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School Desegregation: It’s in our Hands Now

By Carmen D. on Monday, July 2nd, 2007, 7:49 am Comments

When I first heard that the Supreme Court had struck down two voluntary school desegregation plans, a couple of thoughts jumped into my head. The first was that, for the most part, Americans have lost their taste for any kind of sacrifice or even discomfort in the search for a greater good. For as I understand it, the complaining parties seeking to end these race based desegregation programs were multiracial in make up and primarily wanted their children to be able to attend schools closer to home. My second thought was that from Chief Justice John Roberts’ perspective, his opinion that to end discrimination we must end discrimination must seem completely reasonable and clear. From my vantage point his opinion is clear, but sadly still unreasonably simplistic more than 40 years after the Civil Rights act of 1964 became law.

As a child, I was bused from my school which was next to the projects where we lived, to an elementary school 40 minutes away in a more affluent part of Prince George’s County, Maryland. The bus rides were for the most part unpleasant, but it was a daily chore endured by families all over America in pursuit of fairness and a dream of interracial harmony and equal opportunity for all. For the most part, I don’t think that dream exists anymore. People see Oprah, Presidential candidate Barack Obama, Tiger Woods, Larry Elder or even Dave Chappelle, and believe that racism is not really a big deal today; and certainly not a big enough ‘deal’ to be inconvenienced to address it. That’s where Chief Justice John Roberts’ statement fits in. He wrote:

“The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.”

Why, of course. And what was all of that protesting in the sixties and seventies about anyway?

Harvard Law Professor Charles J. Ogletree, Jr. answers Chief Justice Roberts this way:

Historian George Packer once wrote: “We will have a more just society as soon as we want one. Throughout American history this desire keeps rising to the surface, even at the unlikeliest moment.”

We find ourselves at such a moment. The unfortunate, but perhaps empowering, lesson of these rulings is that it will be up to the people, collectively, to determine what sort of schools we maintain and what moral lessons to teach there. Only time will tell whether the principles embraced in Brown continue to guide us in achieving racial integration, diversity, and equal opportunity in quality education. Charles J. Ogletree, Brown’s Legacy Lives but Barely, Boston Globe

New York Times columnist Bob Herbert answers this way:

If black people could find a way to come together in sky-high turnouts on Election Day, if they showed up at polling booths in numbers close to the maximum possible turnout, if they could set the example for all other Americans about the importance of exercising the franchise, the politicians would not dare to ignore their concerns.

For black people, especially, the current composition of the Supreme Court should be the ultimate lesson in the importance of voting in a presidential election. No branch of the government has been more crucial than the judiciary in securing the rights and improving the lives of blacks over the past five or six decades. Bob Herbert, When is Enough Enough? The New York Times

We the people must step up. I watched a brilliant display of citizen activism over the past few weeks. I listen to a fair amount of talk radio and I am learning a lot about the kinds of protest that work now. On the day the defeat of the Immigration Bill was announced, Sean Hannity said something like, “We didn’t take to the streets and riot. We got organized and we demanded to be heard.” His point, although vaguely offensive, is well taken. Talk radio did galvanize opinion and motivate like minded people to get active, make the calls and write the emails.

May this Supreme Court ruling be a call to action for people dedicated to excellent and desegregated classrooms all across America.

Read More – NAACP Legal Defense Fund site: Supreme Court – School Integration
Read More – Inside Higher Education – The comment thread is particularly informative and entertaining
Read More – Another opinion: Integration Defeats Quotas – Reason Online

    FREE THE JENA SIX: UPDATES

More About Mychal Bell’s Disaster of a Trial, including how a member of the jury went to high school with the victim’s father

BlackAmericaWeb has posted a very thorough piece on this case.

Please sign the petition asking the Department of Justice to review this case.

  • The challenge is for the parents of inner city school children to organize and raise a stink. The court is in place and will be for a long time, but there are a few examples of good schools serving poor children. Those schools are created when parents get organized and determined to see their children get a quality education.

    No one is powerless we MUST change that mindset.
  • Alan
    As long as inner city schools with very little money or a budget get swept under. The more affluent neighborhoods will florish and those that dream to have a real oportunity will try with a greater disadvantage. Thank you all Bush appointees.
  • Hello LeSieur, welcome to the conversation. You make a very good point about our justices. We are all in this for a very long time. If you listen to Talk Radio as I do, you hear daily how wonderful the Bush Supreme Court appointees are. I fear that I don't know how to build a bridge to cover the distance from where I stand to where "they" stand. But, I won't give up.

    Your description of the Jena Six as a tipping point is true for me, too. I feel emboldened and clear to tell everyone who will listen about this case. I cannot believe the brazenness of the District Attorney in Jena. I will not ignore the blatant racism and/or incompetence of the court appointed defense attorneys. I will not accept that this has to be so. I will do my little part to make good people aware of what is happening and hopefully they will be moved to act in any way that they can.
  • LeSieur
    Those 9 justices who sit on the Supreme Court are there until death do us part. So that, even when the next president takes office, a Justice that's on the bench now, will, have to die; or become so mentally deranged, that he's forced off before he's replaced. Tell the people right. So, which one is going first, to re-balance the court. "Sky high election turnout" is not enough to turn this tide. And "we didn't take to the streets and riot", just as a happenstance. From 65 thru 68 Dr. King was steadily trying to quell the ZEAL to riot. In light of what was happening then and
    which riots took place when, is what's relevant. All that was occurring and such great despair is what got the riots, started.

    So, let 'em pile it on. I live in Louisiana, and the "Jena Six" is one of those tipping points. It is connected to the, opinion by Justice Thomas. Maybe, some should take the time to read the Opinion's. The bottom line is "America" doesn't want integration, desegregation or any of that. When a small-town southern black boy goes to white party in the small town south, even if a white girl invites them, they [black boys] get whipped out of there. No charges are filed against the white boys, because the Judge, the D. A., the jury and all, will have none of that. None of what? Black boys and white girls in 2007.
    Does any one get, it? White folk have had their fill of us, and have swayed some black folk and other minorities into the same thought.

    Jena started, at a SCHOOL, under a tree: A WHITES
    ONLY TREE, and the GOVERNMENT is PROSECUTING, those that had the audacity, to get riled up.

    The government? Yeah!
    The, parish government, the state government and the federal Government. DoJ is in Jena. The Governor is aware because the state police was there filming the protest. And for sure, the parish entities; there had to have been in COLLUSION.
    As I have been aprised, Judge J. P. Mauffray of the 28th Judicial district in LaSalle parish, knew; when the jury went in, there was no lesser charges, the jury could have considered, because no motion for such was filed by either attorney. The D. A wasn't going to, even though under Louisiana rules of practice, if he knew, there was a possible, dis-service to justice, he was ethicly bound to make the court aware. And so, this school campus melee has turned into an international blotch on so-called american jurisprudence.

    Justice Thomas, had it right. Forced [racial-balancing]integration is likely to get someone killed. He [Thomas] cited the Courts insistence on denying a separation policy in a California prison, resulting in two deaths and hundreds of injuries.
    Read the part about the "White Privilege Conference", [black] students from Seattle schools went to, un-invited. Maybe, that school system was pushing the outer limits of what, the "ruling class" in America wants.
    LeSieur
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