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English Pages 346 [368] Year 1984
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JL he Burden of Brown describes the course of events and the educational re¬ sults in the five school districts whose liti¬ gation was consolidated for the Supreme Court’s landmark decision on desegrega¬ tion, Brown v. Board of Education (1954). The absorbing account of what has ac¬ tually happened in the communities where desegregation began differs sharply from the conventional liberal wisdom. Instead of better race relations and improved aca¬ demic performance, Wolters argues, the court decision has resulted in heightened racial tensions, white flight, and a general deterioration in standards of behavior and schoolwork. The harm to education has been so great, he says, that it is time to face a fact that should no longer be hidden from view: the attempt to integrate the na¬ tion’s schools has been a tragic failure. In accounting for this failure, Wolters focuses especially on disingenuous federal judges who instead of interpreting Brown to require an end to racial discrimination, as most people understood the Supreme Court to intend in 1954, took the ruling to prohibit racially neutral policies that do not lead to a substantial amount of racial mixing.
The Author Raymond Wolters is a Professor of History at the University of Delaware. He is author of Negroes and the Great Depression: The Problem of Economic Recovery and The New Negro on Campus: Black College Re¬ bellions of the 1920s.
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