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Politics
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By Jessica Shyu Maryland Newsline Friday, April 16, 2004
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Fifty years after the Supreme Court issued its landmark school desegregation decision, many public schools are again divided along color lines, a panel of journalists and scholars said Friday.
They said political and community leaders must strengthen efforts to integrate schools and neighborhoods and to bring more fairness to the criminal justice system.
The discussion was part of a day-long community and scholar dialogue sponsored by the University of Maryland to commemorate next month’s anniversary of the Brown vs. Board of Education decision. The three panelists acknowledged that the court ruling did not heal segregation as it intended in 1954. But, said panel moderator and journalism professor Lee Thornton, they could offer some “prescriptions for the future.” “We must think of how the movement can move forward,” added panelist and Supreme Court reporter Lyle Denniston. People need to realize the role race plays in the criminal justice system, said Denniston, a correspondent for the Boston Globe. From racial profiling by police officers to the disproportionately high number of black men on death row, African Americans still face blatant discrimination, he said. Brown was more about opportunity than immediate integration, Denniston and the other panelists told the 100 or so audience members. Students strengthen their chances of succeeding in life when they attend schools that are racially balanced, said panelist and University of Miami sociology professor Jomills H. Braddock II. But today, neighborhoods are resegregating, he said, as middle-class residents flock from urban centers to the suburbs, leaving poor African-American children trapped in stricken inner-city public schools. One solution would be to improve city neighborhoods and schools to attract a diverse community, said panelist and University of Maryland government and politics professor Ron Walters, who also directs the African American Leadership Institute. As the African-American community embarks on a third Reconstruction period—the first was after the Civil War and the second was after the 1960s race riots—new leaders must emerge to reintroduce race as a political topic, said Rebekah Park, an audience member and recent University of Maryland graduate. The panel was organized by The Democracy Collaborative, the university’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism and its department of history. The collaborative is a network of academic centers and scholars from around the world working to strengthen democracy through research, training, community action and classes. Banner photo courtesy Joseph Douglas Collection, Kansas Collection, Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas Libraries Copyright © 2004 University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism
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