Posted Online 5/5/04

by Joe Nathan

This spring marks the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision, Brown versus Board of Education. In this 1954 decision, the Supreme Court decided that school districts could not set up one school for white students, and another for black. What a different country we’ve become since then.

I grew up in Wichita, Kansas, less than 200 miles from Topeka, which was the focus of Brown versus Board of Education. Linda Brown, a young African American student, and her family were angry because the Topeka Board would not allow her to attend a public school just a few blocks from her home – a school reserved for white students. Instead she was forced to attend a school about 5 miles away, a school just for black students. The Brown case joined several others from around the country that the Supreme Court decided together (for more info, go to www.brownvboard.org, or www.nps.gov/brvb). Wichita’s schools were segregated in the 1950s, just like those in Topeka and many other parts of the south and south central part of the U.S. I remember going on marches as a youngster, with thousands of others, urging our school board to follow the law of the land, and integrate the schools.

Finally, the day arrived when a handful of black students were allowed to attend a previously designated white school. No one tried to burn their school bus, or strike them down, as happened in some communities. Fortunately several political and religious leaders in Wichita, black and white, urged that people be calm, and try to live together.

But the handful of black students who came into our school were scared, really scared. I remember sitting next to one of them the first day, and trying to start a conversation with the youngster whose name I think was Willie. He just looked straight ahead.

For a second time, I said “good morning, and welcome.” Again, silence. The next morning I tried the same thing. No response. My parents and I discussed this, and agreed I continue trying. The third morning he responded with a terse “good morning.” And after a few weeks, he would say a bit more than that. But not a lot.

No, we did not become friends.

I think he was simply trying to make it through the school year, which he did. I know, because I saw and heard it, that some of the students called him names, and threatened him. But every day, he kept coming. That was 40 years ago. Just about every day I’m in one or more schools, either in Minnesota, or somewhere else in the U.S.

Most of the schools I visit have students of different races. Things still are not perfect.

But students of different races are, in many cases, talking, laughing and learning with each other. Students of different races sometimes sit together, and sometimes sit separately in lunchrooms. But our schools, and our country seem to have come a long way since 1954.

And that marvelous Supreme Court case – and the courageous young people, like Willie, and Linda Brown, helped make it happen.

Joe Nathan is director of the Center for School Change at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. He can be reached at jnathan@hhh.umn.edu.