Media Contacts:
Rev. Dr. Janette C. Wilson Esq.
[email protected]
773-256-2731
“Separate Is Inherently Unequal” For 61 Years
Where Are We Today?
Chicago, Illinois, May 16, 2015 -- Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. -- The preeminent scholar of public school desegregation,
UCLA’s Gary Orfield, concluded a year ago that six decades after Brown there has been “great progress, a long retreat and an
uncertain future.” He said the “Brown decision set large changes and political conflicts in motion and those struggles continue
today.”
His study concluded there has been “a vast transformation of the nation’s school population since the civil rights era,”
including a dramatic drop in white students of nearly 30% and a quadrupling of Hispanic students. The nation’s two largest
regions, the West and South, now constitute a majority of Hispanic and African American students with whites the second
largest group in the West. “The South, always the home of most Black students, now has more Latinos than Blacks and is a
profoundly tri-racial region.”
After Brown, in the South from the mid-1960s to the late 1980s, substantial desegregation progress for African Americans was
made and “contrary to many claims, the South has not gone back to the level of segregation before Brown.” However, “it has
lost all of the additional progress made after l967 but is still the least segregated region for Black students.”
Segregation has soared and is most pronounced for Latino students in the West, negating previous progress in the 1960s. But
“a clear pattern is developing of Black and Latino students sharing the same schools,” and it is this development that “deserves
serious attention from educators and policymakers.”
Again Orfield’s study concluded that segregation is usually by both caste and class. “Black and Latino students tend to be in
schools with a substantial majority of poor children,” while white and Asian students attend middle-class schools. School
segregation is most pronounced in central city schools in large metropolitan areas, in central city schools of all sizes and in the
suburbs of our largest cities (which are now half nonwhite). Latino segregation is greater than Black segregation in the
suburbs.
The Supreme Court has dramatically weakened desegregation laws “and many major court orders have been dropped” with
the result that segregation has “increased substantially after the plans were terminated in many large districts.”
Research since Brown “shows that many forms of unequal opportunity are linked to segregation” and it “also finds that
desegregated education has substantial benefits for educational and later life outcomes for students from all
backgrounds.” Thus the goal of a public education of equal high quality for all students is still an aspiration of the future.
-30Rainbow PUSH Coalition is a multi-racial, multi-issue, progressive, international organization that was formed in December 1996 by the Reverend Jesse L.
Jackson, Sr. through merging of two organizations he founded Operation PUSH People United to Serve Humanity (estab. 1971) and the Rainbow Coalition (estab.
1984). With headquarters in Chicago and offices in Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York and Oakland, the organization works to make the
American Dream a reality for all citizens while advocating for peace and justice around the world. RPC is dedicated to improving the lives of all people by serving
as a voice for the voiceless. Its mission is to protect, defend and gain civil rights by leveling the economic and educational playing fields while promoting peace and
justice around the world.
Get Informed & Be Social with PUSH!
Keep up with Rev. Jackson and the work of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition at www.rainbowpush.org.