When you look at the racial demographics of school districts in metropolitan areas, do you see the promise of Brown v. Board of Education—or the legacy of Plessy v. Ferguson?

In case you don’t recall, Plessy was the 1896 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that sanctioned the practice of racially segregated schools.

That old case came to mind while researching the August ASBJ cover story, “Summer of Fate,” which looks at the impact of the 1967 riots on the Detroit and Newark, N.J., schools—and what has happened in the four decades since.

After visiting both cities, I was struck by how tenaciously our nation has resisted true integration. Despite all our efforts, the lines of segregation remain sharply drawn between city and suburb—in both the neighborhoods and in the schools.

For educators, this reality has many implications. Students isolated racially will be less prepared to function in our increasingly diverse society and global economy. Issues of equity have—and will continue—to plague racially segregated schools.

Some say that school integration is a noble effort—but that making schools more successful is the higher priority. That sounds logical. Of course, in Brown, the argument was that segregated schools have—and never will be—truly equal. And, if we accept the idea of separate but equal, haven’t we come full circle and embraced the policies espoused in Plessy?
Del Stover, Senior Editor