<
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/05/17/brown-board-education-downside-00032799>
"Today, most Americans think about the segregation-shattering 1954
Brown v.
Board of Education decision in one of three ways. We may think about Linda
Brown, the plaintiff in
Brown, a little girl forced to walk miles to a
segregated Black school instead of attending the white school down the block.
We may remember the famed Norman Rockwell painting featuring 6-year-old Ruby
Bridges escorted by U.S. Marshals past a wall splattered with tomatoes and a
racial slur. Or we may recall the tumult of busing in the South — Alabama,
Mississippi, and Georgia… and even much further north of the Mason-Dixon Line
in South Boston, too.
But there is plenty that we have not been taught about
Brown, which turns 68
today, or how it continues to impact us. We know about Linda Brown and Ruby
Bridges. But we don’t know about Pressley Giles, Mary Preyer, Virgil Coleman
and Jewel Butler. They were among the 100,000 exceptionally credentialed Black
principals and teachers illegally purged from desegregating schools in the wake
of
Brown.
In the years following the Supreme Court ruling, and well into the 1970s, white
resistance to the decree decimated the ranks of Black principals and teachers.
In large measure, white school boards, superintendents, state legislators — and
white parents — did not want Black children attending school with white
children. And they certainly did not want Black teachers educating white
children and Black principals leading schools and supervising white teachers.
The scheme devised to quickly eliminate Black educators: the closure of Black
schools. Even prior to Black school closures, black principals and teachers
received letters from district superintendents erroneously telling them that
the desegregation decree was responsible for their firings, dismissals and
demotions. Less-qualified white teachers, many of whom didn’t have credentials,
were hired in their stead."
Via Frederick Wilson II.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
