Clark, Kenneth B.

English

University of Minnesota Law School

University of Minnesota Law SchoolScholarship RepositoryMinnesota Law Review1996Beyond Brown v. Board of Education: Housing andEducation in the Year 2000Kenneth B. ClarkFollow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/mlrPart of the Law CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the University of Minnesota Law School. It has been accepted for inclusion in Minnesota LawReview collection by an authorized administrator of the Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact lenzx009@umn.edu.Recommended CitationClark, Kenneth B., "Beyond Brown v. Board of Education: Housing and Education in the Year 2000" (1996). Minnesota Law Review.1751.https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/mlr/1751Beyond Brown v. Board of Education:Housing and Education in the Year 2000Kenneth B. Clark*The Supreme Court's 1954 decision in Brown v. Board ofEducation' spawned a collective hope and dream for an end toracial segregation in American public schools. I joined in theoptimism. I spoke and wrote buoyantly, confident in ourfuture. At the time, I believed there would be positive changeswithin a decade or more. I thought that I, and the small groupof like-minded persons with whom I worked, successfully wouldraise these issues, combat all signs of segregation, and remainpersistent in opposing racism in our local schools. Although Iknew of the de facto pattern of segregation that existed at thattime in the New York City public school system, I thought theproblem of segregation essentially was a Southern problem. Inow confess this was naive. I recall being oblivious of the extentto which the board of education and school officials, includingthe commissioner of education, had developed curious subtle andcovert social maneuvers for maintaining segregated schools in* President, Kenneth B. Clark Associates, Inc.; Distinguished Professorof Psychology Emeritus, City University of New York.1. 347 U.S. 483 (1954).2. See, e.g., DARK GHETLro: DILEMMAS OF SOCIAL POWER (2d ed. 1989)(recounting life in urban ghettos in the 1960s); Introduction to Symposium,Desegregation in the Public Schools, 2 SOC. PROBS. 197, 197-98 (1955)(discussing social scientists' role in facilitating the process of desegregation);The Desegregation Cases: Criticism of the Social Scientist's Role, 5 VILL. L. REV.224 (1959) (examining the arguments of some of the leading critics on the socialscientist's role in school desegregation cases); Current Trends in Desegregation,AM. CHILD, Nov. 1954, at 1, 4 (discussing how communities affected by theBrown v. Board of Education decision were dealing with desegregation ofschools); More Effective Techniques, in What Next? Five Negro Leaders Reply,N.Y. TIMES, Sept. 29, 1963 (Magazine), at 27, 91 (urging blacks to go beyondpublic civil rights marches and demonstrations and to join together in activelyexerting pressure on the government, businesses, labor organizations, financialand other like institutions, ultimately to eliminate any and all forms of racialinjustice); The Negro Is Tired of Waiting, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REP., June 10,1963, at 38 (responding in an interview to questions regarding "the growingmilitancy of Negroes in the North").MINNESOTA LAW REVIEWNew York City. As a social psychologist, I can say now thatwishful thinking colored my ideas and beliefs. I did not realizehow deeply endemic racism was in the American culture.At that time, the North rationalized its racism by contend-ing that racially segregated schools were a manifestation of alarger pattern of our racial culture. Segregation in housingpatterns and racially segregated communities created segregatedschools. I thought that taking important steps in modifying theracial housing pattern would address the segregated housingproblem. This, in turn, would resolve the reorganization of ourpublic school system seriously and successfully. I did notunderstand, however, that the maintenance of segregatedhousing not only excused persistent patterns of school segre-gation, but that segregated housing itself represented a form ofdeeply embedded racism that resisted all attempts at desegre-gation-ironically, particularly in the North. I was perplexed.Thus, while in writings and speeches I highlighted the gains inour society, such as the civil rights gains, affirmative action, andthe increasing numbers of elected black political officials-veryimportant developments-I underestimated the significance ofracism's staunch hold on the American people.Recent developments have made me reflect on the earlystages following the Court's Brown decision. I now see moreclearly the curious way that our early optimism prevented usfrom anticipating how racial progress would result in a form ofbacklash. The current resistance to affirmative action, forexample, reflects the depth of American racism. We now areconfronted with various manifestations of the belief thataffirmative action essentially represents a rejection of or penaltyagainst white males. This argument, however, conceals the factthat affirmative action was designed to remedy the pastrejection, prejudice, and exclusion of minorities, particularlyblacks. It is disheartening to see that these attempts to remedysocial injustices now are being used to maintain those priorinjustices.As another example, segregated schools and segregatedhousing still pervade the American landscape, but they are notbeing discussed as manifestations of racism. Similarly, desegre-gation and integration are not being discussed as attempts toresolve former and persistent forms of injustice. Instead, theseissues are discussed as issues of poverty and choice rather thanas lasting symbols of our history of racism. Significantly, manyliberals and many Supreme Court decisions now follow this[Vol. 80:74519961 FORUM: HOUSING AND EDUCATION 747pattern of racial exclusion. In fact, institutions of higherlearning explain racial isolation in terms of beneficial conditionsfor blacks in general, despite the earlier beliefs that segregationnot only damaged black children, but also interfered with thehuman growth and development of white children. I amparticularly fascinated by the fact that some blacks approve ofsegregated living quarters and segregated communities. Therise of the black separatist movement in the 1960s manifestedblacks' identification with the reasoning of their oppressor.Black separatists internalized the reasoning of the proponentsof racial separation.It is clear to me, however, that the failure to desegregateour schools at all levels-at the elementary, high school, andcollege levels-despite our awareness of the harm that segre-gation inflicted on all of our children, has demoralized oursociety. It has weakened our social fabric. Yet we are being toldthat segregated schools and segregated housing in ghettos arenot only desirable, but that blacks should feel grateful.I often wonder how Thurgood Marshall and Robert Carterwould present their case today before the present SupremeCourt. How would they cope with the present pattern ofresegregation that so pervades our society? As one of the socialscientists who worked with Marshall and Carter during theBrown cases, I would argue that segregation, not only inClarendon County, South Carolina, but also in New York City,in the Twin Cities, and in America at large, is as damaging nowas it was then. The dream so long deferred should be re-examined, but not because the premise of the Brown decisionhas changed. The Supreme Court in Brown said: "We concludethat in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate butequal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inher-ently unequal."3 Earlier, the Court noted: "To separate [blackstudents] from others of similar age and qualifications solelybecause of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to theirstatus in the community that may affect their hearts and mindsin a way unlikely ever to be undone."4 Those words still ringtrue today.In the forty years since those statements, we have seencopious examples of the harm inflicted upon our society by the3. Brown, 347 U.S. at 495.4. Id- at 494.748 MINNESOTA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 80:745racism onto which we have held. It is time that educators, whohave been dormant for so long, assume their role as leaders inthis campaign for justice. Educators can become crucialparticipants in helping society protect our children and protectitself from the persistent damage of racism and segregation.Our schools, our neighborhoods, and, in fact, our society as awhole must be mobilized. We cannot apologize about freeingourselves from the damage that is being done to our childrenand to the very fabric of our society. Our society desperatelyneeds rejuvenation and a renaissance of positive and construc-tive policies by which we can all become constructive partners.

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