The Department of Law, Crime and Social Justice hosted a presentation and Q&A session on Oct. 23 in the Interdisciplinary Science Building (ISB) highlighting 70 years since the landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education. Professors Robin Jefferson-Higgins and Anne Geraghty-Rathert gave two presentations of the information on the history and after effects of the court case.
Jefferson-Higgins began the discussion presenting slides covering the history leading up to the decision of Brown v. Board of Education. The Brown v. Board of Education court case of 1954 ruled the doctrine of “separate but equal” was no longer considered constitutional. However, changes did not occur overnight.
“This case was much more than having students from different races and backgrounds just sitting next to each other,” Jefferson-Higgins said. “It granted everyone the ability to have access and equal opportunities in education.”
African American students were denied admittance into certain public schools due to the court case of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). This case determined “separate but equal” facilities to be allowed, though standards for facilities for black citizens were not upheld to the same bar as those for white citizens.
The case of Brown v. Board of Education came into play in 1952. The case itself is five different cases under one umbrella that share the same problem: segregation in school. Thurgood Marshall was the lawyer representing these cases and his key argument was these segregation laws put into place go completely against American citizen’s right of the 14th amendment which says that no state can make or enforce laws infringing on the privileges or rights of United States citizens. Upon review, the Supreme Court agreed that these laws were a violation of the 14th amendment and it was determined that segregated schools were not equal.
This ruling in court caused uproar in the country, particularly in the Southern United States. In the years following the monumental case, many went against the court ruling. People stood outside of schools barring the entrance so that black students could not enter. Black students were jeered at and faced racism on the daily. In 1957, the nation watched nine black students in Little Rock, Arkansas, be escorted by the army into their school following threats against their lives.
The discussion was handed over to Geraghty-Rathert, sharing the effects this court case still holds over the country. Seven decades later, the United States is still working through policies encouraging segregation and racial disparity.
“There are new forms of resistance, but they do in fact mirror the old forms in their strategies,” Geraghty-Rathert said.
The presentation shared that book banning and the misallocation of federal funds to schools are two of the largest examples of the United States moving backwards. Government officials across the country fear monger citizens into believing false information is being taught to children in schools. This fear is leading to the ban of books teaching equality and denying certain history of the United States, completely reshaping the curriculum of some students.
Schools with a large amount of minority students are not receiving the funding they need to function properly. According to USNews, school districts with a majority of its student body being made up of students of color, receive about $23 billion less in education funding than a school made up of predominantly white students, despite having similar amounts of students.
Locally, the Francis Howell School District has come under fire for following these backwards steps. According to St. Louis Public Radio, the district overturned an amendment that barred hate speech, false science and false historical claims within educational material. Additionally in August of 2024, they voted to allow the banning of books that involve explicit sexual conduct, alcohol and drug use, profanity and “purposeful conduct that injures the body or property of another in another that would be a crime.”
“Black history is American history, and that’s the problem. If you are just going to forget or omit certain history it’s a problem. It’s unfair to our students. Not just black students, it’s just unfair, we need to know the truth. You cannot pick and choose what is history. We have to take it even with the good, bad, and ugly, it is what it is. We are supposed to learn from it, we are supposed to grow from it,” Jefferson-Higgins said.
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