BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION: HONOR THE MILESTONE, FINISH THE WORK

WHEREAS, in 1954, following unyielding efforts by the NAACP and the courage of the petitioners who brought the case, the U.S. Supreme Court finally struck down the legal basis for racial discrimination in public facilities by ruling that segregated public schools were inherently unconstitutional in Oliver Brown, et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka, et al.; and

WHEREAS, at the national level, the Brown decision was pivotal in fueling and strengthening civil rights activism in the United States and must be considered foundational to the achievement of such transformational legislation as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965; and

WHEREAS, with regard to public schools, the Brown decision and the court’s subsequent directive in Brown to desegregate schools “with all deliberate speed” accelerated the movement toward realization of an equitable, multiracial democracy in the U.S. but also that such movement was immediately countered by opposition at individual, institutional and governmental levels by forces bent on defending and entrenching racial discrimination in education; and

WHEREAS, even as historic progress has been made in the desegregation of schools, continual and continuing resistance and backlash—what author Carol Anderson terms “white rage”—have impeded the complete dissolution of segregation in public schools, thus rendering fulfillment of the principles and practices embedded in Brown incomplete; and

WHEREAS, the metrics of public education—literacy, achievement, discipline, educator diversity, school funding, graduation rates, college enrollment—all confirm the persistence of dire racial and socioeconomic inequities in education; and

WHEREAS, some of the central moments in the Civil Rights Movement—from the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which was organized by labor activist A. Philip Randolph, to Martin Luther King Jr.’s solidarity with striking Memphis sanitation workers at the time of his assassination in 1968—are testament to the symbiotic relationship between labor and civil rights:

RESOLVED, that the AFT will partner with our local affiliates and state federations throughout 2024 to commemorate and celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT will honor the authentic legacy of Brown v. Board of Education with teacher learning programs and resources designed to expand historical understanding of Brown but also forward-looking programs that document the degree of ongoing racial and socioeconomic divisions in public schools today, and thus underscore the urgency of educator and union advocacy to fully dismantle segregation in our schools.

Adopted May 28, 2025