Recognizing the 50th anniversary of a decision that broke down barriers

Nervous middle school students, lined up side-by-side in Eastern Middle School's main hallway, anxiously anticipated the next question. They greet each inquirer wearing a quivering smile despite knowing they have prepared for this night for weeks, readying themselves to share their knowledge of a past much different than their present.

"1938," recites one student, "Lloyd Gaines won his case against Southern University..." This student, along with dozens of others, is a part of the "Living Timeline" at Silver Spring's Eastern Middle School and its constitutional law class on March 9. The human timeline was featured in a show titled "The Unfinished Business of Brown v. Board of Education" to honor the 50th anniversary of the landmark court case.

"I'm just glad we're commemorating it," said Eastern world studies teacher, Sharon Dobson. "It's a good time to tell people about it. If they didn't know about it, now they'll know!"

Students at Eastern are not the only ones celebrating the anniversary. The U.S. Department of Education, the National Education Association, the American Bar Association and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People have planned commemoration activities until the actual anniversary May 17 including seminars, conferences, essay contests and galas.

The 1954 Supreme Court decision declared "separation [of races] inherently unequal" when Linda Brown, represented by then attorney Thurgood Marshall, won her case against a school board that had her walk six miles to an all black school instead of attending one near her home in Topeka, Kansas, because it was for whites.

Fifty years later, students of all races have the right to attend any school they choose.

Although students today are allowed to attend the school of their choice, statistics show that segregation persists. According to Census.gov, a centralized black population in the South challenges diversity in schools. In 2000, 64 percent of all counties in the U.S. were less than 6 percent black. In addition there were 96 counties that were 50 percent black, 95 of those located in the South, but only a little more than 12 percent of the U.S.'s total population was black in 2000.

Arlene Pollock, 13, of Silver Spring, who played to part of Linda Brown in Eastern's Brown v. Board show, said she notices a lack in diversity between students in Magnet classes, gift and talented, also known as "GT" classes, on-level classes and special education classes.

"Most magnets are white," Pollock said. "There are more blacks in GT classes, on-level is integrated and special-ed is very integrated."

A Harvard University study conducted from 1998 to 1999 showed that 70 percent of black students and more than one-third of Hispanic students attended predominantly minority schools. In addition, the average black student or Latino student attended a school that was 53 to 55 percent black or Latino, in contrast to the average white student who attended a school more than 80 percent white.

Gary Orfield, a Harvard professor and co-director of The Civil Rights Project, said that students in segregated schools are not going to be well prepared for the diversity of this country after schooling.

"White children are growing up in a society that is going to become more than half minority, and they are almost totally isolated from those minorities," said Orfield according to CBSNews.com. "These suburban kids are vastly unprepared for the future."

Harvard researchers mentioned the 1974 Supreme Court ruling that banned desegregation across city-suburban boundaries, which they said left central city schools overwhelmingly poor and overwhelmingly segregated, resulting in the lack of diversity in schools today.

Recognizing the monumental Brown court case in today's society is pertinent according to Pollock in order for students to appreciate the past.

"I think [remembering Brown v. Board] is important because I don't think a lot of kids understand how it was for blacks," Pollock said. "I think it will make students work harder in school and take advantage of their opportunities."