Commentary,
Deoliver47, Black Kos Editor
We Need to End the Re-Segregation of Our Schools.
My grandmother went to a segregated school in Virginia, similar to the one portrayed here, circa 1900.
I was born in NY in 1947, so in the 1950's I had the benefit of a first class integrated public school education, and when I did attend a segregated school in the south, in 1956-57 it was on the campus of Southern University in Baton Rouge; hardly typical of the separate and unequal schools of the time.
My generation lived through Brown versus the Board of Education, and Federal troops being called in to enforce black kids going to school with whites.
I remember busing, and riots not only in Boston, but a race riot in my neighborhood in Queens, NY when I was bused to an all white Jr High School. School integration was a major push of the Civil Rights Movement and part of "the Dream" that we thought would be no longer deferred. But we are going backward, not forward, and the victories of school integration have eroded.
Makes you really want to think about how far have we actually come with education for the nations children of color?
Forty years ago this week the Supreme Court ordered an end to all school segregation and ordered schools to operate thereafter only as unitary schools. Though most of us are aware of the Brown versus the Board of Education of Topeka Kansas decision, a major ruling that we should think about was Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education. Let's look at the history:
End of Segregation in Public Schools
On October 29, 1969, the Supreme Court ruled that school districts must end segregation "now and hereafter." With this unambiguous language, the Court, which now had Thurgood Marshall as a member, left no room for doubt or delay. Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education is an important (and, today, curiously underrated) Supreme Court decision from 1969. It mandated immediate action in the segregation of public school facilities.
The Court was responding to a legal challenge from diehard anti-integrationists, who had learned—from civil rights proponents, no doubt—that the legal system could be used to support social objectives. The anti-integrationists, however, received a major defeat when the Court ruled unanimously that Mississippi (and, by extension, the nation) was obliged to integrate public schools "at once." This was a dramatic change from the language of the 1955 decree implementing Brown v. Board of Education, which had required integration of educational facilities "with all deliberate speed." In many parts of the country, this was interpreted by local school boards as "when you feel comfortable getting around to it."
I agree with the author, that this case hasn’t received much attention.
Why? Because our many of our schools are still segregated, and in fact the situation is growing worse. The Civil Rights Project at UCLA issued a report that I would strongly suggest that anyone who cares about education, the future of our schools and our school children, and the future of this nation should read.
U.S. school segregation on the rise: report
"It would be a tragedy if the country assumed from the Obama election that the problems of race have been solved, when many inequalities are actually deepening," said Gary Orfield, co-director of the Civil Rights Project.
Orfield said these trends were "the result of a systematic neglect of civil rights policy and related educational and community reforms for decades."
The report, which is 33 pages long, is entitled: Reviving the Goal of an Integrated Society: A 21st Century Challenge, and documents the erosion of desegregation, and the root causes in detail. Go read it please, when you have a little time to spare. It offers statistics, it raises questions, but it also points to solutions. There is far too much meat in the report for me to even attempt to summarize it, so I will only cite a few segments.
From the introduction:
The percentage of poor children in American schools has been
rising substantially and black and Latino students, even those whose families are middle class,are largely attending schools with very high fractions of low-income children who face many problems in their homes and communities. As immigration continues to transform many sectors of American society this country is falling far behind in building faculties that reflect the diversity of American students--44% of whom are now nonwhite--and failing to prepare teachers who can communicate effectively with the 20 percent of homes where another language is spoken as immigration continues to transform many sectors of American society. Millions of nonwhite students are locked into "dropout factory" high schools, where huge percentages do not graduate, have little future in the American economy, and almost none are well prepared for college.
In the section of the report subtitled "Why Segregation Continues to Matter for Students and Communities" they address the current "resegregation" crisis and the underlying factors that have caused it.
We now have a society where 44 percent of our public school children are non-white and our two largest minority populations, Latinos and African Americans, are more segregated than they have been since the death of Martin Luther King more than forty years ago. Schools remain highly unequal,sometimes in terms of dollars and very frequently in terms of teachers, curriculum, peer groups,connections with colleges and jobs, and other key aspects of schooling. Segregated black and Latino schools have less prepared teachers and classmates, and lower achievement and graduation. Segregated nonwhite schools usually are segregated by poverty as well as race. Being in a school where everyone is poor, teachers transfer out as soon as they can, parents are powerless, and gangs sometimes shape the environment of the community is deeply harmful to students. These are the high schools that account for most of the nation’s "dropout factories,"where a frightfully large share of the students, especially young men, fail to graduate and too many end up virtually unemployable. These schools have the most students with chronic health and developmental problems, the most disruptive neighborhood conditions, and many other forms of inequality.
Statistics on segregation are presented for not only Blacks and Latinos, but for Asians and Native Americans as well. The intersections of race and social class, in re-segregation are made patently clear, as are the contributing factors of unemployment, and discrimination in housing, and an erosion of social services over the last decades.
Double Segregation: Concentrations by Poverty and Race
Schools with large concentrations of poor children must deal with all the problems poor children and poor families face in America, in a time when social support programs have been sharply cut back and the welfare system is a shadow of what it was before the Clinton welfare reform. The impact of massive cuts in welfare and other social programs was long masked by the economic boom that suddenly ended in the fall of 2008 and these problems will only be greatly intensified by the current and massive economic crisis, already the worst in more than a half century.
I was pleased to see the mention of Clinton's "Welfare to Work" policy, since it is one of the disasters for black and poor folks that occurred during a Democratic administration, though they go on to document the dismantling of Supreme court gains during the ensuing years of Republican rule.
In conclusion the report offers some well thought out solutions, and some final words to us all:
The largest need now, however, is leadership. For decades the basic message has been that we do not need to do anything about these problems and should eliminate the legal and policy tools that we possessed. Deepening racial and ethnic separation and a massive transformation of our population pose complex and sensitive problems. The situation is similar to the challenge facing the civil rights movement at the beginning of the l960s—a need to focus the public’s attention and the development of an agenda for positive change. This requires serious political leadership and that leadership needs to come from Washington, state capitals, and regional organizations.
...Members of the Cabinet,leaders in Congress, and others could help move this process forward. Civil rights organizations and journalists have vital roles to play. There are many ways in which various parts of government and the private sector can help move forward on issues of resegregation. It could make a great difference if people realize that the racial transformation of the society can’t be avoided and that the only real choices are doing it well or continuing along a path of deepening separation and more entrenched inequality, which will greatly diminish our common future. If people realize that there are more positive paths and feel that the country’s leaders and major institutions are supporting them, there could be a far better outcome.
We have many Kossacks who are teachers and educators. Many of you have school age children, or grandchildren. What kind of report card do you give your local schools and why?
Education, and reintegration has got to be a major priority for us all.
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News and Events by Amazing Grace, Black Kos Editor
White House Starts Newsletter Targeting Blacks. The Obama administration, perhaps the most media-savvy White House in history, is now in the publishing business - and exclusively for black audiences. The first edition of "The White House Wire: News for the African American Community," an occasional newsletter that is designed specifically for black Americans, was released this week to mixed reviews.
Anti-Death Penalty Group Launches Major Campaign. The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty is calling on the public to start "Shouting from the Rooftops," its campaign to educate the public about wrongful executions and continue its push for an end to the death penalty.
New Jersey Arts School Named After Cicely Tyson. The Cicely L. Tyson Community School of Performing and Fine Arts serves as the East Orange School District's educational center for the development of performing and fine arts for pre-kindergarten and high school students.
New black Barbies get mixed reviews (CNN) -- Grace, Kara and Trichelle were created to fill a void for young black girls who for so long have been playing with dolls that don't look like them. The new black Barbies released by Mattel have fuller lips, curlier hair and other features that the company says more accurately represent African-American women. Some have cheered the new dolls. Others jeered them, saying they're not black enough.
Former nurse's aide in US becomes Ugandan king KASESE, Uganda – For years, Charles Wesley Mumbere worked as a nurse's aide in Maryland and Pennsylvania, caring for the elderly and sick. No one there suspected that he had inherited a royal title in his African homeland when he was just 13.
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"Five Amazing Thing’s to Know"
The Week of October 26 - Nov 1, 3009
TV- Every Sunday Morning, Roland Martin’s "Washington Watch" Check for local schedule.
Concerts- Friday, October 30, 31 & November 1, Voodoo Experience, Three Days of Music, New Orleans, LA. For schedule & ticket info...
Books-"The Audacity to Win: The Inside Story and Lesson of Barack Obama’s Historic Victory" by David Plouffe, available November 3.
Music- Available Today, "This is It" Michael Jackson. For more information...
Dance- On sale now, Judith Jameson 20th Anniversary, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, New York City Center, December 3, 2009-January 3, 2010. For ticket information...
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A Message to the Daily Kos Community
from Dopper0189, Black Kos, Managing Editor
I'm sending out a help request to the larger Daily Kos community, I'm posting it both here and on Friday. I have been working on a series over at swingstateproject where I've been doing a "re-calculation" of every house district in the USA (measuring how strong each party is up and down the ballot). While doing this I have noticed a really troubling pattern for Black elected officials on Wikipedia.
Many of them have been "victims" of really negative information on their Wikipedia pages. In general it's the "older" CBC members, or those located outside the "Coasts". I have seen so many of them I convinced it's not a coincidence. I'm also a Wikipedia "editor" so I can make changes to articles. But there are so many these elected officials it would be a project on its own. I can't research all these members by myself.
I would like to see if we can "rally" the Daily Kos community to try and establish some balance to these articles. I don't want "glowing" reviews; only for lack of better words "fair, balanced, and accurate" ones. I'm not interested in people who want to make these articles as "glowing" as they are currently "negative". For example check out Corrine Brown of Florida. Notice the first thing to jump out at you? That message isn't from me by the way. Trust me this is a pattern, many CBC members have comments alleging race baiting, corruption, or something of a similar ilk. This stands in sharp contrast to most other members of Congress where these sort of charges are much rarer. Worse yet a majority of these allegations are unsourced. I estimate it's over 50% of all CBC members that have these large amounts of negative information in their bios.
I figure if we can get at least 3-4 people out of our 100+ readers who comment, we would be OK. I think there are about 25-30 CBC members who have been getting "slaughtered" on Wiki.
Some readers may be thinking about contacting the offices of these members; don't bother, it's close to useless. Back in 2005 a fellow Black blogger and I on DKos tried to get them to let some of our online talent update the CBC pages. It's seriously out of date (news stories, votes, etc). We also wanted to improve their fund-raising pages using Net Blue (like Obama did). We only got responses from then Senator Obama (who didn't need the help) and later from Donna Edwards (D-Maryland), so I know it is a waste of time to contact them, we just need to do it on our own.
I know many people here have Wikipedia editing privileges so we can do this. For those who are saying "that's why I don't trust Wikipedia" point well taken. But remember we are a "self selected" group of high information voters. Many young people, and lower information voters use Wikipedia, and they should at least have a chance to read neutral information on the subjects. Movement conservatives have a very effective message machine; they use everything at their disposal. They don't care if a project only influences a "few" people, they would rather get those few votes. We need to match their efforts.
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This Week in Our History
October 26
Mahalia Jackson, gospel singer, born in New Orleans, LA, 1911.
Edward William Brooke, III, U.S. Senator, born in Washington, DC, 1919.
October 27
Andrew Jackson Young Jr., former UN Ambassador, elected mayor of Atlanta, GA, 1981.
Ruby Dee, actress and activist (Ruby Ann Wallace) born Cleveland Ohio, 1924
October 28
The First Kansas Colored Volunteers fought the first engagement of Black troops in the Civil War, the Battle of Toothman's Mound, Missouri 1862.
October 29
The Supreme Court ordered an end to all school segregation and ordered schools to operate thereafter only as unitary schools on this date in 1969.
October 30
Nat Turner, revolutionary freedom-fighter and slave revolt leader, captured in Southampton County, VA, 1831.
Richard Arrington elected as the first Black mayor of Birmingham, AL, 1979.
October 31
Ethel Waters, blues singer / actress, was born in Chester, PA, 1900.
Algeria launched its Independence battle with France, 1954
November 1
First school for blacks founded, The African Free School, New York City 1787.
John H. Johnson published the first issues of the Negro Digest (1942), Ebony magazine (1945), and Jet magazine (1951)
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The front porch is now open. Pull up a chair, grab the rocker, or squeeze onto the glider. There's room enough for everyone.