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 Photo by Mike Greenlar for The Post Standard Congratulations to the Syracuse/Onondaga Branch of the NAACP for hosting its 31st annual Freedom Fund Banquet. I had an opportunity to address the crowd on Wednesday night, and it was an honor. More than 100 men and women (and a few children) gathered to celebrate the ongoing commitment to racial and social justice, so that’s more than 100 people in the Syracuse community who are now formally connected–as members of the NAACP–to a movement toward justice!
The picture above is of me embracing a Soror from Syracuse Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Thank you so much, Sorors, for supporting this important work!
To read the article covering my speech at this event, click here.
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This week in 1954, the seminal case, Brown v. Board of Education, changed the landscape of opportunity for people of color in this nation. It opened the doors to education, our most precious tool for advancement, and altered the narrative for those who had previously been relegated to a separate and unequal education. Though many of us can now celebrate having received a quality education, too many of us still cannot—the function of a gradual resistance to desegregation.
Truthfully, desegregating schools has been a challenge since the Brown decision; but while it was socially taboo to openly challenge the decision, states are increasingly using the progressive strides we’ve taken as a nation to justify the removal of the policies and practices that have brought us this far. After 56 years, there is now a higher prevalence of segregation in today’s schools than there was 30 years ago, and the trend seems to be worsening. Texas is attempting to rewrite its textbooks to alter the role of slavery in this nation’s history; Arizona has banned ethnic studies; and North Carolina is seeking to end busing and return schools to a neighborhood-based strategy that would all but guarantee a segregated education. California, Washington, and Michigan have passed ballot initiatives banning affirmative action in the public sector, and many other states have passed executive orders doing the same. Sadly, while the nation was watching the successes of a relative few—from athletes and entertainers to President Barack Obama—our schools were creeping back to the very foundation of inequality in this nation.
Research has confirmed that a segregated education has severe and negative impacts on the advancement of African American children. Additionally, African American children who are educated in segregated environments are less likely to traverse the threshold of poverty. History taught us these lessons; and we can’t afford to sleep during class. The grass doesn’t grow under the feet of those who seek to conserve inequality. For example, Ward Connerly and his “Civil Rights Institute,” will seek to reintroduce ballot measures to ban affirmative action in public education, employment, and contracting in at least two states this year. The struggle continues.
In many ways, this nation has evolved a great deal; but if we fail to elevate and enforce our human rights along this journey, they will be stripped away. If we’re going to hearken back to 1776, which appears to be the call of the Tea Party and those sympathetic to that movement, I’ll invoke the words of Frederick Douglass, who stated that “power concedes nothing without demand.” Advocates can play the role of “watchdog” all day, but nothing will change if we don’t all respond to the bark. The power of past civil rights movements was in the mobilization of people to demand what’s right. Now is not the time to be dismissive of these growing attacks on our right to quality education. Those who wish to conserve inequality may tout fairness and democracy as core values, but their interpretation of these values reeks of something else.
Let’s let throwbacks live in the form of sports jerseys and sneakers. Personally, I don’t want to party like its 1776, 1863, 1965, or 1988. We did that already. Our policies should reflect forward movement. Our collective push should be for inclusive education and economic policies that will prepare our children to compete in the global and diverse economy that will ultimately fuel our sustainable recovery. We can’t allow ourselves to be placated by policies that sound good, but that are rooted in regressive politics and xenophobia. It is not too late to shape our contemporary history through a lens that celebrates progressive engagement. Our children deserve a right to quality education, along with the right to quality health care and the right to live free of discrimination in all its forms. On this anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, let’s remember that.
Copyright 2010 Monique W. Morris
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