Seventy years later, Florida challenges merits of Brown v. Board of Education
On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education. Speaking for the unanimous court, Chief Justice Earl Warren opined that, “Today, education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments… it is a principal instrument in awakening the child to cultural values, in preparing him for later professional training, and in helping him to adjust normally to his environment.”
Those words rang true in 1954 and remain true in 2024. The Brown case litigated by the iconic Thurgood Marshall, raised the question, does the segregation of public education based solely on race violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment? The court held that separate but equal educational facilities were inherently unequal. Despite the plain reading of the decision in Brown the court had to clarify the method of its enforcement with “all deliberate speed” in Brown II decided in 1955.
The court’s decisions not only righted the wrong of Plessy v. Ferguson, but it also made clear going into the next century that racial equality in education is constitutionally protected. Fast forward 70 years, and Florida is moving with all deliberate speed retreating from the decision in a fever pitch.
In Florida you may be able to teach the decision of the Brown opinion, but describing the undisputed facts and litigation that brought the plaintiffs before the court in particular “The Doll Test,” would be contrary to newly enacted African American History standards that dilutes the complete historical record. This is where we are 70 years’ post, where the response to fulfilling the Brown mandate is to eradicate anything that promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion in public education.
Despite the practicality and necessity of having an inclusive student body and educational experience a year ago legislation was enacted to ban public universities from spending money on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. There is a sense that the provisions of Brown are no longer necessary because of some sort of false sense of racial utopia that isn’t present, but as Thurgood Marshall laid out factually the systematic showing that not only were separate educational facilities inherently unequal, but the separating of the children had a disparate impact on the overall learning of both black and white students alike.
We aren’t that far removed from the facts and circumstances that brought the case to the highest court in the land. Yet, what we have seen in Florida in nearly every legislative session is a renewed assault on the protections of Brown and diversity in public education to the more recent requiring curriculum to students as early as kindergarten on the dangers of communism.
The stripping away of any forum of fostering and promoting ideas of different views is counter to the core principles in Brown. As Chief Justice Warren so stated, education is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms.
Brice L. Aikens, a native of Tallahassee, Florida, is a board-certified criminal trial lawyer, practicing criminal defense and personal injury. He can be reached at baikens@thelawman.net.
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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: 70 years later, Florida challenges merits of Brown v. Board
