In commemoration of the anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court case, “Brown v. Board of Education,” a symposium was held at the Central Library in Buffalo Tuesday. The event featured a panel of community stakeholders, discussing how the decision impacted local public schools and neighborhoods.
It has been 60 years since state-sponsored segregation in public schools was declared unconstitutional. Symposium organizer Joan Simmons says it impacted millions of Americans of all races and nationalities nationwide.
Simmons says she believes the event offered a platform for concerned community stakeholders to discuss the current state of public education, six decades after the Supreme Court’s decision.
“It’s a complex issue. Charter Schools, it’s been tried. We’ve tried bussing and it was a dismal failure. There is no silver bullet, but I think collectively we have enough resources and enough intelligence to resolve these issues. Personally, I think it’s about time that adults who are charged with making these decisions stop leaving up to the children to determine the success of failure,” said Simmons.
The event included speakers who gave first-hand accounts of the state of public schools prior to the 1954 ruling. The NAACP, led at the time by Attorney Thurgood Marshall, successfully argued the “Brown” case. Assistant Counsel with the Education Practice Group and NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc Monique Lin-Luse says it’s important to know that “Brown” wasn’t just about desegregation.
“But, it was really about sort of the reshaping and the full embodiment of the U.S. Constitution. There’s sort of pre-Brown, what society is like and what the Constitution means and there’s post-Brown. So many of the social changes that have happened in the last 60 years really can find their root in the re-imagining and the fulfillment of the promises of the Constitution that come from “Brown versus the Board of Education,” said Lin-Luse.
Lin-Luse says the symposium gave participants a chance to brainstorm ways to limit harsh discipline policies in schools and how to offer every child a high quality education.