Brown and Me : Brown’s Theory of an Educational Remedy for Citizenship

Brown v. Board of Education, a landmark United States Supreme Court case, turned 50 years old on May 17, 2004. It stands as an icon, an inspiration, a turning point, and – some will say – a failure. Part one of this article argues that Brown was an exercise in nation building, using the law of public education as its cornerstone to reconstruct a nation divided legally and socially by the idea of race. Part two argues that Brown v. Board of Education articulated the pregnant beginning of a vision of how to transform the United States from a nation bitterly divided by the question of race to a more unified nation by using public education platform. Part three and four asserts that Brown’s vision and mandate of citizenship for African Americans through the vehicle of public education was contested from the very beginning. Finally, part five discusses a resurrected vision and future for Brown’s educational and remedial theory