On May 17, 1954, Chief Justice Earl Warren delivered the opinion of the U.S. Supreme Court finding that "separate but equal" public school facilities were unconstitutional, and ordered that cities throughout the nation begin planning for desegregation. Brown was considered a landmark decision in the black struggle for civil rights.
Rhode Island College hosted a conference on May 2 & 3, 1984 to commemorate the Brown decision. As a part of the commemorative program a series of lectures was offered during the spring semester leading to the May conference. The anticipated and unanticipated consequences of school desegregation were examined, focusing on the problems which the nation still faced, especially unequal educational opportunity, urban poverty and social inequality. The litigation and confrontations which followed the Supreme Court decision on both state and federal levels are reviewed and assessed.
-
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Commemorative Conference (Program of Events)
Rhode Island College
-
Thirty Years After: Day 1, Afternoon Panel Discussion on Educational Equality (May 2, 1984)
Frank Walker, Richard Donovan, and Joyce Stevos
-
Thirty Years After: Day 1, Morning Panel Discussion (May 2, 1984)
Virgil Wood, Jack Finger, Jack Greenberg, James Nabrit, and Kenneth Clark