Looking back at 'Brown.' (school desegregation) (Class Notes) (Column)

• Author: Reed, Adolph, Jr.

On May 16, 1954, 1 made my First Communion at a church in downtown Washington, D.C. It seemed like a very big event at the time. The next day, a few blocks away, the Supreme Court announced its ruling in the Brown v. Board of Education case, overturning the "separate but equal" mystification that had codified racial segregation since 1896. These two events - one that filled my life with solemnity and anxiety for months, and the other which I only dimly understood - somehow merged in my child's perspective.

I had successfully mastered the fine distinctions of catechistic instruction and the choreography of filing, genuflecting, kneeling, sitting, and rising in unison - all with only a couple of unexpected raps to the knuckles and the back of the head from Sister Anna Maria's feared clicker. Sacramental dry runs and dress rehearsals finally culminated in the actual First Penance and Holy Eucharist. And then my parents and I could walk comfortably into Washington theaters and restaurants that before had been inhospitable.

Of course, the Brown decision did not outlaw petty apartheid in the District of Columbia or anywhere else - but it created enough of a stir in the adult environment, apparently, to prompt the lifting of some forms of de-facto segregation, and to penetrate the consciousness of a very preoccupied seven-year-old.

Brown's immediate impact was mainly symbolic. It signified a victory in and of principle, and it fueled a sense of possibility. The decision energized and emboldened black Americans, conferring on them a sense of equal membership in the polity.

The ruling's fortieth anniversary this year has momentarily focused public attention on Brown again and on its significance in American life. Now, just as dangerous forces are gathering from across the ideological spectrum to support resegregation, it seems a good time to consider the meaning of the Brown decision and its effects on the larger social order.

Perhaps most significantly, Brown boosted (though it certainly also was influenced by) a rising tide of post-World War II black activism challenging segregation. A year and a half after Brown, the Montgomery bus boycott signaled a sweeping wave of aggressive political action that continued through the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights and 1965 Voting Rights legislation.

On the other hand, the Brown decision served to obscure the true nature of racial segregation in America. In the popular view, Brown emphasized the harmful...