About Bonds

A two-day symposium celebrating the 50-year anniversary of the Supreme Courts Brown v. Board of Education decision, which ended legally sanctioned school segregation, gathered academics, educators and leaders to campus April 8-9 to discuss the decision and its legacy.

We wanted to focus on the issues, and examine the progress and the lack of progress after Brown, said Jill Tarule, dean of the College of Education and Social Services. The college organized the symposium, Looking Back, Looking Forward: The Unfinished Business of Brown v. Board of Education.

Educational consultant Cheryl Brown Henderson, daughter of Oliver Brown, a Topeka, Kan., minister who was the cases lead plaintiff, gave a keynote address and led a seminar for educators. Michael Lomax, president and CEO of the United Negro College Fund (and outgoing president of Dillard University in New Orleans), also spoke, discussing race relations and education through, he said, the personal reflections of a middle-aged African-American.

Lomax lauded the tremendous progress in race relations in the half-century since the decision, but emphasized that large problems remain. While separate but equal is no longer the law of the land, separate but unequal remains a fact for many, Lomax said, discussing continued de facto segregation of schools. Only the most privileged African-Americans have escaped.

Browns opening speech mixed celebration of the court decision that carries her family name with careful consideration of its strengths, weaknesses and mythology. She pointed out that the decision was based on 11 separate cases from throughout the country with more than 300 plaintiffs. She also said that rather than starting from a single family wanting to enroll their child in a segregated neighborhood school, as is often thought, the decision was actually part of a concerted legal campaign that began in 1849 or earlier.

The truth is more compelling than the myths, said Brown Henderson, urging that the decisions anniversary year (the case turns 50 on May 17, 2004) be a time for study and reflection about the decisions history and current relevance. This is a wonderful opportunity to talk about issues we havent talked about for decades, she said.

In addition to the historical reflections, the symposium also included an exploration of Hispanic identity and issues with a panel of faculty and staff, and another panel discussing ways to improve race relations at the university.

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