ONE MORE RIVER TO CROSS - CHARLES LAWRENCE

PREMISE

• Law
• Brown vs Board
• Plessy vs Ferguson
• Segregation
• Unemployment
• Injustice

AUTHOR'S ARGUMENT
Lawrence argues that the brown decision fostered a way of thinking about segregation that has allowed both the judiciary and society at large to deny the reality of race in America, that the recognition of that reality is critical to the framing of any meaningful remedy - judicial or political - and that brown may ultimately be labeled a success only insofar as we are able to make it stand for what i should have stood for in 1954.

EVIDENCE

"By focusing on the effect of school segregation rather than its purpose of Warren Court confused the issue and led us to look to separation as the sole source of black children's feelings of inferiority rather than at the larger institution of which segregated schools were only a small part. This confusion has limited us both in proving injury and in our search for appropriate remedies." (55)

"A proper understanding of segregation would make clear the existence of injury beyond a Detroit School District line and the legality of the interdistrict remedy. But the failure of the courts to acknowledge the true nature and scope of the harm that segregation inflicts upon blacks has affected the progress of blacks in ways that go far beyond the issue of the legality of propriety of interdistrict busing orders." (59)

"Perhaps the most detrimental effect of the court's refusal to acknowledge the true nature and scope of the institution of segregation has been the resulting failure of the judiciary, and ultimately the public at large, to recognize a constitutional right to affirmative destruction of the institution." (62)

COMMENTS

I feel after reading this article i have a much better understanding of the issue of segregation and racism in America. Although it was difficult to get past the legal jargon and square structure of the piece, in the end it proved to be an enlightening experience. I didn't realize how present segregation still is in our society and how brown vs board was just a false surface solution to a problem that still exists. I feel sad when i think about how many corrupt people are crushing the suffering beneath their feet so that they might be able to see a little farther into the horizon. It is an evil world.