Black History Month in the United States is a time to focus on and celebrate the history of Black Americans. However, as we approach the 70 th anniversary in May of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka , this year’s celebration requires a more in-depth look at history’s impact on the present day, as well as its implications for Black Americans and society broadly. For that, there is no better place to focus than on the intersection of racial discrimination in education and in housing.
In the Brown decision, the Supreme Court declared legal segregation in education unconstitutional. Yet 70 years later, schools across America remain stubbornly segregated.
A 2022 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) states: “As the K-12 public school student population grows significantly more diverse, schools remain divided along racial, ethnic, and economic lines throughout the U.S. More than a third of students (about 18.5 million) attended a predominantly same-race/ethnicity school—where 75 percent or more of the student population is of a single race/ethnicity. … GAO also found that 14 percent of students attended schools where 90 percent or more of the students were of a single race/ethnicity.”