Wasting me breath mentioning that, I know.
But not all Blacks celebrated. Some worried that desegregation would further alienate Blacks in white society; that it would lead to the elimination of jobs for black school teachers; that it would do little to eliminate the racism in people's hearts and minds.Zora Neale Hurston, a noted African American author, put it this way: "How much satisfaction can I get from a court order for somebody to associate with me who does not wish me near them?"
From Tolerance.org: Teaching Tolerance: BROWN V. BOARD: An American Legacy; went looking for Zora Neale Hurston quotes after Skip Gates mentioned her during the Black, White and Brown discussion at the Times Book Review.
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision, Sam Tanenhaus, the editor of the Book Review, moderated a discussion of the historic ruling between Cornel West, whose new book, ''Democracy Matters,'' will be published in September, and Henry Louis Gates Jr., whose latest book is ''African American Lives,'' edited with Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham.
The Hurston mention isn't in the transcript, so you'll have to watch the video, I'm afraid.
He also mentions a point of agreement with Clarence Thomas. But still takes pot-shots at the guy, so that's all right.
Want to know more? You won't really find it reading Dwayne McDuffie's old Brought to You By columns, but again, pot-shots at Clarence Thomas. Always a good thing.
bell hooks talks in Teaching to Trangress about going to school during the transition from segregation to "integration." She says she missed her old school when it stopped existing. It was a safe space where the kids were encouraged and had teachers as role models of accomplished black adults, teachers who (according to hooks) were able to get messages out that spoke to their specific situation (about the value of education, thinking critically about race and politics, etc.).
Well, it's been a while since I read most of that book, but that's what she said as best I can recall.
Which is not to say she'd like to go back to segregation, just that there were good things about the segregated schools in a lot of cases.
I recently read an article online, or maybe in a magazine, about how one of the unexpected (for white liberals, anyway, I guess) and undesired downsides of Brown was the loss of the black teaching community.
I need to dig up that URL and post it for you.
Hi Skip,
Long time I haven't written..., but I noticed that your cousin listed your Daddy in the WWII registry and I wondered why you didn't or hadn't done it? Did you even know about it? www.wwiimemorial.com I even had to list Misters Ossie Davis, Donald Hollowell, Joseph Barrow and Hosea Williams. And of course my Daddy John L. Atkinson. Because I stopped to learn a little of my own family history, I found out just how much we don't value our heritage.