Guest Editorial: 70 years since Brown v. Board of Education, the education gap remains

Linda Brown Smith stands in front of the Sumner School in Topeka, Kansas, in 1964. The public school’s refusal in 1951 to admit Brown, then 9 years old, because she is Black led to the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka ruling. — AP Photo, File On May 17, the nation marked the 70th anniversary of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court decision that struck down institutionalized racial segregation in public schools. The Brown decision struck down an 1896 decision that institutionalized racial segregation with “separate but equal” schools for Black and White students, by ruling that such accommodations were anything but equal. In this landmark decision the Supreme Court ruled that separating children in public schools on the basis of race was unconstitutional. Brown marked the end of legalized racial segregation in the United States, overruling the “separate but equal” principle set forth in the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case. The Brown decision was a major achievement for civil rights because it dismantled the legal framework for segregation in the United States. However, 70 years after the Brown decision, American schools are still largely segregated and educational gaps remain based on race and class....