The National Alliance of Black School Educators

The New Civil Rights Movement
By Shanta Driver

On May 17, 1954, nearly fifty years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its seminal decision, Brown v. Board of Education. This landmark decision stated the truth: separate can never be equal, that educational integration is an essential prerequisite to establishing a just, democratic, fair, and equal America. Now it is our duty to realize the promise of Brown, so long deferred and still so necessary for progress to occur within our nation. On May 15, 2004, we will march and rally in Washington, DC - young and old of all races and backgrounds, united in a common struggle to win equal educational opportunity for all, to defend affirmative action, integration, and immigrant rights - determined never to WAIVER until equality is won.

In 1954, the response to the Brown decision was swift and decisive. Two opposing armies lined up for battle. White segregationists, including state and local officials in Virginia's Prince Edward County, closed down their PUBLIC school systems rather than accept integration. At the same time, new, young civil rights leaders like Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. utilized the Supreme Court victory in Brown to build a mass, integrated civil rights movement that would change the character of American society.

Today, Prince Edward County has one of the most integrated school systems in the nation. Yet despite real progress and overwhelming popular support for the gains of the Civil Rights Movement, throughout the nation, a growing majority of Black and Latino students are being placed in underresourced and understaffed, separate and unequal schools. The setbacks we have suffered are the direct result of a well- organized and concerted legal and political attack on the integrationist gains of the 1950's and 1960's. We must defeat this effort- just as we did in the past - by organizing a mighty, integrated, independent and active new civil rights movement!

Over the last decade and a half, a small but well funded, determined faction has successfully overturned or eliminated most school desegregation programs, including many beloved magnet school programs. In June 2003, this faction suffered a stunning, first important defeat when the U.S. Supreme Court decided to uphold affirmative action programs in the landmark University of Michigan Law School case, Grutter v. Bollinger. The Grutter case was won because 50,000 students and youth of all races and backgrounds led by the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action & Integration and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) rallied and marched in Washington, D.C. on April 1, 2003, the day the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Grutter.

BAMN is organizing the May 15, 2004 March on Washington to Realize the Promise of Brown v. Board of Education. District-wide student field trips from every corner of the nation need to be organized now. Have your organization, school, student or community group, union, church, etc. pass the resolution to realize the Promise of Brown v. Board of Education (for sample resolution, see the BAMN website - http://www.bamn.com).

The futures of the young people we serve depend on the leadership we provide. In this 40th anniversary year of Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech, his call to action rings just as true. Join the national mobilization, come to Washington on May 15, 2004.