|
|
|
Book Review
| Peter F. Lau, editor, From the Grass Roots to the Supreme Court: Brown v. Board of Education and American Democracy, Durham: Duke University Press, 2005. Pp. 432. $94.95 cloth (ISBN 0-8223-3475-5); $25.95 paper (ISBN 0-8223-3449-6).
|
| The fiftieth anniversary of the Supreme Court's historic decision in Brown v. Board of Education prompted a renewed interest in the case. A number of new books and scholarly articles have been published. From the Grass Roots to the Supreme Court: Brown v. Board of Education and American Democracy is one of them. The book consists of several essays edited by Peter F. Lau. As indicated in the volume's introduction, the essays are a "top-down" and "bottom-up" examination of events that led to the Supreme Court's decision, an analysis of the decision itself, and explorations of Brown's influence on events and individuals in the years that followed. Some of the chapters re-examine events that have been described elsewhere. Others examine matters not previously considered. All of the contributions are intended to provide fresh perspectives on Brown and related events and, in large measure, they succeed in doing so. |
1
|
|
The Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which declared segregation in public education unconstitutional, was the product of the NAACP's long-range, carefully orchestrated legal campaign against segregation. The organization was established in 1909. After years, lobbying, protest demonstrations, and ad hoc litigation, the organization's leaders decided in the early 1930s to challenge segregation in the courts. It began by commissioning a study that analyzed segregation laws and practices in the southern states. The author of the study, Nathan Margold, concluded the segregation as practiced was unconstitutional because facilities for blacks were separate but never equal to those provided for whites. |
2
|
|
As explained in Patricia Sullivan's essay, the NAACP hired Charles Hamilton Houston to lead the litigation campaign. Rather than directly challenging segregation as Margold had recommended, Houston developed and implemented the "equalization strategy." Under this approach, cases would be filed demanding that facilities provided for blacks be made physically and otherwise equal to those reserved for whites, while carefully avoiding a direct challenge to the "separate but equal" doctrine that had been established in Supreme Court's 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson. Houston calculated that the states that enforced segregation could not bear the burden and expense of maintaining systems for blacks and whites that were actually equal. Segregation would eventually collapse under its own weight. |
3
|
|
A chapter that examines the origins and development of Plessy v. Ferguson includes an interesting analysis of the intra-racial tensions between the mixed-race, Afro-Creole community that took the lead in organizing and promoting the case and the other blacks who resided in New Orleans and turn-of-the-century Louisiana. Another chapter describes the pressures that African-American educators endured in the teacher salary cases that were an important aspect of the NAACP's pre-Brown equalization strategy. The cases required local school boards to raise the salaries of black teachers to match the levels of their white counterparts. The victories in the teacher salary cases proved to be an important organizing tool for the NAACP. Black teachers were among the most educated and influential members of the communities in which they resided. Their support was critical to the rapid expansion of membership and support in communities across the south. |
4
|
|
The success of the NAACP's campaign against segregation depended upon the network of African-American lawyers who served as cooperating attorneys in cities and towns across the south. Almost all of them were trained at Howard University's Law School during and after the time that Charles Houston served as the dean of that institution. At Howard, law students were inculcated with Houston's philosophy that the law could be used as a vehicle to promote the equality rights of African Americans. After they returned to their communities and established practices, they filed civil rights cases that were coordinated with the NAACP's headquarters in New York. Larrisa M. Smith's essay on Black attorneys and the NAACP in Virginia describes how this network functioned in one locality. |
5
|
|
Several of the essays consider Brown's impact on the lives of ordinary African Americans. Brown was the spark that ignited the civil rights revolution of the 1950s and '60s. In the years following the decision mass marches, sit-ins, and other protest activities erupted in cities and towns across the south. These efforts led ultimately to the enactment of federal civil rights legislation in the 1960s, which ended the regime of segregation that was enforced by state laws, local ordinances, and federal regulations. These chapters provide a forceful rebuttal to certain Brown-bashing scholars who question Brown's efficacy in improving conditions for African Americans. |
6
|
|
It is true, as the closing chapter suggests, that substantial numbers of African Americans have not benefited from the racial progress that Brown made possible; they reside in impoverished, inner city neighborhoods where school enrollments reflect the segregated housing patterns that are common in those communities. However, the persistence of such conditions does not detract from the significance of the Brown decision, or the accomplishments of those who made it happen. |
7
|
| Leland Ware
|
| University of Delaware |
|
Content in the History Cooperative database is intended for personal, noncommercial use only. You may not reproduce, publish, distribute, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale of, modify, create derivative works from, display, or in any way exploit the History Cooperative database in whole or in part without the written permission of the copyright holder.
|