Huntsville City Schools ignores the United States Supreme Court

Remember over 50 years ago when the Supreme Court ruled separate but equal public schools were illegal in the Brown vs Board of Education of Topeka decision? Evidently, Huntsville City Schools didn't get the memo because it's deja vu all over again.

The District’s 2007-2008 overall student enrollment was 43.1% black and 48.7% white. However, the majority of the District’s 47 schools were racially identifiable black or white due to the composition of their respective student bodies.

I've been involved in a *cough cough* discussion with my favorite righty's over at flashpoint who claim the DoJ is ignoring the Supreme Court by forcing the city of Dayton to lower its qualification standards for police and firemen in order to be able to hire more minorities. For some strange reason, white candidates are passing the exam but black candidates are failing the exam. Now the righty's want to say because both groups are given the exact same test, black candidates are failing the exam because they are dumb and inferior. Then I had one of those lightbulb moments and it hit me. The educational opportunities for both groups are not equal and therein lies the problem. Actually, it's that achievement gap thingy.

White candidates taking the exam had access to the best public school education their parent's tax dollars could buy. Whereas black candidates taking the exam were forced to attend low-achieving public schools because you get what you can pay for.

This is why it is of the utmost importance all children have access to a quality public education regardless of race, gender, or zip code.

This is why separately is unequal. It robs children of their ability to reach their full potential.

In the early 1950's, racial segregation in public schools was the norm across America. Although all the schools in a given district were supposed to be equal, most black schools were far inferior to their white counterparts.

In Topeka, Kansas, a black third-grader named Linda Brown had to walk one mile through a railroad switchyard to get to her black elementary school, even though a white elementary school was only seven blocks away. Linda's father, Oliver Brown, tried to enroll her in the white elementary school, but the principal of the school refused. Brown went to McKinley Burnett, the head of Topeka's branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and asked for help. The NAACP was eager to assist the Browns, as it had long wanted to challenge segregation in public schools. With Brown's complaint, it had "the right plaintiff at the right time." [4] Other black parents joined Brown, and, in 1951, the NAACP requested an injunction that would forbid the segregation of Topeka's public schools. [5]

The U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas heard Brown's case from June 25-26, 1951. At the trial, the NAACP argued that segregated schools sent the message to black children that they were inferior to whites; therefore, the schools were inherently unequal. One of the expert witnesses, Dr. Hugh W. Speer, testified that:

"...if the colored children are denied the experience in school of associating with white children, who represent 90 percent of our national society in which these colored children must live, then the colored child's curriculum is being greatly curtailed. The Topeka curriculum or any school curriculum cannot be equal under segregation." [6]

Children are our future police officers, firemen, doctors, nurses, lawyers, teachers etc. How can they be our future if they don't have equal opportunity to succeed and equal opportunity to a quality public education?

Huntsville City Schools is not the only school district ignoring the Supreme Court. I'm convinced the status quo want education for the rich but not the least of these.

Don't blame me for the messy bed. I voted a straight democratic ticket.

Uh NO Massa DeWitt, sir, we state democrats did our part. We held our nose and did what the republicans did and voted a straight ticket. If the conservadems had done joined with us, instead of being against us, democrats wouldn't have taken a bloodbath. But noooo, conservadems just had to whup State Senator Hank Sanders for his mad as hell robo call to DEMOCRATIC voters and put his "abrasive wife" in her place. That will learn them about dealing the race card in every hand. Yessum. *Snark*