From The Final Call Newspaper

Brown v. Board of Education, 70 years later

By Nisa Islam Muhammad, Staff Writer
- April 29, 2024





In 1940 the cost of a stamp was three cents, the first Social Security checks were paid, the Cincinnati Reds won the World Series, and psychologists Drs. Kenneth and Mamie Clark conducted a “doll study” with disturbing results. Their study, with children ages three to seven, used four dolls, identical except for color, to test children’s racial perceptions.

The majority of children expressed a preference for the White doll and attributed positive traits to it. The Clarks, a husband and wife team, concluded that “prejudice, discrimination, and segregation” created a sense of inferiority among Black children, which negatively impacted their self-esteem.

Fast forward 14 years later and Dr. Kenneth Clark was called to testify in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case before the Supreme Court argued by Attorney Thurgood Marshall, who led the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. The Supreme Court cited Dr. Clark’s 1950 paper in its Brown decision,

“To separate [African-American children] from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone.”


While true, it was only part of the research. Dr. Clark was concerned the court failed to cite two other conclusions he had reached: that racism was an inherently American institution, and that school segregation inhibited the development of White children, too.

“The court’s resolve to put Black children in White schools is the major affront to the Brown v. Board of Education findings,” Dr. Kevin Washington, past national president of the Association of Black Psychologists, told The Final Call. “The resolution has never been addressed adequately.

FILE–Pictured left to right are: Gloria Ray, Terrance Roberts, Melba Pattillo, Jefferson Thomas, Carlotta Walls, Thelma Mothershed, Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth Eckford, and Ernest Green. These are the nine students who entered Little Rock Central High under the protection of federal troops with bayonets in 1957 when Gov. Orval E. Faubus tried to block enforcement of the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision outlawing school segregation and directed the Arkansas National Guard to keep the students from enrolling at the all-white Central High. President Eisenhower responded by sending in members of the Army’s 101st Airborne Division to escort the students into the school on Sept. 25, 1957. (AP Photo/File)

That is what has created the inequitable treatment of Blacks. Recurrent attacks on curricula, and book banning is a throwback to what was actually occurring at that time. Where the message was of inferiority, of Blackness or anything that began to promote something differently was challenged,” he said.

George E.C. Hayes, from left, Thurgood Marshall and James M. Nabrit join hands as they pose outside the Supreme Court in Washington on May 17, 1954. The three lawyers led the fight for abolition of segregation in public schools before the Supreme Court, which ruled that segregation is unconstitutional. (AP Photo, File)

“After 70 years we find ourselves in the position of still having identity confusion. We’ve had some educators to come with strong educational models. However, it’s always been an attack on the system. The Brown verdict, simply putting Black children in White schools, was not the resolution.

The real victory comes when the curricula shifts and the content is affirming to Black children in all walks of life. They can see themselves as being powerful as agents of change, and that they are purveyors of their own destiny.”

Dr. Washington added, “That’s a major issue when we talk about the Brown v. Board of Education. The principle that it was founded upon was flawed, that the environment Black students were in was inherently inferior. Instead of seeing the conditions Black students were experiencing as detrimental, to the identity development and formation of Black and Brown children.”

Black-on-Black Education

Once upon a time Black children were taught exclusively by Black teachers. Then came the May 1954 Supreme Court Case Brown v. Board of Education which allowed Black children to go to White schools. Research by Dr. Leslie T. Fenwick in “The Ugly Backlash to Brown v. Board of Ed That No One Talks About,”shows that 100,000 highly qualified Black principals and teachers were summarily fired.

White superintendents, school boards, and parents did not want Black teachers in their children’s classrooms. Neither did they want Black principals leading schools and supervising White teachers.

Fast forward to 2024. Black children going to school with White children has failed to provide Black families with thriving, well-resourced educational environments, relevant curriculum, safety and freedom from White supremacy.

Nearly 80 percent of public school teachers are White while more than half of public schools are filled with non-White children. However, studies show that Black teachers produce better academic and behavioral outcomes for Black students compared to their White counterparts.

The significance of having a Black teacher goes back to Philadelphia’s Caroline LeCount in the 1800s who said, “colored children should be taught by their own.”

 

In this Thursday, Nov. 7, 2019, photo, Jade Gopie, second from left, principal at Crosby High School, left, watches students as they pass between classes in Waterbury, Conn. While students in the Waterbury public school district are predominantly black and Hispanic, the vast majority of its educators, as in school districts across the country, are white. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

University of North Carolina research found that having a Black teacher has positive effects—higher educational attainment and lower rates of discipline—for Black students, with the strongest effect often among Black males from low-income households.

Their research found the benefits of having a Black teacher are so important that students who had a single Black teacher were more likely to go to college, more likely to graduate high school, and less likely to drop out. Black boys in poverty, who had a single Black teacher, were up to 39 percent less likely to drop out and 29 percent more likely to enroll in college.

Black educators have mixed feelings about Brown v. Board of Education. “I definitely think it has helped students, having Black students having access to institutions that were predominantly White.

I also think on the same accord, that going to a predominantly White school doesn’t necessarily prepare you more than going to an all-Black school. I think it comes down to resources and having an adequate surplus of resources,” Middle School Math teacher Ashley Cobb told The Final Call.

“Some of us learn in ways in which we want to be active. My first year teaching was at a Freedom School. There’s no predominantly White institution that can replicate a Freedom School.

I also think in reverse or in opposition of Brown, that some White students will benefit from going to predominantly Black institutions, which I’m seeing more of now.”

Cashawn Merritt is a high school math teacher. She told The Final Call, “I think it (Brown) was helpful to a degree because it gave Black people access to resources that weren’t available to them.

Even though we were educating our own prior to that decision, we didn’t necessarily have upgraded materials. We didn’t have the best resources at our disposal. I think with busing and all the other legislations that passed, it allowed opportunity for children who might not have had it otherwise.”

A major concern for parents is the high rate of suspension and expulsions for Black children in America’s public schools. Research by the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights on school suspension, and expulsions found that Black boys make up nearly eight percent of public school enrollment but were 25 percent of the boys with out-of-school suspensions and 26 percent of expulsions.

Black girls were eight percent of enrollment but 14 percent of the girls with out-of-school suspensions and 12 percent of expulsions. Black children in public schools also face increased school-based arrests.

“Black students who have Black teachers are less likely to be disciplined unfairly, and over-policed,” middle school special education teacher Simon Miller told The Final Call.

“They are less likely to be suspended, expelled, or even referred for disciplinary issues. Black teachers are also more likely to push Black students into more rigorous classes like AP and International Baccalaureate programs.

Brown v. Board of Education put Black children in the bull’s eye for non-Black teachers. A study by the Upjohn Institute found that non-Black teachers of Black students have significantly lower expectations than do Black teachers. These effects are larger for Black male students and math teachers.

White teachers were less likely than Black ones to predict that their Black students would go on to graduate from college. Research has also found that on average, Black students have lower test scores than White students, they attend schools with fewer resources, and they are less likely to graduate from high school and college.

Elementary school teacher Tiffany Harrell is concerned states are not following the mandates of Brown. She told The Final Call, “I feel like a lot of states are not following and abiding by the law.

What I mean by that is you still have a lot of city schools who are less fortunate, don’t have the proper textbooks, don’t have the proper technology, and they aren’t offered the same type of courses.”

“If you go to predominantly White suburbs you’ll get all the technology you need, you’ll get so much funding because of the parents. They offer more as far as like AP (advanced placement) classes, than for example the predominantly Black schools … lots of southern states are trying to get rid of a lot of AP classes for African Americans as well as, African American Studies.”

A better, more positive outlook

Dr. Washington explained that having Black teachers is even more valuable to the way a student holds themselves in class. Seeing Black teachers tells students they have value, they have worth, and brilliance that can be seen. Black teachers can see the potentiality of students throughout the entire process and they work hard to bring that out.

Therefore, students feel that they are connected in the context of education. Further, it is doing its true purpose, which is to bring out the existing high potential rather than simply the transmission of information.

“When we talk about education, we know that it does three things for them. It gives them a sense of identity. That is, it tells them who they are and how they have value and worth in the world. It gives them the idea of potentiality, what they can become because they see an educator looking like them.

Then they can also be able to understand what they can become. The third issue is that typically the educator will be able to educate in a culturally relevant perspective.”

When the Nation of Islam started in the 1930s, the followers were instructed to take their children out of the public school system and educate them at home. In 1931, a truant officer knocked on the door of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and his wife Clara.

The officer demanded that they send their children back to the Detroit Public Schools. They, as well as other Muslim families, refused.

In 1934, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and 18 instructors at the University of Islam were found not guilty of contributing to the delinquency of minors. However, Muslim families paid a high price back then to educate their own children.

In his book, “A Torchlight for America,” the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan explained that the true purpose of education should be the proper cultivation of the gifts and talents of the individual through the acquisition of knowledge.

“We need our own teachers because we need those with a like mind, a desire to give children what they need,” Shahid Muhammad, a math teacher at Chicago’s Muhammad University of Islam, told The Final Call. “Black teachers understand their learning styles. You have a better chance of that teacher having a love for the students, and a desire to see the students excel.

“The enemy’s school system is centered around White supremacy. Many European teachers don’t see Black students in the right light. They don’t see them as having the ability to excel because of White supremacy, racism and a racist mind. When Black children are in the classroom with Black teachers, they tend to have a better outlook, a more positive outlook of their own students.”

From The Final Call Newspaper

 Anti-Black history and hatred serve as backlash against Black progress

By Anisah Muhammad, Contributing Writer
- April 1, 2024





“There has been a great display of anti-Black hatred in the United States of America. There have been many nooses placed in different cities and in different institutions to let Black people know that there still is a great deal of hatred for us in this society.”

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan shared those words during a message delivered on October 28, 2007, on the topic “Justifiable Homicide,” about increased attacks and wholesale killings of primarily Black, Brown and Indigenous youth in the United States.

Seventeen years later, despite marching, protesting, and the so-called “racial reckoning” after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, there has been little to no change toward racial healing between Black and White people in America. In Rockford, Illinois, authorities are contemplating hate crime charges for a White male suspect who was arrested for the fatal stabbing of a young, Black Walmart employee.

According to the Rockford Register Star, Rockford Police Department officers arrested Timothy Carter on charges of first-degree murder. They say Mr. Carter stabbed 18-year-old Jason Jenkins on March 24 with one of two knives he had picked up while walking through the aisles of the store. “Surveillance footage appeared to show Carter, a White man, ‘wandering around the store and giving all the African American people dirty looks,’ a police officer wrote in a probable cause statement,” the news outlet reported. Mr. Carter also reportedly uttered a “racial slur” before stabbing the teenager.

 



Other incidents—some violent, some non-violent—that occurred during this year’s Black History Month and beyond have again manifested the levels of racial tension present in American society and the unpeeling of the mask of White civility.

Racism in schools

Several of the recent racialized incidents occurred within the school system. A White teacher in metro Atlanta came under fire for using the N-word in what was supposed to be a “funny” TikTok video on interracial friendships.

“I think that there’s been a resurgence of racial animus and the use of the word since the election in 2016. I think we’re in a very difficult racial climate right now, and people are trying to adjust. Some are trying to use humor. Others are just being outright racist,” attorney Gerald Griggs, president of the Georgia NAACP and the Atlanta branch, said to The Final Call. “We as melanated people need to be aware that these things are very much still alive, and that there’s a constant battle to make sure we don’t go back to either the 1860s or the 1960s.”

Atty. Griggs spoke on the importance of young Black children being vigilant and standing up for themselves.

“If you’re in elementary school, if you’re in middle school, high school, of course talk to the administration. If they don’t want to do anything, talk to the school board. They don’t want to do anything, then it’s time to go to court,” he said. “Because we cannot settle for a time when it’s being normalized, this attack on Blackness, so we have to stand up, and it’s incumbent upon the next generation to understand that now it’s their time to stand up like their ancestors did.”

In Massachusetts, six middle school students have been criminally charged for racial bullying. The students allegedly held mock slave auctions on Snapchat, allowing White students to bid on their two Black classmates. At another middle school in Kentucky, White students allegedly used racial slurs and participated in targeted bullying of non-White students.

Dr. LaGarrett King, an associate professor in social studies education at the University of Buffalo and director of the Center for K-12 Black History and Racial Literacy Education, shared with The Final Call the long history of anti-Black classroom activities. He cited an example of a 2010 incident where a Black elementary school student was “sold” in a mock auction as part of a history lesson. For Dr. King, these examples speak to the rise in what he called “anti-Black history legislation,” or attacks against critical race theory (CRT).

“Schools have no idea what Black history is. They know little about Black people. They know little about Black people’s history. Typically, the Black history that we learn is not necessarily Black history,” he said. “For Black history to be Black history, that history has to come from a Black person’s perspective. And many times, the ‘Black history’ that we learn is coming from a White person’s lens of looking at Black people through their history.”

He commented on how history teaches that “White people are the most historically important people in the world,” how Europeanism is embedded in every aspect of history, and how White people are looked at as the “cultivators of civilization,” establishing in White people a level of superiority.

DEI rollbacks

The present-day assaults against Black people include the false promises of “diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI) and the rollbacks of DEI positions within businesses and institutions due to a recent wave by state legislators.

According to a “DEI Legislation Tracker” by The Chronicle of Higher Education, updated on March 22, 81 bills in 28 states have been introduced that would prohibit colleges from having DEI offices or staff, ban mandatory diversity training, prohibit institutions from using diversity statements in hiring and promotion or prohibit colleges from using race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in admissions or employment.

Anti-DEI legislation has more than doubled since June 2023. Just two months shy of one year ago, the tracker recorded 37 bills in 21 states. Alabama recently joined the list of states that have passed legislation prohibiting public schools and universities from maintaining and funding DEI programs.

Terrance Sullivan, former executive director of the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights, penned an opinion piece for The Courier-Journal on how Kentucky lawmakers are hiding their racism behind anti-DEI and CRT laws.

“To many, DEI is another acronym that means the Black people are getting too close to us, we have to remind them of their place. And as a result of this nonsense, jobs are being cut and some kids are at risk of losing scholarships—all because universities are running scared instead of being bold and fighting back,” he writes.

He concludes the article with the statement: “There are many people who want to remind us that they don’t want us here. That we are not welcome in these spaces, but the acronyms and misnomers are getting old.”

In a new social media trend, White people have redefined “DEI” to mean “didn’t earn it.”

Human rights lawyer Qasim Rashid posted a response about the new label on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“MAGAs are labeling DEI as ‘Didn’t Earn It,’ which is wild because in reality, generating historic wealth through 2 billion acres of stolen land from Native Americans, enslaving Black people for 300 years, banning Asian immigration until 1965, and banning women from financial access til 1974—all without paying a single red cent in reparations or restitution—is the living breathing example not earning it,” he shared.

Others on the platform have been calling out White privilege and how White people continue to benefit from the legacy of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and the vestiges of the Jim Crow era.

Dr. King explained the connection between DEI rollbacks and racialized incidents in the school system concerning Black history. “They have this anti-Black sentiment based on the history they have learned about Blackness,” he said.

He described that most DEI programs are just “multicultural celebrations” and are not accomplishing what people think they are.

“What people are thinking is happening in DEI is not happening. There’s not this big takeover or this notion of blaming White people for different things,” he said. “They’re not necessarily getting at systemic oppression within those institutions. They’re not getting at trying to understand racialized experiences of Black people and other people of color.”

Black progress and excellence

Dr. King noted that the reason racist incidents continue to occur is because American society, which was founded on racism, slavery and lynching, is still suffering from racial trauma.

“The racial trauma continues because we continuously fight over the truth of history. Where we can’t tell the truth of history, we will never heal as a nation,” he said. “There’s always people that don’t want us to heal for their benefits, so they can still obtain power.”

Atty. Griggs wants Black people to realize that “we’re not the minority.”

“Once we recognize our collective power and stand up, the world will take notice. I think we’re in the middle of a third backlash to the advancement of African Americans, and we have to do what we did in the first two, that being, reconstruction and the Civil Rights Movement,” he said. “We have to stand up and push back in real-time and make people recognize that we are so proud of being Black. It is a wonderful existence, and if you feel intimidated about that, that’s your problem, not mine.”

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has been a longtime proponent of Black excellence. In a speech delivered in 2014 on education, he questioned, “Do you know how to end White racism?” He answered, “Black excellence ends White racism.”

Minister Farrakhan has also shared wisdom on how Black progress equals White intimidation. During his “Justifiable Homicide” message, he explained the tremendous progress Black people made during the Reconstruction era and how “if the so-called Negro was set free and given the material to build an independent existence, he could become a serious challenge to White superiority.”

“… those that would challenge their former slave master by wanting to vote, purchase land, pursue education or striving to do anything but plantation labor—these kinds of Black brothers and sisters would be dealt with harshly by the former slave-masters, and there was no deliberative body that would judge our affairs with justice,” he said.

“Therefore, every killing of a Black man or woman; every lynching of a Black man or woman was excusable,” he added. “… anything that was done to us to maintain White supremacy was in fact an unwritten law. The killing of every Black human being during the 300 years of chattel slavery and even now, 150 years up from slavery, at the hands of White people is generally considered ‘excusable.’”

“Now, this atmosphere is beginning to spread again in America. I want to really make it clear to you today what we are going to face, what we are facing, as it will increase in the days ahead,” Minister Farrakhan warned.

Since then, he has further warned about how the “hatred of Black is manifesting” all over the planet and how the White race’s “mask of civility” is slowly being peeled back, like the layers of an onion, due to the rise of the darker people of the earth.

“Now you see an enemy that hates our shadow. And like Abraham Lincoln said, ‘you suffer from being here with us and we suffer from your presence among us,’” the Minister said in a Final Call newspaper year-end interview for 2016. “This is going to come to a head and the Will of God will be carried out, which is that the Black and the Brown and the Red, we must go free in a land of our own; not under White supremacy but ruled under our own wisdom, knowledge, understanding and the guidance of God.”