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There's still a lot of segregation of school children, it just isn't as obvious.
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By Mike Cuenca | May 14, 2004
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We should be using this anniversary of Brown v. Topeka to remind
ourselves that good, decent people, many of them honored and revered in
their positions, stood against Brown v. Topeka and the principles it
represented. We need to remember that even today only a few people have
the courage and conviction to risk their personal interests to fight
actively against the racist/sexist status quo.
We can't forget that federal judges all the way up to the Supreme Court
ruled there was no discrimination in separating blacks and whites. Or
the elected Topeka School Board members who fought all the way to the
Supreme Court against integrating their schools. Or all the white
families who supported that decision to fight against letting black
children attend the same school as their children. By and large, the
people of Kansas supported the fight to preserve segregation.
In the past 50 years, we've all seen the populations of Johnson County,
rural Shawnee County, Lawrence and small suburban communities across
Kansas swell with those families who still prefer that their children
attend schools that don't have black or brown or yellow children in
them. We've had a succession of governors and legislators, both
Democrat and Republican, who have ignored the pleas and plights of the
real civil rights activists who have sacrificed to continue the fight
for minorities and women in Kansas schools and universities.
It's easy to proclaim your support for civil rights. It's not so easy
to actually live it, because today, as surely as 50 years ago, the
populace still favors discrimination.
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