Law Touched Our Hearts

by Robinson, Mildred Wigfall; Bonnie, Richard J.

• ISBN13: 9780826516190
• ISBN10: 082651619X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-12-15
• Publisher: Vanderbilt Univ Pr

Summary

In February 1954, President Eisenhower invited Chief Justice Warren to dinner at the White House. Among the guests were well-known opponents of school desegregation. During that evening, Eisenhower commented to Warren that "law and force cannot change a man's heart." Three months later, however, the Supreme Court handed down its unanimous decision in Brown, and the contributors to this book, like people across the country, were profoundly changed by it, even though many saw almost nothing change in their communities.What Brown did was to elevate race from the country's dirty secret to its most urgent topic of conversation. This book stands alone in presenting, in one source, stories of black and white Americans, men and women, from all parts of the nation, who were public school students during the years immediately after Brown. All shared an epiphany. Some became aware of race and the burden of racial separation. Others dared to hope that the yoke of racial oppression would at last be lifted.The editors surveyed 4750 law professors born between 1936 and 1954, received 1000 responses, and derived these forty essays from those willing to write personal accounts of their childhood experiences in the classroom and in their communities. Their moving stories of how Brown affected them say much about race relations then and now. They also provide a picture of how social change can shape the careers of an entire generation in one profession.Contributors provide accounts from across the nation. Represented are-de jure states, those segregated by law at the time of Brown, including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, as well as the District of Columbia-de facto states, those where segregation was illegal but a common practice, including California, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Washington, and Wisconsin.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
The Context-Skin Color and Walls
Learning about Skin Color	p. 11
Segregated Proms in 2003	p. 16
The Wall	p. 21
And the Walls Came Tumblin' Down	p. 23
The Commutative Property of Arithmetic	p. 26
De Jure States and the District of Columbia
Alabama
Training in Alabama	p. 33
Loss of Innocence	p. 36
Toto, I Have a Feeling We Are Still in Kansas	p. 43
Florida
Becoming a Legal Troublemaker	p. 51
Georgia
Color-Blind in Georgia	p. 59
Louisiana
Taking a Stand	p. 65
Maryland
Seeing the Hollow	p. 67
A Glen Echo Passage	p. 72
Mississippi
I Can't Play with You No More	p. 79
A White Boy from Mississippi	p. 83
A Journey of Conscience	p. 90
North Carolina
Promise and Paradox	p. 95
A Different Kind of Education	p. 103
South Carolina
Sacrifice, Opportunity, and the New South	p. 107
Tennessee
Crossing Invisible Lines	p. 115
Segregation in Memphis	p. 123
Virginia
What I Learned When Massive Resistance Closed My School	p. 135
Standing Up for Brown in Danville	p. 143
Urgent Conversations	p. 149
Virginia Confronts a "Statesmanlike Decision"	p. 153
Brown as Catalyst	p. 157
Washington, D.C.
Equality and Sorority during the Decade after Brown	p. 161
"What Are You Doing Here?" An Autobiographical Fragment	p. 166
De Facto States
California
Brown's Ambiguous Legacy	p. 171
Public Education in Los Angeles: Past and Present	p. 176
Illinois
The Discrete and Insular Majority	p. 181
Princess in the Tower	p. 184
Kansas
Shades of Brown	p. 191
Massachusetts
Brown Comes to Boston: A Courtside View	p. 195
Missouri
Checkerboard Segregation in the 1950s	p. 201
New Jersey
With One Hand Waving Free	p. 209
New York
Indirect and Substantial Effect	p. 215
Ohio
Brown Goes North	p. 225
Washington
The Virtues of Public Education	p. 231
Wisconsin
Entering Another's Circle	p. 235
Appendix
The Survey	p. 241
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