By AUDREY FISCHER
Born 14 years after the Supreme Court's 1954 decision to end the unconstitutional practice of school segregation, the Department of Education's general counsel, Brian S. Jones, has had a unique opportunity to study the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case.
As one of the co-chairmen of President George W. Bush's Brown v. Board of Education 50th Anniversary Commission, Jones has met many of the plaintiffs and visited the towns throughout the country in which the five cases that comprise the Brown case were filed. He discussed his thoughts on the subject during his Feb. 9 keynote speech for the Library's 2004 celebration of African American History Month.
"Brown v. Board of Education was more than just one case," said Jones. "It was a consolidated group of cases filed in South Carolina, Virginia, Delaware and Washington, D.C., as well as the Brown case in Topeka, Kan."
Jones had the opportunity to "talk and touch these people" who fought—at great personal risk—for their children to attend local schools rather than walk miles to segregated schools. Homes and schools were burned in retaliation for the Supreme Court's unanimous decision on May 17, 1954.
"History is an arch, not an epiphany," said Jones, who reminded the audience that such a momentous change seldom takes place in "one pivotal moment," but can be the result of "a confluence of events."
By way of example, he discussed the case of Roberts v. the City of Boston, filed in 1848 by the Rev. Benjamin Roberts, a black printer, who wanted his daughter to attend the local school. The case for the plaintiff was argued by Charles Sumner, a white lawyer and future U.S. senator who later played a role in the 1868 ratification of the 14th Amendment, which, with its equal protection clause, was designed to, grant citizenship to, and protect the civil liberties of, recently freed slaves. But, in 1850, the court in the Roberts case upheld the constitutionality of school segregation, arguing that the law cannot change hearts and minds.
Even after the 14th Amendment took effect, the same conclusion was reached in the Plessy v. Ferguson case in 1896, when the concept of "separate but equal" was sanctioned by the court.
It took more than half a century for the court to declare school segregation to be unconstitutional. Jones said the death of Supreme Court Chief Justice Frederick Vinson in 1953 and the March 1, 1954, appointment of Chief Justice Earl Warren set the stage for the unanimous decision in the case of Brown v. Board of Education.
"Many felt that Justice Vinson's death was evidence that there was a God," joked Jones, referring to the justice's staunch opposition to desegregation.
For Jones, one of the many lessons of the landmark case ending segregation is "the idea of how central American identity is to African Americans." In essence, by arguing against the constitutionality of segregation, blacks were claiming their full American citizenship under the 14th Amendment: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
"The U.S. was founded on the idea of liberty, and we are in a constant struggle to live up to it," said Jones. "There is still a great deal of work to be done. Poverty still has a hold and the racial fault lines still exist. Progress has been made in the law, but not at the level that it should be."
In his role as general counsel for the Department of Education—the fourth-highest ranking official in the department—Jones is charged with narrowing the racial achievement gap.
"There are two education systems," observed Jones, referring to disproportionate funding for public schools that rely on property taxation for support. [Local property tax rates and assessed valuations can vary widely from school district to school district or county to county. Even within a single jurisdiction, such as a city, one tax rate can produce unequal school income because assessed valuations can be high in one neighborhood and low in another.]
Pointing to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, otherwise known as "the nation's report card," Jones cited the gap in achievement among black and white fourth graders.
"Forty percent of all fourth graders are reading at grade level, but only 12 percent of African American fourth graders are reading at grade level," said Jones.
"Early reading is the key to closing the gap," argued Jones, who cited the "No Child Left Behind Act" that President Bush signed into law on Jan. 8, 2002.
"The law has its limits," said Jones. "All the law can do is empower people to gain their own freedoms. At the end of the day it is we who are empowered to make change real. As fellow Americans, regardless of our background, we have to roll up our sleeves and do the hard work of making freedom real for our kids."
Audrey Fischer is a public affairs specialist in the Library's Public Affairs Office.