The Past, Present, and Future of Brown’s Mandate: A View from North Carolina

Abstract

The unanimous 1954 Brown v. Board of Education opinion is one of the most consequential legal decisions of the 20th century. Even though it concerned government sanctioned racial segregation of public schools, many legal scholars, policy makers, and citizens see Brown’s impact going well beyond ordering the dismantling of de jure segregated public schools and instituting desegregated ones that would provide equitable high quality public education to all students irrespective of their race. Brown’s mandate overturned the notorious Plessy decision sanctioning legal segregation and exposed the fiction that separate could be equal in any institution or sphere of public life. But, progress toward Brown’s literal and figurative mandate has been halting and, at best, uneven. This article considers the question of whether the nation will achieve Brown’s mandate by its 100th anniversary in 2054. The authors reflect upon the relevant history of progress in Brown’s implementation and the current retrenchments on those gains that have returned this nation’s schools, in some districts, to pre- Brown levels of segregation. Using the state of North Carolina as a strategic case study, they speculate about the sets of social forces that may either discourage or encourage realization of Brown’ s mandate going forward. In doing so, they note population changes, national and local political factors, and other events that will either make it more or less likely that Brown’s mandate will be realized by 2054.

Classroom Segregation without Tracking: Chance, Legitimacy, and Myth in “Racial Paradise”

“…Critical Race Theory challenges the colorblind ideal by arguing that colorblindness upholds racial inequality. In this vein, several education scholars have demonstrated that preventing racial segregation can require the active pursuit of racial integration (Ayscue et al, 2018; Mickelson et al, 2021; Roda & Wells, 2013). The findings of this paper echo this insight: assigning students to classrooms without regard to race and therefore without concern for racial integration has been a substantial source of racial segregation throughout Brazil’s public schools.…”

“…While some literature on colorblind segregation focuses on how assigning students to classrooms or schools using ostensibly colorblind but race-correlated criteria promotes racial segregation (e.g., perceived ability in tracking, neighborhoods in school assignments), others have gone further, arguing that preventing racial segregation can require the active pursuit of racial integration. Scholars have demonstrated how the failure to promote racial integration facilitates the racial segregation of schools in the US in the contexts of laissez-faire school choice policies (Roda & Wells, 2013) and court decisions barring race-conscious remediation (Ayscue et al, 2018; Mickelson et al, 2021). That even truly random assignment can systemically produce racial segregation puts this insight into stark relief.…”