Greene County Democrat

Tag: Brown v. Board of Education

  • Newswire : Trump-era cuts, truth bans, fuel growing racial divide in U.S. Education

    By Stacy M. Brown
    Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

    Despite the promise of equal opportunity heralded by the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education, a new WalletHub report reveals that America’s educational system remains critically unequal—especially for Black students. The disparities, experts say, have only widened in recent years, worsened by former President Donald Trump’s dismantling of federal education funding and his administration’s attacks on teaching real American history.

    WalletHub’s analysis ranked states by racial equality in education, using key metrics such as gaps in graduation rates, college degree attainment, and standardized test scores between Black and white students. Wyoming, New Mexico, and West Virginia top the list for equity, while Connecticut, Minnesota, and Wisconsin rank lowest. According to the report, school districts with predominantly white students receive $23 billion more in funding per year than districts with majority nonwhite students.
    “Promoting racial equality in education can have a significant impact on promoting equality in the overall economy,” said WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo. “It is essential to ensure that all school districts receive sufficient funding, the latest technology, and equal opportunities for tutoring and extracurricular activities.”

    But instead of addressing these inequities, Trump and his allies have stripped resources from schools, gutted the Department of Education, and fiercely opposed instruction that addresses America’s history of racism, slavery, and systemic inequality. Their rejection of Critical Race Theory—often a stand-in for broader discussions about race—has sparked book bans, curriculum censorship, and efforts to whitewash the past. Rodney Coates, a WalletHub expert and professor at Miami University, said the system is structurally rigged. “Race and class are both associated with differential school spending. Poor areas—mostly Black, Native American, and Hispanic—have lower per-pupil spending across our country,” Coates said. “Educational opportunity and a commitment to excellence are the only lasting solutions.”
    The report details how states like Connecticut and Wisconsin—among the worst for racial equity—suffer from wide gaps in high school graduation rates and access to advanced coursework. In contrast, states like Hawaii and New Mexico show narrower gaps in test scores and degree attainment. “It’s not just about race, but the effects are highly racialized,” said Shauna Lani Shames, a WalletHub expert and political science professor at Rutgers University. “Schools remain segregated today by geography and class, which are deeply tied to race due to generations of redlining and discriminatory policies.” The pandemic and recent economic downturns have exacerbated the problem. As WalletHub expert Tyrone Howard of UCLA explained, the regression in math and reading scores for Black and Brown students is alarming, and without targeted resources—school counselors, academic support, and mental health services—the gaps will only grow.
    William McCorkle, also a WalletHub expert and an education professor at the College of Charleston, noted structural barriers in South Carolina that perpetuate inequality. “Even at the kindergarten level, some children are divided based on gifted and talented programs, which are almost completely based on parental income.”
    According to experts, solving these inequities requires more than just increased funding. It demands a commitment to truth, accurate teaching of history, and valuing every student regardless of their background. “Every person deserves the finest education we can provide,” said WalletHub Expert Dr. Kim Scipes, a professor emeritus of sociology at Purdue University Northwest. “Despite its wide usage, there is no white race, no black race, no brown race—there is only one race, the human race,” Scipes stated.

  • Newswire: Alabama State dedicates Jo Ann Robinson Hall, removes Klan member’s name from dorm


    Jo Ann Robinson was an English professor at Alabama State College in the 1950s who fought for changes on Montgomery’s segregated buses well before the arrest of Rosa Parks.
    When Parks was arrested in December 1955, Robinson spread the word through Montgomery’s Black community that the time had arrived for a long-anticipated boycott of the bus system.
    Robinson, working overnight with help from another Alabama State professor and students, wrote, mimeographed, and distributed 52,500 leaflets flyers urging Black people to stay off the buses for a day. The idea caught on and grew into the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a year-long campaign that broke the segregated system known for abusing and humiliating Black riders.
    Today, Alabama State University rededicated the former Bibb Graves Hall in the heart of its Montgomery campus as Jo Ann Robinson Hall.
    Civil rights attorney Fred D. Gray, a 1951 ASU graduate and the legal counsel for the boycott, told the crowd at today’s ceremony about meetings with Robinson to plan the boycott and described her as an essential leader of the effort.
    “If she had not done what she did and been insisting on it, there would have been no Montgomery bus boycott at that time,” Gray said.
    ASU President Quinton Ross noted at today’s ceremony that Easter would have been Robinson’s 110th birthday. Robinson died at age 80 in 1992.
    “Today we are here to sing her praise and to let the world know that Jo Ann Robinson’s name deserves to be honored along with other icons with which we are all familiar, many of whom like Professor Robinson held significant ties to this great university,” Ross said.
    In 2020, Ross commissioned a committee to research and identify ASU buildings named after leaders or avowed members of racist organizations.
    Bibb Graves was governor of Alabama from 1927 to 1931 and from 1935 to 1939. Graves won his first term with the backing of the Ku Klux Klan and was grand cyclops of the Klan in Montgomery, according to the Encyclopedia of Alabama.
    Following a recommendation from Ross, the ASU Board of Trustees voted in September 2021 to rename Bibb Graves Hall for Robinson.
    The three story-building with a bell tower was built in 1928 and is the oldest residency hall on the campus. It was renovated in 2008.
    The move by ASU comes after several other state universities renamed buildings that were named after Graves.
    In February, the University of Alabama renamed Bibb Graves Hall in honor of Autherine Lucy Foster, who was the first Black student at the university.
    Troy State University renamed Bibb Graves Hall in 2020, rededicating it as John Robert Lewis Hall in honor of the Pike County native, civil rights champion and late Georgia congressman.
    Last year, Jacksonville State University renamed its administration building that was named after Graves.
    The Alabama Legislature passed a law in 2017 to prohibit the removal of historical monuments in place for 40 years or more and the renaming of historical buildings and streets. Several Alabama cities, including Birmingham and Mobile, have paid $25,000 fines for moving Confederate monuments.
    ASU President Ross said the university is prepared to defend its decision to rename the residency hall.
    “This is a historic day, and I think it’s been revolutionary across the county in terms of what has been happening with replacement of monuments and emphasis on social justice and equality right now,” Ross said. “While there is a law on the books, like many other laws, should that become an issue, we stand ready to defend our position. But with all the changes that are taking place within the state, within the country, I think this is a welcome change.”
    Alabama State University Archivist Howard Robinson told the crowd at the dedication ceremony how Jo Ann Robinson came to play an important role in Montgomery and the civil rights movement. She was born in 1912 in Georgia and was the youngest of 12 children in her family. She excelled at school and earned degrees from what is now Fort Valley State University and Atlanta University.
    In 1949, Robinson was recruited from a college in Texas to teach at ASU. Robinson, who was 33, was invigorated by the readiness of the Black community in Montgomery to challenge the Jim Crow system, according to the archivist Robinson. An encounter with a verbally abusive Montgomery bus driver during her first year in the city helped strengthen her resolve to be an advocate.
    Robinson joined and became the president of the Women’s Political Counsel, which took its concerns about the bus system, police abuses, and other problems to city leaders. Robinson joined and became a leader at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, where Rev. Martin Luther King would later become pastor and the most visible leader of the bus boycott.
    The archivist Robinson said Jo Ann Robinson wrote a letter to the mayor of Montgomery in May 1954, four days after the Brown v. Board of Education decision, threatening a bus boycott.
    But humiliating seating policies and abuses of the Black riders continued and led to several more arrests of Black women before Parks’ arrest on Dec. 1, 1955. That’s when Robinson printed and distributed the leaflets and was involved in the work with Gray and others to help launch the boycott.
    “In response, Montgomery’s Black population demonstrated almost universal support for the boycott,” Howard Robinson said. “Robinson would continue her activism during the year-long boycott.”
    Howard Robinson said Jo Ann Robinson “nurtured amongst her students a sense of assertive discontent” and was one of a dozen ASU professors forced to leave the college by the State Board of Education in 1960.
    After leaving ASU, Robinson taught for a year at Grambling College in Louisiana, now Grambling State University. She then moved to Los Angeles, where she worked in the public school system until she retired in 1976, according to the Encyclopedia of Alabama

  • Newswire: Autherine Lucy Foster, first Black student
    to attend the University of Alabama, dies at 92

    Autherine Lucy Foster in wheelchair at recent ribbon cutting at naming of building at UA for her and Autherine Lucy in 1952


    By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
    Her desire for a second undergraduate degree was cut short after just three days when a mob of racists assaulted her with food, rocks, and other items when she attempted to enter the University of Alabama.

    Autherine Lucy Foster, who earned a bachelor’s degree in English from historically Black Miles College in 1952, and whose legal battle with the University of Alabama concluded two years after the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, has died at 92.

    A critical, but sometimes overlooked figure in the civil rights movement, Foster’s case became the first to challenge the Brown ruling that allowed federal judges to implement the historic decision.

    In 1992, Foster recalled her experience in a New York Times interview. “It felt somewhat like you were not really a human being. But had it not been for some at the university, my life might not have been spared at all,” Foster said.

    “I did expect to find isolation. I thought I could survive that. But I did not expect it to go as far as it did. There were students behind me saying, ‘Let’s kill her! Let’s kill her!’”

    Foster visited Tuscaloosa a week before her death, cutting the ribbon on the newly named College of Education building, where she took refuge from the racist mob.
    Previously known as Bibb Graves Hall, the university’s building adopted a new name called Autherine Lucy Hall.

    “My staff was proud to celebrate the courage and sacrifice of Dr. Autherine Lucy Foster by presenting her with a Congressional Record,” Alabama Democratic Rep. Terri Sewell stated.
    “The naming of the University of Alabama’s Autherine Lucy Hall will stand as a powerful reminder of her sacrifice in the name of justice and equity for all.”

    Foster “was the embodiment of courage,” said Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, who chairs the organization. “As the first Black student to attend the University of Alabama, her trailblazing determination paved the way for a more inclusive and equitable higher education system in Alabama. Her life was a testament to the power of compassion and grace in the face of unyielding adversity. We are all made better by her example.”

    Many others tweeted and offered statements of condolences. Foster’s family asked for privacy, but they did release a statement about the trailblazer.

    “She was known, honored, and respected around the world after she broke the color barrier at the University of Alabama,” her daughter Chrystal Foster said in a statement. “She passed away at home, surrounded by family. We are deeply saddened, yet we realize she left a proud legacy.”