FORUM
Jim Crow Revisited
In the era of Brown vs. Board of Educa
tion, file landmark Supreme Court decision of
May, 1954, which finally abolished the "sepa
rate but equal" principle in our public sc hoofs,
liberal educators and social reformers argued
that Jim Crow segregation was designed to per
petuate inequality/
A half century ago, the most glaring exam
ples of inequality in the public school were the
sharply different material conditions which
separated the races, in terms of teachers'
salaries, instructional materials, and the basic
conditions of learning. In many Southern
states, the expenditures per pupil ratio between
white and black students was four to one. or
even greater. Black
teachers would nor
mally receive one
half or one-third the
annual salaries of
white public school
teachers. High
schools in the.
Northern major
cities such as Chicago or St Louis frequently
denied admission to African-Americans stu
dents, at least up to the Great Depression. Older
textbooks which had been used for years by
white students, where filled with outdated and
even erroneous information, were-distnbuted to
black elementary and secondary, school chil
dren. Black high schools, when they did exist,
frequently did not have courses in physics, cal
culus, chemistry or foreign language. The
equipment in the biological sciences was inade
quate and often nonexistent It is hardly su^is
ing that with inihis Jim Crow learning environ
ments many Aegean- American students lagged
behind their N&ffaC&xinterpart.
We are frequently told that Jim Crow edu
cation is a thing of the past. But a recently;
_releas ed -s tud y -b y-th e harvard -Project-on
School desegregation illustrates how far we
have retreated as a society from the vision of
equality and social justice articulated by Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Civil Rights
Movement. In academic year 1991-92, 66 per
cent of all African-American students and 73
percent of all Latino students were in predomi
nantly minority schools. This was the highest
concentration of black people in segregated
schools in nearly a quarter century. The largest
increases in racially polarized public schools
were found in Michigan, Maryland, New Jer
sey, Connecticut, Tennessee, and j\labama.
The lowest proportion of whites in schools
attended by African-American was fountHn
New York Slate. Gary Orficld, the chief
researcher in the Harvard Project, was pes
simistic about his findings. Orfi<$kl declared:,
'The civil rights impulse from the 1960s is
dead in the water."
One example of the continuing burden of
racial inequality in our schools is found in Con
necticut, the nation's wealthiest state. Today,
the enrollment in 140 of Connecticut's 166
school districts remains 90 percent white, with
80 percent of the African-American and Latino
students concentrated in 10 percent of all
school systems. As of October, 1992, Hartford,
the state capital and largest city, had 93.1 per
cent minority students in its public schools.
Across the Connecticut River, East Hartford's
public schools were 38.1 percent non white.
But the racial percentages in Hartford's other
suburbs' public schools were strikingly differ
ent: only 7.6 percent nonwhite student in New
ALONG THE COLOR LINE
By MANNING MARABLE
ington, 6.7 percent in Wethersfield, 17.2 per
cent in West Hartford, and 8.3 percent in
Glastonbury. Statewide, African American and
Latin^ students comprise more than one-fourth
of the state's total public school enrollment.
For nearly thirty years, there were efforts
to deracialize Connecticut's public schools. In
1966, a voluntary desegregation plan called
"Project Concern" was initiated,' with 266 black
inner city students transported into the white
suburbs. Project Concern sent counselors to
answer the questions of black parents whose
children fiarticipated in the program. By 1969,
690 children took part in Project Concern,
which received Federal, state and foundation
funding.
But problems surfaced almost immedi
budgetary problems. By the late 1970s, Project
Concern reached 1,175 children in twelve
grades. But by 1992, its enrollment had fallen
to 680 children . Critics correctly called it an
example of racial "tokenism." Creating a one
way street for black children into the white sub
urbs perpetuated the illusion that integration, in
the classroom was identical with academic
excellence. It did nothing to transform tWcur
riculum or dynamics of learning.
In April, 1989," Civil Rights proponents
filed a lawsuit on behalf of Hartford's black
school children, Sheff vs. O'Neill, charging
that Jim Crow conditions existed in the public
schools ? =
(Manning M arable is Professor of History
and Political Science , and Director of African
American Studies Institute, Columbia
University , New York City.)
AHStep Toward True Equality
When it comes to higher education in
America, true equality between black and
white students is a goal we hav6 yet to attain.
While college graduation rates among 25- to
29- years-olds nearly doubled from 1965 to
1989 for both blacks and whites, blacks remain
only about half as likely as whites to have com
pleted collegc. In 1989, 13 percent of blacks in
this age group had graduated from college,
rompared with 24 percent of whiles " ~~
Our Historically Black Colleges and Uni
versities (HBCUs) play a vital role in educating
African Americans. While they enroll 20 per
cent of black college students overall, HBCUs
graduate some 40 percent of all black under
graduate student in the United States.
^~But, for. the majority of black college stu
dents who attend,
predominantly white
college and univer
sity, there are major
gaps to be bridged
and obstacles to be
overcome. While
desegregation
opened doors for"
many black stu
dents, wc must continue to find w-ays to
improving the educational playing field for our
young people.
"The Inclusive University: A New Envi
ronment for Education" is an intriguing new
essay by the Joint Center for Political and Eco
nomic Studies' Committee on Policy for Racial
Justice. This 28-person committee says the
answer lies with the colleges and universities
themselves. "We became convinced." they
write, "that what is required is nothing less
than the transformation of our universities into
truly inclusive institutions, able to create and
maintain an environment that is supportive of
all students in search of academic attainment"
They write that the inclusive university
"must not be defined merely by such concepts
as multiculturalism, diversity, or openness, all
subjects currently being debated inside and out
side the academy. For us. the inclusive univer
sity must be an institution which accepts j?e
jr?*ponsibility of proving equal access and
opportunity an accommodating environment
for all members of the acadcmic community,
regardless of racial, ethnic, social, or economic
background.
The essay explores such issues as affirma
tive action: the role of black houses on predom
inantly white campuses: the exploitation of
black athletes; "hate speech"; the tendency of
black students toward self-segregation, and the
lack of black faculty anrl Mack grnrhintr itn
dents at white colleges and universities. .. -
- The Inclusive University also examines
public and private financial assistance; commu
nity colleges and the military as access route to
higher education; the importance of mentors
and other support systems for black students,,
and the role of multicultural curricula in
preparing ALL students to compete success
CHILDWATCH
By MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN
fully in our increasingly diverse society.
The blueprint described for the Inclusive
University seems especially relevant today as
Americans of all kinds are struggling for iden
tity and equality while trying to understanding
what diversity means in their lives. ?
"As the essay says, the black community
has a vital role to play in developing a new
environment for higher education and "must
commit itself wholeheartedly to the mission of
assuring black youth that they will have the
opportunity to acquire a college education and
to reap its benefits."
"Once again we must pledge ourselves
jointly and individually to provide our youth
who aspire to educational achievement -with
unequivocal, support. We call on the black
community to reaffirm its heritage of commit
ments to education 2tnd respect for learning."
(Marian Wright Ede Irian is President of
Jhe Children's Defense Fund , a national voice
for children and a leaders of the Black Com
munity Crusade for Children.)
Doonesfcuury
BY GARRY TRUDEAU
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ALIVE FOR
Tony Brown's Last Column ? For Awhile
This column is a hello to 1994 and a goodbye for a short
time to the readers who respond to it*each week. Of course, I
hopcf you will keep up with me on public TV (PBS) each week.
I have had to make a number of changes in order to finish
the manuscript for my first book. The title is No White Lies, No
Black Lies, Only the Jruth, and my publisher and I hope to have
it in the book stores by February 1995.
That's why I must finish it by April (or May?), and I am
now going around the clock ? thinking, researching,
writing, etc. A
When I resume the column, I'll tell you all about
the contents. Be assured that the readers of this column
will know first-hand the who's and what's of the book
an) vhy time is running out on all of us.
I leave you at a time when another of President
Clinton's sexual escapades is on the front pages of the
nation's newspapers and on the lips of voters who once
again are forced to questions his character and integrity.
What might really get -him. w legal trouble, however, is not
his sex life, which to some extent is his own business, but the
Whitewater S&L scandal
The suspicion, of course, is that "in return for campaign con
tributions and other financial favors, Clinton used political influ
ence to keep a shaky savings and loan afloat while it was milked
of money, sticking taxpayers with the tab through federal deposit
insurance," The Wall Street Journal reported. We're talking
about a $60 million "tab" ? a heist of federal money.
Of course, Bill and Hillary's actions back in Arkansas will
be closely scrutinized to find out if they are the crooks it is being
whispered they arc. On the sex front, the American Spectator
magazine and the Los Angeles Times are not leaving much to
our imagination ? especially the Spectator.
By now yoiwc heard the salacious details of oral car sex
and around-the-clock sex with judge's wives, singers, TV.
reporters and department store clerks in David Brock's story. But
a couple of items from the story never repeated in the media deal
with Clinton's allegcJcomments on blacks.
According to the story, Clinton bragged to his Arkansas state
TONY BROWN
Syndicated Columnist
trooper security guard that it was simple to get elected and
reelected governor. His strategy, Clinton is reported to have said,
was simply to keep the blacks on the plantation. The rest would
take care of itself. *
Blacks gave him all of their votes, that amounts to 18 per
cent in an Arkansas state election. That automatically seals the
election because "that means his (Clinton's) opponent had to get
his 51 percent out of 82 percent of the white vote, the state
trooper j^aid. Clinton learned well because he manipulated the
black vote nationally, and it put him into the White House.
For the more rabid details, you can write The American
Spectator, P.O. Box 549, Arlington, Va. 22216-0549 for reprints
of "Living with the Clintons ($5 each).