May 17 marks the 55th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case when the US Supreme Court ruled that “separate educational facilities [for blacks and whites] are inherently unequal.” Today, although segregation is theoretically illegal, there is still an unequal and unjust system of educational opportunities in this country resulting in a persistent racial achievement gap in our public schools.Regardless of what you might think about Al Sharpton and Joel I. Klein’s dubious partnership as co-founders of the Education Equality Project (See New York Times article here and my previous post here), the two are hosting a rally tomorrow in Washington, D.C. at the White House Ellipse in honor of the occasion, and you are invited to attend!According to an announcement on the Education Equality Project’s website, the organization’s“Founders, Signatories, Prominent Leaders, Performers, and Supporters will stand and say: ‘55 years is too long to wait.’ We will tell our leaders that the time to enact real reform in public education is now. The time to give all students the same opportunities is now. The time of waiting is over.”The guest speaker at the rally will be Mrs. Minnijean Brown, one of the “Little Rock Nine” who endured verbal and physical harassment along with the eight other students who were the first to desegregate Little Rock Central High school.For more information, and to sign up for the rally, click here.(Photo: cliff1066’s flickr photostream/Creative Commons)
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supreme court, education policy, education reform, school reform, Public Schools, Achievement Gap, Segregation, public education, public education system, Joel Klein, Al Sharpton, Washington DC, Brown v. Board of Education, public school reform, educational reform, children education, child education, school segregation, Education Equality Project, history of public education, little rock central high school
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