Brown vs. Board of Education Article

The article, "Landing on the Wrong Note; The Price We Payed for Brown" by Gloria Ladson-Billings, was very informational for me because I do not know a great deal about the judicial cases surrounding American education or the how these cases have affected our school systems. Though the content was interesting, I had a hard time pushing myself to finish the article because I am not one to spend a lot of time studying or being actively involved in political matters. I did although find it particularly disturbing that so many African-Americans had in the tried to fight for their rights to equal educational opportunities in court before Brown vs. Education in 1954, but their attempts failed most likely because of their race. HOW UNFAIR!! I know that times have changed substantially since these cases were brought to trial, but still were our court systems not always “supposed” to be “fair and just” to ALL, regardless of race, religion, or any other differences???...(Even back then?) Isn’t our country supposed to be built on a “democracy”?? According to Encarta Dictionary online “democracy” means,” the free and equal right of every person to participate in a system of government, often practiced by electing representatives of the people by the majority of the people.” When I looked at synonyms for the word democracy, I came across the term Egalitarian, meaning “maintaining, relating to, or based on a belief that all people are, in principle, equal and should enjoy equal social, political, and economic rights and opportunities.” It made me wonder if our country is just now starting to realize the meaning of and purpose for our constitution. Although we have a better appreciation and understanding of our governing laws and values, I am still not sure we properly enforce them!



I particularly liked the statements made by Charles Lawrence in this article relating to a major flaw of Brown and how the courts promoted a “way of thinking about segregation” that tolerated the political and social systems to ignore the “reality of race in America” (Ladson-Billings, 2004, 3). The author of this article, then goes on to explain how Lawrence felt we should combat the problem of segregation beyond our classroom. I could not agree with Lawrence more when he says that desegregation of schools cannot be the entire solution to the problem and that we need to start to thinking of ways to desegregate SOCIETY as a whole. When our students leave their school each day they are still walking into a world where they are separated by or disadvantaged because of their race. Brown was definitely a step in the right direction, but there are so many other issues within our now “desegregated” educational systems and the daily lives of our students that need to be dealt with further!! After reading this article I would agree that the case of Brown vs. Board of Education came with many costs, but without it the a change in our education systems in terms of facing prejudices in school may never have begun!