Washington, D.C., protest marks Brown decision
By Anita Grey
Washington, D.C.
On the May 15 weekend people all over the
country marked the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court's
Brown vs. Board of education decision that outlawed separate
and unequal treatment in education.
Over 300 students marched through the streets of Washington,
D.C., shouting, "They say Jim Crow, we say hell no."
The students, some as young as 9, are part of By Any Means
Necessary The march also included many of their allies in the
struggle to maintain affirmative action.
BAMN was formed to fight back against the attacks on
affirmative action at the University of Michigan last year and
around the country.
In the days of Brown, people of color attended schools that
were disintegrating, received less funding per student from
state government, and received inadequate education and books.
Many parents of color felt that by integrating into the more
affluent white school systems they would secure a better
education for their children.
What followed was white flight to suburban and private
schools, and a funding system based on property taxes, in which
children of those who had more money would attend better
schools than those who did not. Fifty years after the
desegregation of schools, many communities find their schools
even more segregated than before the Brown decision.
The Campaign for Fiscal Equity recently sued the state of
New York for unequal funding practices, and won. According to
Timothy G. Kremer, executive director of the Campaign for
Fiscal Equity Lawsuit, "The state's highest court has declared
what should be a prompt end to this state's long and sorry
history of making children's educational opportunity a function
of the wealth of their community."
Affirmative action was established in 1960s-1970s as a
concession wrested from the ruling class to hold back the
revolt by the masses who had taken to the streets and who took
over school administration buildings. It was a remedy for the
past injustices to women and people of color who were locked
out and prevented from access to higher education and
better-paying jobs. It provided an opportunity to move from
abject poverty and to join the working class. It was an
opportunity for those who were the best and brightest to have a
better future.
But today the ruling class has denigrated affirmative action
in an effort to take back all the gains made by the people
during the upsurge of the 1970s. Affirmative action is now
described as giving something they don't deserve to people, and
as a quota system, unfair to those who have worked equally
hard.
The ruling class now sees no need for mass education.
A white female student sued the University of Michigan when
she failed to gain entry into the school. The student claimed
she was barred from attending the college due to an affirmative
action point system. She did this even though other white
students had gotten into the college despite the point system
and with points awarded to them for in-state status as well as
other criteria.
Reprinted from the May 27, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
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