“We lost and we gained,” she said.

June 7, 2024 2:41 PM

When desegregation came to Harlan County, Ky.: An oral history. Karida Brown for the Washington Post. “As we commemorate the 70th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education this month, let us not forget: It was Black children who did the work of desegregating our schools…. The narratives in this piece come from oral histories I conducted from 2013 to 2016 with African Americans who, like my parents, remember the “colored schools” of Harlan County, particularly those in two small Appalachian coal towns, Lynch and Benham. Their experiences — revisited from the vantage point of their 60s, 70s and 80s — give texture to a complex transition from a pre- to post-civil rights era.”archive.is link
posted by bq (5 comments total)

Thank you this is excellent. It reminds me of an interview I heard with Linda Brown Smith that really demystified a lot of what I thought I knew about the events and consequences of Brown v Board.

This interview with Linda Brown Smith, explaining that it wasn’t the quality of the school that her parents objected to — Monroe, the Black school, was as good or better a school than Sumner, the white school. But Monroe was all the way across town and Sumner was in her neighborhood. Topeka was already partially integrated in the middle and high schools, but the elementary schools were still segregated. After the desegregation order and the Black students were forced to integrate white schools, the white parents didn’t want their children educated by Black faculty. The teachers, administrators, and support staff at the Black schools all lost their jobs and had to move away.

The main thing that was lost, according to Brown Smith and others, was the serious and caring family atmosphere the Black students found in Black schools. (Lots of good links here)
posted by toodleydoodley at 6:54 PM on June 7 [7 favorites]

toodleydoodley, thank you for the second link (the first did not connect for me). reading "Black schoolchildren in Topeka did not experience overcrowded classrooms like those in Washington, D.C." inspired searching.

https://theuncommondistrict.com/2021/02/d-c-s-segregated-schools/ has images and description of 1951s "Bolling v Sharpe. The plaintiffs were the students who had been denied entrance to the Sousa School, among them Spottswood Thomas Bolling. Sharpe was the head of the Board of Education. The case failed at the District Court but went up to the Supreme Court and was ruled on in combination with Brown in 1954."
posted by HearHere at 7:28 PM on June 7 [5 favorites]

Such an important and awareness-expanding read. There is so much of which I am completely ignorant. Thank you, bq.
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 11:43 AM on June 8 [2 favorites]

Absolutely, rrrrrrrrrt. This article reminded me of the importance of lifelong learning. I knew about the emotional trauma inflicted on Black children who were, in essence, pawns in school desegregation. (Context: I'm an older White woman whose closest friend is Black, and we were co-leaders of a citywide parent organization in the early 1990s. Our kids attended magnet schools created by a desegregation order.) How did I not know about all the wonderful educators who lost their jobs nor about the impact on families, connection and community? Interestingly, my friend (who now lives about 1000 miles away) just learned that a relative of hers was one of those educators. Now we're trading links back and forth, and we're looking forward to seeing each other in a few weeks to talk about what we're learning.

Thank you for posting, bq!
posted by Scout405 at 5:38 PM on June 8

Bettina Love examines the impact of education policies on Black students and what we can do next
posted by coolname at 4:12 PM on June 10