TOPIC 8.14: a society in transition

The War on Brown v. Board : Anti-Busers & Increased School Segregation

KC-8.2.III.F The 1970s saw growing clashes between conservatives and liberals over social and cultural issues, the power of the federal government, race, and…Individual rights.

“Housing and schools are inextricably linked. The notion of de facto segregation is false… It is a constructed framing to make us feel better about racism in the north.” - Dr. Todd Robinson

“The very evil that Brown v. Board was aimed at… will be perpetuated.” -  Justice Thurgood Marshall

Objectives:

1. Students will evaluate the extent that Brown v. Board of Education was overturned in 1974.

2. Students will evaluate the extent that “de facto” segregation is a legitimate concept.

This Key Concept in an Antiracist classroom:

Traditionally, many history teachers have felt the need to tell American history as a story of progress. On issues of race, too often, curriculum teaches students that while America made mistakes in the past, America’s “great moral aptitude” solved those problems in either in 1865 or 1965.  This may leave some students confused when they see people in the streets demanding Black human rights, “wasn’t that achieved long ago?”  An antiracist history class seeks to identify racist policies that lead to racial disparities and we lie to students if we tell them that racist policies have ended.  Brown v. Board struck down the legality of school segregation, but if that is where we stop talking about school segregation in the curriculum, then we have decided to tell “progress mythology” instead of actual history. The truth is that  20 years after Brown, Justice Thurgood Marshall lamented that Milliken v. Bradley  destroyed all of the progress that Brown had been making. Today, American school segregation is INCREASING.

The College Board language of this Key Concept is also problematic. It implies that both sides of the debate had legitimate grievances when in fact one group of people were fighting to deny the Constitutional rights of others.  That is not a philosophical difference between two legitimate parties; that is an undemocratic act of violence.

The Key Concept should read:

KC-8.2.III.F The 1970s saw growing attacks on the civil liberties and constitutional rights of Black Americans and movements to ensure that white Americans had greater individual rights than Black Americans.

Notes

This lesson begins as an interactive lecture. Students will have to engage and think critically about content as we go through the slides. Students then get work time with their learning collaboration partners before we come back together in the end. This lesson will also help students develop analytical cause and effect skills.