Jim Crow's Children: The Broken Promise of the Brown Decision
by Peter Irons
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Book Summary Information
Author: Peter IronsEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2004-01-27
ISBN: 0142003751
Number of pages: 400
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Book Reviews of Jim Crow's Children: The Broken Promise of the Brown Decision
Book Review: Good History, So-so Social Analysis
Summary: 4 Stars
In high school, college and to some extent in law school, the Brown decision was presented as some sort of cultural epiphany during which our nation woke up and realized that racial classifications were wrong. Although the Brown decision certainly marks a turning point in race relations as well as constitutional jurisprudence, it is less national self-realization than the culmination of concentrated efforts of numerous brave individuals.
The book is accessible to lawyers and laypersons alike. Irons does an excellent job of avoiding "legalese." Where legal terms are necessary, he explains them. His writing is clear and to the point.
Irons opens by discussing the concentrated efforts to prohibit black slaves from receiving an education. He shows how depriving education was a powerful and effective weapon in the racist arsenal. He touches briefly on the Dred Scott and Plessy v. Ferguson decisions to set the stage. More importantly, however, he introduces the readers that are not overly familiar with legal education to Sweatt v. Painter and McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents. These two decisions addressed integrating post-secondary education and were decided before Brown. They also show that Brown was a gradual progression and that Plessy was eroded slowly.
His insight in to 19th Century attempts at school integration is enlightening. Brown and its companion cases were not cases of first impression (the first time a court decides an issue). When the NAACP tried to integrate schools, it had numerous judicial opinions against it. The NAACP legal team, headed by Thurgood Marshall, made calculated attacks on school segregation to set the issue up for review by the Supreme Court.
Irons penetrates the secrecy of the Supreme Court to give us a glimpse of how Brown was decided. Of particular interest is how Earl Warren worked to achieve a unanimous court. Some readers will no doubt be surprised to learn that school integration was not the foregone conclusion we think of it as today.
The real value of the book comes when Irons moves in to the post-Brown era. He examines the battle between the federal courts and state governments to implement the Brown decision. His discussion of the busing cases is excellent. For those who think that the battle over school integration ended, his analysis of the current court's resegregation cases will be eye opening.
The main critique of other reviewers appears to concentrate on his conclusion that integrated education is the magic bullet of race relations. I agree with his conclusion that integrated education will assist in that area, but the support he cites is not adequate to get to there. In other words, he bit off more than he can chew. It is a tough job to write a generally accessible book making social conclusions based on in depth academic studies. When he cites statistics, it gets a bit confusing. I think the general reader's attention will wander which hurts his point.
Rather than end the book by referring quickly to studies and statistics to make a conclusion, it may have been better to put the information in an afterward with a suggested reading list. His suggested readings are good, but would benefit from being topically arranged. By allowing readers to follow-up and verify the validity of Irons' opinion, school integration could actually become the epiphany as which we idealize the Brown decision.
Summary of Jim Crow's Children: The Broken Promise of the Brown Decision
In 1954 the U.S. Supreme Court sounded the death knell for school segregation with its decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. So goes the conventional wisdom. Weaving together vivid portraits of lawyers and such judges as Thurgood Marshall and Earl Warren, sketches of numerous black children throughout history whose parents joined lawsuits against Jim Crow schools, and gripping courtroom drama scenes, Irons shows how the erosion of the Brown decision?especially by the Court?s rulings over the past three decades?has led to the "resegregation" of public education in America.History Books
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