The Battle for Brown

This article contends that the battle to preserve and place the principles of Brown v. Board of Education' at the center of the quest for educational equality is more important than ever before. Initially, this article notes that the United States Supreme Court's stewardship of Brown has been uneven, and the decision's precedential force has been much diminished in the hands of the Rehnquist and Roberts Courts. But as the Court has withdrawn from vigorous enforcement of Brown's desegregation mandate, segregation in public education persists, and other factors such as class, housing segregation, hypercriminalization, and employment discrimination intersect with race to condemn black and brown children to disparities in educational attainment. While Court partisans2 and the nation debate whether we are a post-racial America, 3 many sobering realities, including disparate educational outcomes, demonstrate that racial disparity and discrimination in America remain as resilient as ever