A defining democratic moment of the Lewis and Clark expedition—"pure America" as producer Ken Burns (1997) calls it—was an election in which minorities participated. Where would the exhausted Discovery Corps spend the winter after making it halfway across the continent? Everything—especially whether they would live to tell about the journey—depended on this decision. Each traveler cast a vote—even the black slave, York, and the teenage mother, Sacajawea.
Fifty years before the emancipation of slaves and 100 years before blacks or women won the right to vote, Lewis and Clark recognized the equal rights and accomplishments of a black man and a Native American woman. It's a glorious story of achievers who transcended society's norms.
Unfortunately, when they returned home, equal opportunity for blacks and women had not yet been heard of. Whereas each white male explorer received 300 acres of land, York and Sacajawea earned thanks and protective custody for their efforts—and these bestowed from the personal benevolence of their leaders.
One might think we've come a long way since the days when it was unthinkable that women and blacks could expect equal rights to money, land, and a paying job. But something happening today in dozens of cities suggests that we, too, are reverting to a worse time—after having made some progress toward becoming a land of equal opportunity.
People are turning back decades-old decisions meant to make up for more than 200 years of discrimination. They are rejecting desegregation and affirmative action plans that promote equal opportunity. Laws that provide equal access to good schools and better futures are being traded away for five-year plans to help urban schools now.
"Desegregation has not worked; let's return to separate but equal," goes one argument. Another suggests that laws meant to achieve equity are themselves inequitable. The term reverse bias has entered our language. The rhetoric is thick as the fog on the Missouri River.
Gary Orfield, co-author of Dismantling Desegregation, calls what is happening "a crisis of major proportions" (1996). Speaking last month at a meeting hosted by PEN (Public Education Network), he cited data that prove the strong relationship among racial segregation, poverty, and low achievement. Acknowledging the problems in desegregated schools—including segregated classrooms and faculties, difficulties with busing, and cultural battles—he pleads to "mend it; don't end it."
A recent story in the Washington Post describes a 12-year drive that channeled extra money into all-black schools. The reporters found that the schools had failed to improve their academic scores to match those in the schools that did not receive the extra funding. The point that was not made was that the test scores of children from poverty were being compared with those in schools with a much higher percentage of children from privileged backgrounds. If children do not start on an equal footing, can we really expect money to make up the difference?
Some minority critics see desegregation as a racial insult—"Why would sitting next to a white child help my child?" they ask. Orfield reminds them that the goal has never been about being bused to another neighborhood—but about getting into the mainstream of society, where the opportunities are.
Orfield states,Segregated schools are not equal schools. They are segregated by race and poverty. No one has equalized segregated impoverished schools on a large scale anywhere in the country. Desegregation is a viable strategy. There are techniques that work, that can reverse or control these trends.
Authors in this issue outline some of these techniques. The approaches do depend on both funding and a desire and effort to make multiracial society work. Desegregated communities need to negotiate ways to fix desegregated schools—whether by dismantling them and beginning again; or trying early intervention (p. 6); small schools (p. 34) and classes (p. 40); access to books (p. 18); or all of the above.
Author Beverly Tatum (p.12) describes "the fog around us"—the inequitable distribution of wealth, status, and influence that the advantaged groups take for granted. When every demographer predicts that the gap between the haves and have-nots is increasing, we surely won't reach equity by throwing out the legal protections that minorities need. The solutions are not panaceas, but accompanied by a commitment to equity in schools, can raise the achievement of all our students.
