Concern about the impact of discrimination on the well-being of African Americans played a prominent role in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) and has been hotly contested in the ongoing struggle to achieve equal educational opportunities. The importance of this legacy is also reflected in the recent efforts on behalf of gay, lesbian, and bisexual (GLB) students in America. For those seeking to help GLB youth, the similarity between these two struggles means that Brown can provide crucial insights into attempts to undermine these efforts. This article will describe in detail the relationship between Brown and the well-being of African American students in order to shed light on the possibilities and obstacles facing those seeking to support GLB students.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BlakeS., LedskyR., LehmanT., GoodenowC., SawyerR., and HackT. (2001, June). Preventing sexual risk behaviors among gay, lesbian, and bisexual adolescents: The benefits of gay-sensitive HIV instruction in schools. American Journal of Public Health, 91, 940—946.
2.
BontempoD. E., and D'AugelliA. R. (2002). Effects of at-school victimization in sexual orientation on lesbian, gay, or bisexual youths’ health risk behaviors. Journal of Adolescent Health, 30, 364—374.
BrozA. N. (1998). Nabozny v. Podlesny: A teenager's struggle to end anti-gay violence in public schools. Northwestern University Law Review, 92, 750—778.
5.
BryantAnita. (1977). The Anita Bryant story. Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell.
6.
CamposD. (2003). Diverse sexuality and schools: A reference handbook. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.
7.
ColemanJ. S., CampbellE., HobsonC., McPartlandJ., MoodA., WeinfieldF., and YorkR. (1966). Equality of educational opportunity. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
8.
CrenshawK. M. (2004, May). Historical perspectives. Panel discussion presented at Brown Plus 50, New York University, New York, NY.
9.
D'EmilioJ. (1983). Sexual politics, sexual communities: The making of a homosexual minority in the United States, 1940–1970. Chicago: University of Chicago.
10.
DemoD. H., and ParkerK. (1987). Academic achievement and self-esteem among black and white college students. Journal of Social Psychology, 127, 345—355.
11.
DuRantR. H., KrowchuckD. P., and SinalS. H. (1998). Victimization, use of violence, and drug use at school among male adolescents who engage in same-sex behavior. Journal of Pediatrics, 132, 113—118.
12.
FaulknerA. H., and CranstonK. (1998). Correlates of same-sex sexual behavior in a random sample of Massachusetts high school students. American Journal of Public Health, 88, 262—266.
13.
FisherC. S., HoutM., JankowskiM. S., LucasS. R., SwidlerA., and VossK. (1996). Inequality by design: Cracking the bell curve myth. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University.
GarofaloR., WolfR. C., KesselS., PalfreyJ., and DuRantR. H. (1998). The association between health risk behaviors and sexual orientation among a school-based sample of adolescents. Pediatrics, 101, 895—902.
16.
GarofaloR., WolfR. C., WissowL. S., WoodsW. R., and GoodmanE. (1999). Sexual orientation and risk of suicide attempts among a representative sample of youth. Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, 153, 487—493.
17.
GibsonP. (1989). Gay male and lesbian youth suicide: Report of the Secretary's task force on youth suicide, (Vol. 3, pp. 110—139). Washington, D.C.: Department of Health and Human Services DHHS Pub. No. (ADM) 89–1623.:
18.
Governor's Commission on Gay & Lesbian Youth. (1993). Making schools safe for gay and lesbian youth: Breaking the silence in schools and in families. Boston: Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth.
19.
HarbeckK. (Ed.). (1992). Coming out of the classroom closet: Gay and lesbian students, teachers and curricula. New York: Harrington Park.
20.
HarbeckK. (1997). Gay and lesbian educators: Personal freedoms, public constraints. Maiden, MA: Amethyst.
21.
HerrnsteinR., and MurrayC. (1994). The bell curve: Intelligence and class structure in American life. New York: Free Press.
22.
HershbergerS. L., and D'AugelliA. R. (1995). The impact of victimization on the mental health and suicidality of lesbian, gay, and bisexual youths. Developmental Psychology, 31(1), 65—74.
HodgsonG. (1996). The world turned right side up: a history of the conservative ascendancy in America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
25.
HofstadterR. (1959). Social Darwinism in American thought. New York: G. Braziller.
26.
HollibaughA. L. (2000). My dangerous desires: A queer girl dreaming her way home. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
27.
HunterJ., and MartinA. (1983). A comparison of presenting problems in heterosexually and homosexually oriented youth at a student run referral service. New York: IPLGY.
28.
IrelandD. (2000, January 31). Gay teens fight back. The Nation, 21—23.
29.
JacksonJ. P. (2000). The triumph of the segregationists? A historiographical inquiry into psychology and the Brown litigation. History of Psychology, 3(3), 239—261.
30.
JenkinsP. (1996, October). One in ten: A gay mythology. Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture, 15—18.
31.
KlugerR. (1975). Simple justice: The history of Brown v. Board of Education and black America's struggle for equality. New York: Random House.
32.
KremerM., and RifkinA. (1969). The early development of homosexuality: A study of adolescent lesbians. American Journal of Psychiatry, 126, 91—96.
33.
KruksG. (1991). Gay and lesbian homeless/street youth: Special issues and concerns. Journal of Adolescent Health, 12, 515—518.
34.
LaitJ., and MortimerL. (1952). U.S.A. confidential. New York: Crown.
35.
LofgrenC. (1987). The Plessy case: A legal-historical interpretation. New York: Oxford University Press.
36.
MartinA. D., and HetrickE. S. (1988). The stigmatization of the gay and lesbian adolescent. Journal of Homosexuality, 15, 163—183.
37.
MassL. (1990). Dialogues of the sexual revolution. New York: Haworth Press.
OrfieldG. (1996a). Plessy parallels: Back to traditional assumptions. In OrfieldG., and EatonS. (Eds.), Dismantling desegregation: The quiet reversal of Brown v. Board of Education. (pp. 23—51). New York: New Press.
41.
OrfieldG. (1996b). Turning back to segregation. In OrfieldG., and EatonS. (Eds.), Dismantling desegregation: The quiet reversal of Brown v. Board of Education. (pp. 1—22). New York: New Press.
42.
OrfieldG., and EatonS. (Eds.). (1996). Dismantling desegregation: The quiet reversal of Brown v. Board of Education. New York: New Press.
43.
PattersonJ. (2001). Brown v. Board of Education: A civil rights milestone and its troubled legacy. New York: Oxford University Press.
44.
PattersonO. (1998). The ordeal of integration: Progress and resentment in America's “racial” crisis. Washington, DC: Civitas/Counterpoint.
45.
PerrottiJ., and WestheimerK. (2001). When the drama club is not enough: Lessons from the Safe Schools Program for Gay and Lesbian Students. Boston: Beacon.
46.
PhelanP., YuH. C., and DavidsonA. L. (1994). Navigating the psychosocial pressures of adolescents: The voices and experiences of high school youth. American Educational Research Journal, 31, 415—447.
47.
PhinneyJ. S., ChaviraV., and TateJ. D. (1993). The effect of ethnic threat on ethnic self-concept and own-group ratings. Journal of Social Psychology, 133, 469—478.
ProctorC. D., and GrozeV. K. (1994, September). Risk factors for suicide among gay, lesbian, and bisexual youths. Social Work, 39(5), 504—513.
50.
RemafediG. (1987). Adolescent homosexuality: Psychosocial and medical implications. Pediatrics, 79, 331—337.
51.
RemafediG. (1989). The state of knowledge on gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth suicide. In and and RemafediG. (Ed.), (1994). Death by denial: studies of suicide in gay and lesbian teenagers (pp. 7—14). Boston: Alyson.
52.
RemafediG., FarrowJ. A., and DeisherR. W. (1991). Risk factors for attempted suicide in gay and bisexual youth. Pediatrics, 87, 869—875.
53.
RemafediG., FrenchS., StoryM., ResnickM., and BlumR. (1998). The relationship between suicide risk and sexual orientation: Results of a population-based study. American Journal of Public Health, 88, 57—60.
54.
RoeslerT., and DeisherR. W. (1972). Youthful male homosexuality: Homosexual experience and the process of development homosexual identity in males aged 16 to 22 years. Journal of the American Medical Association, 219, 1018—1023.
55.
RussellS. T. (2003 May). Sexual minority youth and suicide risk. American Behavioral Scientist, 46(9), 1241—1257.
56.
RussellS. T., and JoynerK. (2001). Adolescent sexual orientation and suicide risk: Evidence from a national study. American Journal of Public Health, 91, 1276—1281.
57.
SaewycE. M., SkayC. L., BearingerL. H., BlumR. W., and ResnickM. R. (1998). Sexual orientation, sexual behaviors, and pregnancy among American Indian adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Health, 23, 238—247.
58.
SandhamJ. (2002, January 30). Gay-rights groups draft guide to laws on harassment. Education Week, 5.
59.
Savin-WilliamsR. T. (2001a). A critique of research on sexual-minority youths. Journal of Adolescents, 24, 5—13.
60.
Savin-WilliamsR. T. (2001b). Suicide attempts among sexual-minority youths: Population and measurement issues. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 69, 983—991.
SeidmanS. (1996). Introduction. In and and SeidmanS. (Ed.), Queer theory/sociology (pp. 1—29). Maiden, MA: Blackwell.
63.
SedgwickE. (1993). Tendencies. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
64.
SheldonL. P. (2002). Homosexuals recruit public school children: Activists use of issues of “safety,” “tolerance,” and “homophobia” as tactics to promote homosexuality in our nation's schools. Traditional Values: Special Report, 18(11), 1—8, Retrieved on June 15, 2003, from http://traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewsdownload&sid=3.
65.
SmithR. R., and WindesR. R. (2000). Progay/Antigay: the rhetorical war over sexuality. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
66.
SorensonA. B., and MorganS. L. (2000). School effects: theoretical and methodological issues. In and and HallinanM.T. (Ed.), Handbook of the sociology of education (pp. 137—160). New York: Kluwer.
67.
SteeleC., and AronsonJ. (1995). Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69(5), 797—811.
68.
TuckerW. H. (1994). The science and politics of racial research. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
69.
TullerD. (2002, December 24). A new dimension in snapshot of gay teenagers. The New York Times, p. D7.
70.
University of California Regents v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265 (1978).
71.
Van LaarC. (2000). The paradox of low academic achievement but high self-esteem in African-American students: An attributional account. Educational Psychology Review, 12(1), 33—60.
72.
WattT. T. (2003). Are small schools and private schools better for adolescents’ emotional adjustment?Sociology of Education, 76, 344—367.
73.
WongC. A., EcclesJ. S., and SameroffA. (2003). The influence of ethnic discrimination and ethnic identification on African American adolescents’ school and socioemotional adjustment. Journal of Personality, 71(6), 1197—1227.
