| Topic: |
Sociology > Education |
| User: |
"" |
| Date: |
15 May 2004 06:16:17 AM |
| Object: |
Brown Vs. Board of Education, 50 Yrs Ago Today |
It was exactly 50 years ago this week, that the U.S. Supreme Court
banned the practice of school segregation in our country.
On this historic day of May 17, 1954, Chief Justice Earl Warren read the
decision of a unanimous Court:
"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...We conclude that in the field of public education
the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place.
Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore, we
hold that the plaintiffs and others similarly situated for whom the
actions have been brought are, by reason of the segregation complained
of, deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the
Fourteenth Amendment."
http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/early-civilrights/brown.html
Before this decision to desegregate our schools, black schools were far
inferior to their white counterparts. The Supreme Court decision made
it illegal to officially segregate schools, this led to a marked
improvement in educational quality and access for all Americans.
The best way, in my opinion, for us to eliminate racism in our country,
is to make educational opportunities available to all Americans,
regardless of race, color or creed. Educational quality and equality
has come a long way since, there have been great improvements in our
country, since the NAACP first organized and propelled this historical
case before the U.S. Supreme Court, 50 years ago.
But the equal educational opportunity of all Americans still has a long
long way to go yet.
3 things strike me as profoundly unjust, and in need of change:
#1. Today, blacks earn college degrees at half the rate that whites do.
#2. There still continues to be a very wide disparity (of about $10,000)
in what is spent per student per year in a rich neighborhood and what is
spent per student per year in a poor neighborhood.
#3. The single most common denominator of all the incarcerated criminals
in our nation's jails is their educational level, the educational level
of the average incarcerated criminal is below the high school level.
The least likely to be incarcerated are those who've acquired a college
degree.
If you think that providing education to all Americans is an expensive
proposition, then try ignorance. It costs far more to put someone in
prison for one year than it does to educate them for 4 years.
Something to think about.
Abel Malcolm
Send Bush to Iraq - Bring our troops home
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Educate yourself & go to these links:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6164.htm &
www.moveon.org & www.salon.com & www.buzzflash.com &
www.democracynow.org & www.democrats.org & www.bushwatch.com &
www.americanprogress.org
.
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