Reshaping Education Forty-Five Years After Brown

By Wendy S. Johnson

Vol. 21, No. 1, 1999 p. 3

An SRC survey on racial attitudes found sixty percent of Americans rank improving schools and education as a top priority over any other issue. The reasons are many. Education is the foundation for a decent job and livelihood and central to almost every other measure of a society’s well-being.

Yet, as education improves in the South, inequalities within the educational system persist. Forty-five years after Brown began to break through barriers to educational participation, we confront the realities of institutional resistance to change.

The Washington, D.C.-based Education Trust reports that while tremendous progress was made toward closing the gap in reading scores between white and African-American and Latino students during the two decades leading up to 1989, today the reverse is true. During the 1970s and 1980s, the gap in achievement,between African-American and white students, as measured by reading scores, narrowed by about half, while the gap between Latino and white students narrowed by about one-third. Beginning in the late 80s, with some exceptions, that gap has begun to widen. In math, “while almost all groups are gaining, the gains among white students outpace gains among African Americans and Latinos,” the Education Trust reported.

In this issue of Southern Changes, we review the past decade of SRC’s work to overcome inequality in education in the context of its long history of involvement in the struggle to end unequal education. A glimpse of that long view is provided by former SRC Executive Director Leslie Dunbar (1961-1965) in “Schools in Conflict.” Sarah Ellen Torian chronicles the key ingredients in SRC’s current education strategy: building partnerships and nourishing peer leadership development for systemic school reform; valuing all students’ learning styles; and setting high expectations for all learners.

We also hear from a host of Southern education reformers at work in various capacities in local places in the South: Dr. Lisa Delpit and Gwen Williams training teachers in Atlanta; Clarie White providing support to families in Fayetteville, North Carolina; Robert Woodruff in Hollandale and Robert Markham in Meridian, Mississippi, providing leadership as principals; Shirley Martin coordinating volunteer tutors in Monticello, Arkansas; Anne Cooper working from the school board in Athens/Clarke County, Georgia; and Karen Watson leading concerned citizens against racial barriers in Screven County, Georgia.

The national cry for accountability and standards is addressed by Hayes Mizell, director of the Program for Student Achievement at the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, who recognizes both the power and the limits of standards-based reform.

A host of school change efforts are underway across the nation, not all of them aimed at preserving and improving public education. Barbara Miner of Rethinking Schools analyzes the moves by the right wing that are “taking aim at the very concept of public education,” including advocating vouchers. The voucher proponents’ Southern strategy, reviewed by Southern Changes managing editor Ellen Spears, is most succinctly summarized by Florida state PTA President-elect Patty Hightower who contends that voucher supporters, “really are trying to buy themselves out of having to provide an adequate educational system for all students.”

As the local reformers echo, many public schools are changing for the better despite the challenges they face. But we cannot be content with an educational system that promises excellence for some. A society that is considering peacetime increases in the military budget and states and localities that are considering hefty increases in prison spending, should instead be devoting our resources to education. Dianne Piché of the Citizen’s Commission on Civil Rights writes about the reauthorization battle for Title I, the only federal dollars targeted at equity in K-12 education.

Finally, we are celebrating the appearance later this spring of audio cassettes and compact discs of “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?,” SRC’s audio documentary of the Civil Rights Movement in five Southern cities. Producer of the Peabody Award-winning series George King has re-edited the oral histories and music into a valuable educational resource for schools and communities.

We invite you to join us as we call for new partnerships for school reform and spread our work for educational justice.

Wendy S. Johnson is executive director of the Southern Regional Council.

Using our Past to Build the Future

By Wendy S. Johnson

Vol. 22, No. 1, 2000, pp. 3-4

The struggle for racial equity in the South has no timetable. As we advance the eighty-year mission of the Southern Regional Council-to promote racial justice, protect democratic rights, and broaden civic participation in the Southeastern United States-we must heed the lessons of decades past.

Marion A. Wright, Council president in 1952 wrote “SRC is the lengthened shadow of many men and women.” Since the beginning of our predecessor organization in 1919, the Commission on Interracial Cooperation, Southerners and our nation have been radically transformed. In the midst of this movement for change has been the Southern Regional Council, driven by the single-minded purpose of conquering racism and inequality, through research, education and action strategies.

Our history demands that we look back and borrow, as often as we need it, the wisdom, courage and lessons of our past.

Those who came together in the first twenty-five years of SRC’s existence, as the (CIC), had a strong dose of moral courage and purpose. They were black and white ministers, teachers, sociologists and presidents from leading black academic institutions and white Southern colleges and universities. The leadership of women in the CIC began to rise, with Jessie Daniel Ames and others as they organized an anti-lynching education campaign. The CIC believed that constructive ideas and sound information were important requirements to promoting racial change in the South.

Significant inroads against the longstanding injustices of Jim Crow were made over the last half century. The period of the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s gave us some of the most powerful legislation of the last century-legislation that embraced themes of inclusion, freedom, justice and democracy and was fueled and forged by the civil rights movement.

For the next three decades, political transformation continued with the policies of Harry Truman, including the desegregation of the armed forces. Staff provided assistance to President Truman’s Committee on Civil Rights, regularly briefing the Committee on the main concerns of the South. This activity marked the beginning of SRC’s commitment to federal intervention in civil rights, a position that set the organization well outside the white mainstream in the region.

True dismantling of segregation, albeit slow, began with the 1954 Brown vs Board of Education decision knocking down the pillars of Jim Crow segregation. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ( introducing the concept and practice of affirmative action) and the Voting Rights Act 1965 were the final blows to de jure segregation.

Black voting rights emerged as a the main postwar issue for the Southern Regional Council. The 1944 Texas case Smith vs Allwright, a landmark Supreme Court decision banning the all-white primary-opened the door for black political participation throughout the South.

The Voter Education Project established a precedent for institutional cooperation. The VEP used the organizing efforts of five civil rights organizations-Urban League, CORE, NAACP, SCLC, and SNCC- to do registration projects in communities. SRC served as the conduit for foundation money and the coordinating body to field staff.

SRC adopted a policy to service the national press on its coverage of race in the South as a strategy to influence public opinion. A reasoned and liberal view on desegregating the South was given voice by northern newspapers, especially the New York Times, since liberal Southern newspapers were nonexistent.

Today, inequalities still persist and our challenges are much more complex. Employment discrimination continues to be a fact of life, even for highly educated minorities. Just witness over the last decade the range of lawsuits alleging racial discrimination in some of America’s largest companies.

Even though we have removed poll taxes, literacy

---

Page 4

tests, and other barriers to the political process, we are confronted today with new complex influences in voting. Majority Black and Latino districts have been overturned by federal courts or legislative action–racial bloc voting and the growing influence of money in politics have all combined to disfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters.

SRC is concentrating on specific action strategies for the 21st century. We believe that young voters are important to the electoral process and the advancement of progressive policies. Our new Youth Empowerment Project seeks to increase the number of voters ages 18-24 using research and intervention strategies. Our award winning audio documentary, Will the Circle be Unbroken? highlighting the civil rights movement in five southern cities, will serve as important curriculum in the middle grades and high schools.

Over the last decade our education programs have focused on helping middle school principals, teachers, administrators, and parents affect the key elements that create a school culture that nurtures learning for all children. We now face a new landscape in public education and must rethink our role in the education reform conversation.

Our work over the last eight decades has prepared us well for our newest initiative, Partnerships for Racial Unity. The historical signature of race relations has been the Black and white divide. While that struggle persists, the recent influx of immigrants into the region demands that we must implement programs acknowledging the changing racial and ethnic demographics. SRC will serve as a catalyst for strong alliance-building between Blacks, whites, Latinos, and Asians. Multi-racial and multi-ethnic coalition building will allow us to amass our strength to achieve the goals of fairness.

The South of the future is in the hands of people like you and me–representatives of new and mature communities. We must lead the way and shape the new order of fairness and justice. We must hold up the mirror of history and meet the challenges of building an America as good as its promise.

Wendy S. Johnson is executive director of the Southern Regional Council

New Century Politics

By Wendy S. Johnson

Vol. 22, No. 2, 2000 pp. 3-4

The social activism of the 1960s gave us some of the most powerful and ground-breaking legislation of the last century–legislation that embraced the themes of freedom, justice, and democracy–most notably the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. As a result, millions of formerly disfranchised minorities gained a political voice through the power of voting. In the last two decades, we’ve seen a dramatic and disturbing rightward shift in our national policy. In this new century, we face a number of challenges as the future enforcement of these policies is thrown into doubt.

As we prepare for the first presidential race of the new century and the much-anticipated and debated 2000 Census count results, minority voting rights are at a crossroads and questions continue to be raised in the enforcement of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Threats to minority voting rights increased shortly after the 1990 reapportionment/redistricting cycle, which resulted in dramatic electoral gains for African-American and Latino voters in the 1992 elections.

Led by the case Shaw v. Reno, a series of lawsuits followed that threatened the erasure of minority opportunity districts. Since 1993 thirteen majority-minority congressional districts have been overturned. On the eve of the new redistricting cycle, the courts are still battling over redistricting plans developed after the 1990 Census. The North Carolina 12th district, first challenged in 1992, is back at the Supreme Court for the fourth time as we enter the new decade.

While the Census Bureau crunches numbers for its decennial report, Democrats and Republicans alike are busy filling their political warchests in order to win as many seats as possible. This greedy grab for political seats by any means necessary could have direct impact upon the number of existing majority-minority districts that can be maintained and more importantly, the number that can be gained. Edwin Bender’s article, “Soft Money Showered on the States: Redistricting and Election 2000,” gives you the details of how party efforts are sucking in soft money to influence redistricting outcomes.

The census data will introduce potential perils to the new reapportionment-redistricting cycle–multiple racial and ethnic categories. The reporting format of these multiple categories could become a useful tool for advancing the effective enforcement of civil rights laws or a powerful weapon for opponents of fairness measures.

With dozens of favor-seeking corporations contributing in excess of $100,000, Corporate America is revealed as a key underwriter of both the upcoming Democratic and Republican national conventions. Jim Hightower’s essay, “The Flim-Flam Campaign: Corporations Buy the Conventions,” provides another sobering yet maddening example of the need for wholesale reform to get money out of politics.

As we list toward the November elections do you know which races to watch and candidates to watch out for? In this issue Sarah Torian has provided an overview of key contests around the South, where the candidates stand on issues that we care about including civil rights, affirmative action, education, and the environment.

As we work to revitalize civil rights enforcement and reduce racial inequality we must, in Barbara Jordan’s words, “make America as good as its promise..

We, you and I, our neighbors, our voting age children, our clergy and labor leaders, our business leaders, and our teachers must demand leadership in developing proactive and effective responses to racial inequities and civil rights concerns from our presidential, congressional, and state leadership. We must make these same demands of community, religious, and political leaders where we live-because there is broad public support for revitalizing existing policies that offer equal opportunity and create new policies to meet the needs of the 21st century.

Demanding accountability from our leaders can take many forms-from letter writing campaigns to community organizing initiatives. But arguably, the most basic and important way to demand this leadership is to make our voices heard on election day.

We shared with you the results of our national survey in our report Seeking on America as Good as its Promise, which established that there is wide support for reducing racially identifiable inequality through tools such as affirmative action among other approaches. Key findings of the publics’ views on political participation and fairness remedies included:

• 83 percent believe that African Americans should be represented politically in proportion to their numbers in the population;
• It is in the best interests of the country if our elected officials reflect the racial and ethnic background of the
  

  ---

  Page 4

  entire population (76 percent);

• Most Americans support affirmative action (56 percent).

These findings contrast starkly with the assertions of our conservative Congressional members and affirmative action opponents who deny the need and importance of active civil rights enforcement.

As a solution to deepening enforcement of fairness measures, the American public is calling for proactive and assertive leadership. Leadership is critical in marshalling and mobilizing existing support for racial fairness. If our leaders are pro-active in nurturing these threads of hope, the next generation will be ready to follow.

While two out of every three youth aged 18 to 24 do not vote, more than three out of four of this age group (77 percent) say reducing racial inequality is a top or above average priority, compared to 57 percent of older Americans. These same young Americans are somewhat more likely (88 percent) than older Americans (76 percent) to say it is important that voting districts be drawn so that blacks can obtain representation in office comparable to their numbers in the population.

While the 2000 elections are only months away, the expiration of Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act is slated for 2007. Ellen Spears’ article, “The 2000 Elections and Voting Rights Act Renewal” argues that it is not too early to make the connection between who we vote into office in November and the prospects for balanced and fair consideration of renewing and extending this critically important piece of legislation. Much is at stake.

Findings of support for progressive leadership and young people’s faith in the power of political engagement signal hope for the future. However, if young people aren’t making their opinions known at the polls, their impact is greatly diminished. Can the upcoming presidential election capture the imagination of our disfranchised youth and, hopefully, their votes?

The article, “Young Voters Flee the Polls,” addresses the growing disconnect and disenchantment of young voters with electoral politics. Uninspired by party politics, our youth have abandoned the electoral process. What is our role as leaders, young and old, in nurturing a new attitude and understanding towards effective political engagement? Achieving a democratic and fair society is not a spectator spoil. What have you done lately to encourage young adults to exercise their franchise?

Wendy S. Johnson is executive director of the Southern Regional Council

Election Reform: Going Anywhere?

By Wendy S. Johnson

Vol. 23, No. 2, 2001 p. 3

The thirty-five days following the 2000 presidential election stunned a watchful and anxious nation as we learned about the severe ineptness and unreadiness of an election process that could not handle a closely-called election. Our attention riveted on the panhandle state as the challenge to recount the presidential race in key Florida counties moved from the elections board to the courts. Under a national magnifying glass, a pattern of severe voter neglect began to emerge, not as the exception, but the rule. Florida citizens’ anxiety turned to distress and anger when the news registered that many of their votes had not been counted, had been thrown into doubt, or just thrown out due to a host of inadequate record-keeping oversights and voting machine failures. Nationally, the Cal Tech/MIT Voting Technology Project, in a study released July 2001, estimated that “between four and six million presidential votes were lost in the 2000 election” due to problems with voter registration, polling place practices, and ballot flaws. The final blow to voter confidence was wielded by the U.S. Supreme Court with its politicized decision to cease all recounts because of a lack of agreed upon standards.

In January as our new Supreme Court-declared President George W. Bush changed zip codes, legislatures across the nation began their sessions with high expectations toward changing election reform procedures and recapturing voter confidence.

In the ten months since the November 2000 election, a count of another sort has emerged: some 1,500 election bills were introduced by lawmakers across the country. Good. Change is imminent. But wait. When you look more closely at the few bills that actually passed and start asking questions about when implementation will take place and what will be done, the responses are as weak as the bills themselves.

This edition of Southern Changes delves into the status of election reform in twelve states in the American South. This review comes at a time when the South is on the cusp of yet another political transition. A time when two of the staunchest symbols of Southern conservatism, Jessie Helms and Strom Thurmond will not run for re-election. A time when voting districts are being realigned due to the new Census counts with new seats gained and old seats lost. Just as Congress has mandated that population counts are made every ten years so that necessary corrections are made to our voting districts, the November 2000 event demands multi-level mandates that will provide extensive correction to our elections process.

Finger-pointing and excuse-making leave voters in many states with nothing new to look forward to in November 2001 and potentially 2002. Lisa Rab’s “Budget Woes and Partisan Politics Block Major Changes to Election Law,” assesses election reform bills in twelve Southern states.

Catherine Wall’s essay, “Elections Reform Needs Prompt Federal Action,” calls for leadership to enact immediate and effective election standards. As federal intervention runs up against states’ rights, the fate of election reform is in the air.

“The Florida and Georgia Experience” article examines the strengths and limitations of two of the most comprehensive election reform bills passed by Southern legislatures.

Many legislatures have claimed a preoccupation with redistricting and too much red ink as obstacles to any immediate and significant change. But a cycle of opportunity has been squandered. Legislative uncertainty and lack of will to make extensive corrections to our voting process is unacceptable. The unfettered right to vote, a keystone of our democracy, demands a higher respect and accountability.

A “political ordeal unlike any in living memory,” wrote the Ford-Carter Electoral Reform Commission about the 2000 election. Doing nothing or not enough provides more reasons for citizens not to vote, thereby deepening the public’s alienation from the electoral process. As states prepare for the November 2001 local and state elections, many of the same questions and issues brought to light some ten months ago will again confront voters.

This issue of Southern Changes benefited from the investigative, research, and writing skills of two outstanding interns, Lisa Rab and Catherine Wall. Rab is in her last year as a journalism student at Emory University and Wall is a second year law student at the University of Texas. Feature articles by Rab and Wall yield a comprehensive overview of the status of election reform, real and proposed, across the American South.

Wendy S. Johnson is executive director of the Southern Regional Council.