In February 1954, President Eisenhower invited Chief Justice Warren to dinner at the White House. Among the guests were well-known opponents of school desegregation. During that evening, Eisenhower commented to Warren that "law and force cannot change a man's heart." Three months later, however, the Supreme Court handed down its unanimous decision in Brown, and the contributors to this book, like people across the country, were profoundly changed by it, even though many saw almost nothing change in their communities.What Brown did was to elevate race from the country's dirty secret to its most urgent topic of conversation. This book stands alone in presenting, in one source, stories of black and white Americans, men and women, from all parts of the nation, who were public school students during the years immediately after Brown. All shared an epiphany. Some became aware of race and the burden of racial separation. Others dared to hope that the yoke of racial oppression would at last be lifted.The editors surveyed 4750 law professors born between 1936 and 1954, received 1000 responses, and derived these forty essays from those willing to write personal accounts of their childhood experiences in the classroom and in their communities. Their moving stories of how Brown affected them say much about race relations then and now. They also provide a picture of how social change can shape the careers of an entire generation in one profession.Contributors provide accounts from across the nation. Represented are-de jure states, those segregated by law at the time of Brown, including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, as well as the District of Columbia-de facto states, those where segregation was illegal but a common practice, including California, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Washington, and Wisconsin.
Author(s): Mildred Wigfall Robinson, Richard J. Bonnie
Edition: First Edition
Publisher: Vanderbilt University Press
Year: 2009
Language: English
Pages: 296
Title Page......Page 4
Table of Contents......Page 6
Acknowledgments......Page 12
Introduction......Page 16
Part I. The Context—Skin Color and Walls......Page 24
1. Learning about Skin Color......Page 26
2. Segregated Proms in 2003......Page 31
3. The Wall......Page 36
4. And the Walls Came Tumblin’ Down......Page 38
5. The Commutative Property of Arithmetic......Page 41
Part II. De Jure States and the District of Columbia......Page 46
6. Training in Alabama......Page 48
7. Loss of Innocence......Page 51
8. Toto, I Have a Feeling We Are Still in Kansas......Page 58
9. Becoming a Legal Troublemaker......Page 66
10. Color-Blind in Georgia......Page 74
11. Taking a Stand......Page 80
12. Seeing the Hollow......Page 82
13. A Glen Echo Passage......Page 87
14. I Can’t Play with You No More......Page 94
15. A White Boy from Mississippi......Page 98
16. A Journey of Conscience......Page 105
17. Promise and Paradox......Page 110
18. A Different Kind of Education......Page 118
19. Sacrifice, Opportunity,and the New South......Page 122
20. Crossing Invisible Lines......Page 130
21. Segregation in Memphis......Page 138
22. What I Learned When Massive Resistance Closed My School......Page 150
23. Standing Up for Brown in Danville......Page 158
24. Urgent Conversations......Page 164
25. Virginia Confronts a “Statesmanlike Decision”......Page 168
26. Brown as Catalyst......Page 172
27. Equality and Sorority during the Decade after Brown......Page 176
28. “What Are You Doing Here?” An Autobiographical Fragment......Page 181
Part III. De Facto States......Page 184
29. Brown’s Ambiguous Legacy......Page 186
30. Public Education in Los Angeles: Past and Present......Page 191
31. The Discrete and Insular Majority......Page 196
32. Princess in the Tower......Page 199
33. Shades of Brown......Page 206
34. Brown Comes to Boston: A Courtside View......Page 210
35. Checkerboard Segregation in the 1950s......Page 216
36. With One Hand Waving Free......Page 224
37. Indirect and Substantial Effect......Page 230
38. Brown Goes North......Page 240
39. The Virtues of Public Education......Page 246
40. Entering Another’s Circle......Page 250
Appendix......Page 254
The Survey......Page 256
