The incident that “broke the camel’s back” occurred at Robert Russa Moton High School in Virginia on April 23, 1951, where a protest was organized by a sixteen-year-old student named Barbara Johns about the conditions of her school. In doing so she was able to get the attention of the NAACP lawyers. Her case would become vital, being one of five cases combined in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. It was so important it helped to lead to the landmark ruling that made school segregation unconstitutional.
This lawsuit was pivotal in the outcome of Brown v. Board of Education. The fact remains the issue was not just about integration, but the financial inequities experienced by black schools who sought to meet the needs of their students. It became clear to many; finance does matter regarding effective teaching and learning.
To offset this change in the coming years, many school districts would be relocated located in suburban communities, where you find the middle-income homeowner.
With the Brown decision, the reinvention of public schools began in a massive way. It would lead to the Civil Rights Act, Affirmative Action, the Voting Rights Act, the end of Gerrymandering, Redlining, and the passage of the Elementary Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), which addressed school funding across the United States.
Growing up in the shadow of these changes during the 1960s, I was wired and shaped by them, and so were my peers. The many historical events and legal cases won and lost in the legal system have also contributed to how minorities and immigrants access free public education in the United States. The effects have been both direct and indirect for students, school leaders, and teachers.
Many of the policies span the last 50 years, and they have helped reshape the K-12 experience for many children across the United States. I will discuss these changes, how they continue to profoundly affect black and brown student behavior, and how we can identify and proactively address them.
The first step to improving the American educational system is to admit it is broken. For the unbelievers, this means exposing them to discrimination's true history. As for teachers, they will need a comprehensive and effective pedagogy, along with established strategies to support teaching and learning in every classroom.
Plessy v. Ferguson, decided by the Supreme Court in 1896, legally established the separation of blacks and whites. Then, in 1954, Brown v. Board of Education laid the foundation for major social and civil changes. However, the case's core was not about integration but schools receiving adequate and equal funding for school resources.
It would take the federal government passing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) in 1965 to begin undoing the damage done under the past policy, better known as Jim Crow.
In 2002, the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act was passed, followed by Race to the Top (RTTT) in 2009, also called the Reinvestment Act. And on December 10, 2015, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) would replace the ESEA.
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