The Problems of Implementation of Educational Reform Initiatives after Brown and Their Impact on African American Children and Their Community

Abstract

This article is organized into sections, with the first consisting of a discussion of many efforts to discrimination against African Americans citizens and public school students in the United States. These discriminations include slavery, Plessy v. Ferguson, and the “massive resistance” movement to public school desegregation, which was a major problem for the implementation of the Brown decisions. Additional forms of discrimination against African American public school students include school finance disparities, tracking, special education placements, and discipline practices. The second section of this article is based on educational innovations implemented in public schools to address the discriminations against African American citizens and public school students since the Brown decisions. These innovations include charter schools, vouchers, privatization, school reform, and restructuring the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and Race to the Top–-the final two of which are federal programs advanced by presidents George W. Bush and Barrack Obama. The final section of the article includes 10 recommendations that I believe are necessary if the nation is to improve public education for African American students. This, I maintain, will not be possible without first fully recognizing the gravity of the 416-plus years of discrimination waged against African American citizens and public school students in the United States.