"We conclude that, in the field of public education, the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."
- Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954)
School Integration Works
Court-ordered desegregation led to life-changing results for students
* Source: Johnson, Rucker C. Children of the Dream: Why School Integration Works (2019). New York, NY: Basic Books and Russell Sage Foundation Press, page 63, Figure 2.9
* Source: Johnson, Rucker C. Children of the Dream: Why School Integration Works (2019). New York, NY: Basic Books and Russell Sage Foundation Press, page 61, Figure 2.7
* Source: Antman, Fransisca and Kalena Cortes, The Long-Run Impacts of Mexican-American School Desegregation (2022). The Brookings Institution. Available-https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-long-run-impacts-of-mexican-american-school-desegregation/
* Source: Johnson, Rucker C. Children of the Dream: Why School Integration Works (2019). New York, NY: Basic Books and Russell Sage Foundation Press, page 64, Figure 2.10
Seventy years later it is still true that separate is inherently unequal.
Educational resources—money, great teachers, rigorous coursework, and more—remain correlated to the whiteness of a school or district’s student body. That’s wrong. But it’s reality.
And schools today are more racially segregated than they were in the 1970s.
If we want to give students of color equal educational opportunity—and if we want to prepare students of every race to thrive in an increasingly diverse, interconnected world—children from all backgrounds need to learn together in excellent, well-resourced, diverse schools led by diverse educators.
Together we can build the future our children deserve.
Sign up to receive updates on our work.
