A few people who remember the world that preceded the Brown decision felt inspired to write about it. This is by Sue M. Legg of Florida. She is a retired faculty member from The University of Florida “who used to run the ‘dreaded’ statewide assessments for the Florida DOE back in the days before everyone in every grade seems to be tested everyday.”

Sue Legg writes:

“Reflections on Segregation”

Two years after the 1954 Brown decision, I graduated from Richmond High School in California. You know, Richmond High of Coach Carter fame, but that was later.

In the Richmond of 1956, segregation was in some ways, a non-issue. Richmond had been a small company town with a little over 20,000 people in 1942. The port then became a center for ship building in WWII. By 1944, the city had over 100,000 people of every description. People came from the dust bowl, from small southern towns, from everywhere to find jobs in the ship yards. The federal government built miles of barracks and families moved in.

Children from those families hit schools which were totally unprepared. Double sessions were required; schools could not be built fast enough. The Richmond High class of 1956 had 1,000 graduates. After all, it was the only high school in town. We were tracked into different programs, but the college bound were accepted at the nearby University of California, Berkeley if they achieved a B average in the required courses. We were told on arrival that half of us would likely not make it through, but most of us did.

After graduating from Berkeley, I taught in Richmond, and things were different. New schools had been built outside of town. Richmond High had been split into three schools, one for blacks and two for whites. Residential segregation ensured school segregation. Even today Richmond High makes news across the country as it struggles to solve its social and educational problems.

In 1966, I moved to Gainesville, Florida and saw the struggle for desegregation first hand. The town was in an uproar over bussing; riots broke out. Lines were painted in one school to separate the races. A group of women, black teachers and white faculty wives, formed the Gainesville Women for Equal Rights. Those of us involved found ways to make peace in the community.

Over time the district has shifted zone lines, bussed white children to formerly black schools and vice versa, and created magnet schools. We have maintained a reasonable racial/socio economic balance in most schools. We have taxed ourselves to provide what the state fails to provide. Housing is more integrated, but areas with declining populations are a challenge.

They are surrounded by private religious and charter schools. None of these schools has enough money to serve the students well because they are all too small. Yet, that seems to be their appeal, and the district has no control over these unnecessary schools that the legislature promotes.

Parents of low income minority children are getting the short end of the stick yet again. School choice is not improving learning. If we are to stop the slide, we need to offer parents the best choice, not the easy choice. We found a way 50 years ago. We can do it again.”

Sue Legg