, we believe that the 70th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education is not just a cause for celebration but an invitation to recommit ourselves to the promise of a public education system that affirms an essential truth: Schools separated by race will never be equal."

Kansas -



• Brown v. Board at 70: Students from Topeka’s all-Black schools recall how segregation shaped lives (Hastings Tribune, May 18) - "Former students of four all-Black Topeka schools gathered Saturday to remember the teachers, peers and families that shaped their lives—and how their schools helped shape the nation’s education system."
• Before Brown v. Board, these Kansas City women set the stage by integrating a grade school (KCUR, May 15) - "The landmark 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that outlawed racial segregation in public schools may have played out differently if it hadn’t been for a tenacious group of women in Johnson County, Kansas, who led their own integration lawsuit five years earlier."

Lousiana -



• Where Does School Segregation Stand, 70 Years After Brown v. Board of Education? (PBS Frontline, May 17) - "The documentary followed a group of mostly white, middle-class residents in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, working to carve out a new city—and school district—following concerns that East Baton Rouge Parish District schools were underperforming and dangerous. Last month, after a 12-year battle, the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled to allow the incorporation of the new city of St. George."
• Wealthier and Whiter: Louisiana School District Secession Gets a Major Boost (The 74, May 1) - "A recent decision by the Louisiana Supreme Court handed a decisive win to backers of a long-running campaign to create a new, overwhelmingly white Baton Rouge-area school system, further concentrating poverty in the remaining, majority-Black part of the district."
• Baton Rouge is getting 3 new magnet school programs; a fourth is still looking for a home (The Advocate, May 28) - "Magnet programs first began as methods of voluntary desegregation, but have continued even as many school desegregation cases, including East Baton Rouge’s, have been settled."

New Jersey -

• Fulop: School desegregation would be a top priority as governor (NY Spotlight News, May 21) - "Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop said desegregating the state’s public schools would be a top priority if he is elected governor. He is the first in a crowded field of hopefuls to introduce a plan for education in New Jersey."
• Latinx students in public schools face barriers to college, access to counselors, report finds (Chalkbeat Newark, May 9) - "Latinx students are attending “increasingly hyper-segregated schools” and those schools are more likely to experience higher levels of poverty, the study found."
• Related: First Report on Latinx Student Experience in New Jersey Finds Post-Pandemic Learning Loss Reversing Educational Gains

New York -

• Celebrating the Past, Shaping the Future: 70th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education (Black Westchester, May 19) - "Here is Westchester County, there was a school and housing desegregation case in Yonkers...This case was highly contentious: in the late 1980s, Yonkers defied the court’s desegregation orders, resulting in contempt fines that reached $1 million per day and brought Yonkers to the brink of bankruptcy."
• NYC to restore a controversial admissions boost for Manhattan students, Banks says (Chalkbeat New York, May 3) - "The reinstatement of District 2 priority would represent another reversal of a de Blasio pandemic-era admissions reform meant to chip away at racial and economic segregation in the city’s stratified public middle and high schools."
• Related: LISTEN: An exclusive interview with schools Chancellor David Banks

North Carolina -

• Recent data shows North Carolina schools are more segregated now than they were in the late 1980s (WCNC, May 20) - "The NCAE found white students received over 60% of the state's private school vouchers last year, but make up less than 40% of the population in NC schools."

Tennessee -

• Plaque, book memorialize Hattie Cotton School bombing in Nashville (Tennessean, May 7) - "Hattie Cotton was damaged by a bomb the first day of school desegregation on Sept. 10, 1957. The ceremony marked the release of a book, Hattie Cotton School, and a new plaque at the school about the bombing."

Texas -

• The Texas School District That Provided the Blueprint for an Attack on Public Education (New Yorker, May 25) - "Southlake is not an outlier, owing largely to persistent residential segregation across the U.S. Even in highly diverse metro areas, the average Black student is enrolled in a school that is about seventy-five percent Black, and white students attend schools with significantly lower levels of poverty." 
• Seventy years after Brown v. Board ruling, school segregation persists in Fort Worth (Fort Worth Star-Telegram, May 20) - "In both the Fort Worth and Dallas independent school districts, segregation between Black and white students has remained relatively flat since 1991, according to the analysis. But both districts’ segregation rates are among the highest in Texas, according to the report."

Virginia -

• State, federal aid help Brown v. Board of Education scholarship fund reach over $3.4 million (Virginia Mercury, May 23) - "On the heels of the 70th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, which mandated public school desegregation nationwide, Virginia’s scholarship fund named after the landmark Supreme Court case has gained $2.5 million in federal and state aid."
• Virginia marks historic Brown v. Board of Education ruling (WTVR, May 18) - "Friday marked 70 years since the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision by the U.S. Supreme and a museum dedicated to telling part of the story of that case is commemorating the anniversary this weekend."
• Speakers: School segregation legacy lives on in school name changes (Northern Virginia Daily, May 16) - "On May 9, the school board voted 5-1 to restore the name of Stonewall Jackson High School to what is now called Mountain View High School and to restore the name of Ashby-Lee Elementary School to what is now called Honey Run Elementary. The names had been changed in 2020 during the racial justice movement sweeping the country."
• Most desegregation gains 'have now been lost' (Richmond Times-Dispatch, May 14) - "More than 30,000 students were attending “intensely” segregated schools—in which either whites or people of color made up 90% or more of the student body—in three local school districts in the 2022-23 school year. More than 95% of those young people attended schools in Richmond and Chesterfield and Henrico counties that were made up almost exclusively of students of color."
• Many Virginia students still separated by race, economic class (Richmond Times-Dispatch, May 13) - "But today, nearly 70 years after the landmark ruling, students in Virginia remain largely separated by race and economic class. While segregation is no longer mandated by public policy, it is reinforced by school attendance zones and segregated housing patterns."
• Students 'embody spirit of Barbara Johns' through Change Awards (Farmville Herald, May 6) - "A leader in the Civil Rights Movement and Prince Edward County historical icon is still making an impact today. Students are following in the footsteps of Barbara Rose Johns... [as] the Virginia Council for the Social Studies debuted its inaugural Barbara Johns Youth Change Agents Awards."

Washington, DC -

• D.C. Residents Reflect on Impact of Bolling v. Sharpe Decision (Washington Informer, May 22) - "The Bolling v. Sharpe Supreme Court decision of 1954, decided on the same day as Brown v. Board of Education, deemed the racial segregation of District public schools unconstitutional. In the years that followed, local and federal officials attempted to facilitate racial integration at several all-white District schools, including John Philip Sousa Junior High School, where the Black plaintiffs in the landmark civil rights case attempted to enroll their children."
• How Black parents in D.C. got segregation struck down 70 years ago (Washington Post, May 17) - "On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court ruled school segregation unconstitutional in Brown v. Board—and in the D.C. companion case Bolling v. Sharpe."

“They can’t take race out of this case. From the day this case was filed until this moment, nobody has in any form or fashion...done anything to distinguish this statute from the Black Codes.”

–Thurgood Marshall (1953)

Founded in 2009, the National Coalition on School Diversity is a cross-sector network of 50+ national civil rights organizations, university-based research centers, and state and local coalitions working to expand support for school integration. NCSD supports its members in designing, enacting, implementing, and uplifting PK-12 public school integration policies and practices so we may build cross-race/cross-class relationships, share power and resources, and co-create new realities.

NCSD MEMBERSHIP

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