WEBVTT - Miss Buchanan’s Period of Adjustment 0:00:15.356 --> 0:00:21.316 Bushkin. On the campus of the University of Michigan, there's 0:00:21.356 --> 0:00:24.556 a gorgeous building called the Raca Auditorium, built in the 0:00:24.636 --> 0:00:28.516 nineteen thirties in the Classical Renaissance style. And in January 0:00:28.556 --> 0:00:31.036 of two thousand and four, on one of those cold 0:00:31.116 --> 0:00:34.276 Michigan days, a woman takes the stage in front of 0:00:34.356 --> 0:00:37.916 a big crowd. She's in her sixties. Her name is 0:00:37.916 --> 0:00:38.716 missus Thompson. 0:00:40.116 --> 0:00:44.956 Good evening, It's indeed a pleasure to be with you 0:00:45.076 --> 0:00:49.276 this evening here on the campus of the University of Michigan, the. 0:00:49.156 --> 0:00:50.396 Home of the Wolverines. 0:00:50.476 --> 0:00:55.556 Is that right? And I heard you had a game 0:00:55.636 --> 0:01:01.196 last night you only lost it by two points. Huh. 0:01:01.556 --> 0:01:03.556 She tells a funny story about how she was once 0:01:03.636 --> 0:01:06.356 invited to speak at NASAU and thought she was going 0:01:06.356 --> 0:01:09.636 to the Bahamas, only to discover that it was NASA County, 0:01:09.676 --> 0:01:12.956 Long Island. She talks a little bit about her childhood 0:01:12.996 --> 0:01:16.436 and her family. Then right in the middle of her talk, 0:01:16.796 --> 0:01:19.836 she starts reading a notice of termination sent many years 0:01:19.876 --> 0:01:22.556 ago to a teacher named Darla Buchanan. 0:01:22.836 --> 0:01:27.476 Dear Miss Buchanan, due to the present uncertainty about enrollment 0:01:27.556 --> 0:01:30.796 next year, it is necessary for me to notify you 0:01:30.916 --> 0:01:34.396 now that your services will not be needed for next year. 0:01:35.596 --> 0:01:38.556 The students in the auditorium are wrapped. This is not 0:01:38.596 --> 0:01:42.796 what they expected. But Missus Thompson goes on and reads 0:01:42.836 --> 0:01:43.796 all the way to the end. 0:01:44.316 --> 0:01:46.396 I think I understand that all of you must be 0:01:46.476 --> 0:01:51.316 under considerable strain, and I sympathize with the uncertainties an 0:01:51.316 --> 0:01:55.996 inconvenience which you must be experiencing during this period of adjustment. 0:01:57.236 --> 0:02:01.276 This period of adjustment, remember that line. It's a nice 0:02:01.276 --> 0:02:09.076 bit of condescension and understatement. My name is Malcolm Gladwell. 0:02:09.636 --> 0:02:13.756 You're listening to Revisionist History, my podcast about things Overlooked 0:02:13.796 --> 0:02:20.596 and misunderstood. This episode is about that euphemism in the 0:02:20.636 --> 0:02:30.356 letter read by Missus Thompson. This period of adjustment. Not 0:02:30.436 --> 0:02:34.676 that long ago. Americans set out to do something revolutionary 0:02:35.196 --> 0:02:39.116 to change the world. But we botched it, and we 0:02:39.156 --> 0:02:41.876 didn't want to admit that fact. So we swept the 0:02:41.956 --> 0:02:45.356 whole episode under the rug and wrote letters to everyone 0:02:45.436 --> 0:02:49.156 concerned to try and absolve ourselves of the whole business. 0:02:49.716 --> 0:02:54.076 I believe that whatever happens will ultimately turn out to 0:02:54.116 --> 0:02:57.556 be the best for everyone concern. 0:03:02.956 --> 0:03:03.236 Yeah. 0:03:03.356 --> 0:03:03.516 Right. 0:03:06.476 --> 0:03:09.476 The letter of termination to Darla Buchanan, was written by 0:03:09.516 --> 0:03:13.316 the superintendent of schools in Topeka, Kansas, the capital of Kansas, 0:03:13.676 --> 0:03:15.956 a medium sized city in the upper right hand corner 0:03:15.956 --> 0:03:18.596 of the state. Like a lot of cities and towns 0:03:18.636 --> 0:03:22.156 in the United States, particularly those in the South, Topeka 0:03:22.196 --> 0:03:25.156 had segregated public elementary schools. In the Jim Crow era, 0:03:26.156 --> 0:03:29.956 White children went to neighborhood schools. Black children went to 0:03:29.996 --> 0:03:33.036 a separate system of schools scattered around the city with 0:03:33.116 --> 0:03:36.716 their own black teachers and black principles. In the years 0:03:36.716 --> 0:03:39.476 after the Second World War, the leading civil rights group 0:03:39.516 --> 0:03:44.156 of the day, the NAACP, decided to start challenging segregation. 0:03:44.916 --> 0:03:48.796 Topeka was one of their test cases. They found thirteen 0:03:48.836 --> 0:03:50.956 black families and asked them to go down to their 0:03:50.956 --> 0:03:54.876 neighborhood white school and try and enroll their children. One 0:03:54.876 --> 0:03:57.716 of the couples they asked was Oliver and Leola Brown. 0:03:58.756 --> 0:04:02.076 Oliver Brown worked for the Santa Fe Railroad. Later he 0:04:02.156 --> 0:04:05.356 was a pastor. This is Leola Brown from an interview 0:04:05.396 --> 0:04:07.996 she gave in nineteen ninety one to the Kansas State 0:04:08.156 --> 0:04:09.276 Historical Society. 0:04:09.676 --> 0:04:12.996 My husband Oliver Brown. He was a heavyweight fighter. He 0:04:13.076 --> 0:04:14.436 used to bit golden gloves. 0:04:15.436 --> 0:04:18.356 The Browns had a seven year old named Linda. The 0:04:18.436 --> 0:04:21.076 black elementary school she was supposed to go to was 0:04:21.116 --> 0:04:24.716 cal Monroe. To get there, she had to walk seven blocks, 0:04:24.876 --> 0:04:28.116 often in freezing weather, and cross a busy road, then 0:04:28.156 --> 0:04:32.276 get on a bus. The local white elementary school was Sumner, 0:04:32.836 --> 0:04:36.236 just four blocks on the Browns. Linda's playmates from the 0:04:36.276 --> 0:04:39.956 neighborhood all went there. So one day, as instructed by 0:04:39.956 --> 0:04:43.876 the NAACP, Oliver Brown took his daughter by the hand 0:04:44.236 --> 0:04:47.036 and walked her over to enroll at Sumner Elementary. 0:04:47.316 --> 0:04:49.476 As Linda said, when they got over there and that 0:04:49.596 --> 0:04:52.236 building looked so big, there being a little kid going upstairs. 0:04:52.636 --> 0:04:55.196 And then when they got ready to talk, they had 0:04:55.236 --> 0:04:57.476 her sit on the outside of the office. Dad went 0:04:57.516 --> 0:04:58.636 in was tungue to the principal. 0:04:59.196 --> 0:05:02.956 You could imagine how uncomfortable the conversation was. Oliver Brown 0:05:03.116 --> 0:05:06.396 was not supposed to be there, and the principal would 0:05:06.396 --> 0:05:08.156 have had no idea what to say to him other 0:05:08.236 --> 0:05:11.236 than I'm sorry, this is the way it is in Topeka. 0:05:11.756 --> 0:05:14.396 With little Linda waiting out in the hall, if she. 0:05:14.316 --> 0:05:16.956 Said, you could hear the voters kinda get a little loud, 0:05:17.116 --> 0:05:18.916 and he said, well, it wasn't him, it was the 0:05:19.396 --> 0:05:22.716 school board. That was a policy of the school board. 0:05:22.796 --> 0:05:25.196 You couldn't do nothing about it, you know. So he 0:05:25.236 --> 0:05:27.636 couldn't no way, he could not enroll Landon and that 0:05:27.836 --> 0:05:29.036 school without. 0:05:28.676 --> 0:05:32.356 Their preval All the black families got the same answer, 0:05:33.196 --> 0:05:37.636 your child is not welcome. So the local NAACP chapter 0:05:38.076 --> 0:05:41.276 sued the school board. Oliver Brown's name was put first, 0:05:41.636 --> 0:05:44.676 Brown versus to peak a Board of Education. It was 0:05:44.716 --> 0:05:47.396 bundled with a number of other desegregation cases from all 0:05:47.436 --> 0:05:50.516 around the country. More than two hundred plaintiffs in all, 0:05:51.196 --> 0:05:53.716 went all the way to the Supreme Court, and on 0:05:53.756 --> 0:05:56.876 May seventeenth, nineteen fifty four, in one of the most 0:05:56.956 --> 0:06:00.716 famous legal decisions in American history, the Court ruled in 0:06:00.836 --> 0:06:05.996 Oliver Brown's favor. The practice of educating black and white 0:06:05.996 --> 0:06:09.556 school children separately was ruled unconstantal. 0:06:11.596 --> 0:06:16.956 It was a unanimous decision and had the broadest possible language, 0:06:17.036 --> 0:06:20.356 which should set for rest, once and for all the 0:06:20.476 --> 0:06:24.516 problem as to whether or not a second class citizenship 0:06:25.156 --> 0:06:28.956 segregation could be consistent any longer with the law of 0:06:28.996 --> 0:06:30.316 the country. 0:06:30.916 --> 0:06:32.996 I'm guessing you were taught about the Brown decision in 0:06:33.076 --> 0:06:37.396 school or have watched a documentary on it. It's a milestone, 0:06:38.076 --> 0:06:41.436 but at the same time it's a strange case. You 0:06:41.436 --> 0:06:43.756 could fill an auditorium with all the scholars who have 0:06:43.796 --> 0:06:46.596 a quarrel with Brown. I mean, just go back and 0:06:46.636 --> 0:06:49.196 read it. It's supposed to be a ruling in favor 0:06:49.276 --> 0:06:52.116 of Oliver and Liola Brown and the families of Topeka, 0:06:52.676 --> 0:06:55.956 but the court actually says something entirely different from what 0:06:55.996 --> 0:06:57.556 the black people of Topeka were saying. 0:06:58.236 --> 0:07:02.676 I went to Monroe School. You're Intopeka from grade one 0:07:02.716 --> 0:07:03.196 through eight. 0:07:03.716 --> 0:07:06.236 Listen again to Leola Brown's interview with the Kansas State 0:07:06.356 --> 0:07:11.316 Historical Society. On several occasions, Liola is asked about Monroe, 0:07:11.556 --> 0:07:14.596 the black school that her daughter had been attending. Leola 0:07:14.676 --> 0:07:17.356 grew up in Topeka, she went to Monroe as well, 0:07:17.596 --> 0:07:20.836 and Leola Brown makes it very clear that she loved Monroe. 0:07:21.876 --> 0:07:24.756 Oh it was wonderful. I tell you, it was wonderful. 0:07:25.276 --> 0:07:29.196 And had it not been through this walking, you know, 0:07:29.356 --> 0:07:31.676 school and going to a part of school were possibly 0:07:31.836 --> 0:07:34.956 never wady. You know, that's what we did. 0:07:35.676 --> 0:07:38.636 Later in the interview the issue comes up again. The 0:07:38.636 --> 0:07:42.716 interviewer asked Leola specifically, you didn't want your daughter to 0:07:42.756 --> 0:07:44.636 go to the white school because the white school was 0:07:44.676 --> 0:07:47.756 better than the black school. And Leola is adamant. Oh No, 0:07:48.396 --> 0:07:51.636 that never came up. We were getting a quality education 0:07:51.676 --> 0:07:52.236 at Monroe. 0:07:52.476 --> 0:07:53.556 We didn't have any. 0:07:55.036 --> 0:07:57.036 Going to pick with our schools for as education was 0:07:57.076 --> 0:08:00.276 sponsor and no the teachers, because they were qualified and 0:08:00.356 --> 0:08:01.636 they did what they were supposed to do. 0:08:02.796 --> 0:08:05.596 For Leola and Oliver Brown, the lawsuit was a matter 0:08:05.636 --> 0:08:08.756 of principle. They didn't think there was anything wrong with 0:08:08.756 --> 0:08:12.476 the qual education at Monroe, the all black school. They 0:08:12.636 --> 0:08:15.196 just thought that the Tapeka school Board shouldn't be telling 0:08:15.196 --> 0:08:17.636 them where they could or couldn't send Linda to school, 0:08:18.356 --> 0:08:20.956 particularly if the only reason the school board could come 0:08:21.036 --> 0:08:27.436 up with was the color of Linda's skin. Now, listen 0:08:27.476 --> 0:08:30.476 to the argument the Supreme Court makes in the Brown decision. 0:08:31.236 --> 0:08:33.476 They agreed that the Browns ought to be able to 0:08:33.476 --> 0:08:37.556 send Linda to Sumner, but their reasoning is different. I'm 0:08:37.636 --> 0:08:43.036 quoting segregation of white and colored children in public schools 0:08:43.276 --> 0:08:48.036 has a detrimental effect upon the colored children. The Court's 0:08:48.116 --> 0:08:52.476 conclusion was that segregation was de facto unequal. That simply 0:08:52.516 --> 0:08:56.156 the act of educating black children separately from white children 0:08:56.436 --> 0:09:01.356 caused harm, serious harm. The court goes on, segregation with 0:09:01.436 --> 0:09:04.516 the sanction of law has a tendency to retard the 0:09:04.676 --> 0:09:10.316 educational and mental development of Negro children. This was light 0:09:10.436 --> 0:09:14.876 years away from Leola Brown's position. Leola Brown said that 0:09:14.956 --> 0:09:18.476 black run schools like Monroe were good schools, but as 0:09:18.516 --> 0:09:20.796 a matter of principle, she ought to be able to 0:09:20.956 --> 0:09:25.796 enroll into a sumner. The Court said, actually, Monroe is 0:09:25.836 --> 0:09:28.316 not a good school at all. It can't be a 0:09:28.316 --> 0:09:34.436 good school because segregation makes it inherently inferior. Leola Brown said, 0:09:34.556 --> 0:09:37.596 we're fine, We just want some control over our lives. 0:09:38.236 --> 0:09:41.876 The Court said, you're not fine at all. Your educational 0:09:41.996 --> 0:09:53.676 and mental development has been retarded by your inferior schooling. Now, 0:09:53.756 --> 0:09:56.756 the court could have said something much more straightforward, how 0:09:56.756 --> 0:10:00.156 about this. Schools are where people make the connections that 0:10:00.196 --> 0:10:02.716 allow them to get ahead in the world. You cannot 0:10:02.756 --> 0:10:05.396 lock black people out of the place where social power 0:10:05.396 --> 0:10:09.916 and opportunity reside. That argument would have done the job right, 0:10:09.956 --> 0:10:12.956 but the court doesn't say that. In order to condemn 0:10:13.036 --> 0:10:16.276 the discrimination of Brown's face, the court instead makes the 0:10:16.316 --> 0:10:22.916 case that black people are psychologically crippled. The historian Darryl 0:10:22.956 --> 0:10:26.116 Scott wrote a brilliant book a while back called Contempt 0:10:26.156 --> 0:10:28.796 and Pity, in which he points out that there's been 0:10:28.796 --> 0:10:32.516 a long history behind this talk of psychological damage. It 0:10:32.556 --> 0:10:35.556 goes back to the days of slavery. It's always been 0:10:35.556 --> 0:10:38.796 incredibly useful for white people to explain the problems of 0:10:38.836 --> 0:10:43.516 black people as the result of something personal internal. It 0:10:43.596 --> 0:10:45.196 makes their problems their fault. 0:10:45.636 --> 0:10:48.796 If you go even back to an Antebellum period, you 0:10:48.836 --> 0:10:51.516 would see planners who would talk about how they have 0:10:51.636 --> 0:10:54.276 no sense of family. Now, of course, these are the 0:10:54.356 --> 0:10:58.716 very people who are selling people's families at the auction block, right. 0:10:58.756 --> 0:11:01.516 You know, they're destroying families, but they were justify it 0:11:01.596 --> 0:11:04.236 in their minds by saying they have no sense of families. 0:11:04.716 --> 0:11:08.596 Another historian, Charles Payne, makes a very similar argument in 0:11:08.636 --> 0:11:12.196 his essay The Whole United States Is Southern, which you 0:11:12.196 --> 0:11:14.316 should read, by the way, if you ever want to 0:11:14.316 --> 0:11:18.396 be grabbed by the lapels. Paine argues that in the 0:11:18.476 --> 0:11:21.876 decades after the Civil War, Southern whites attempt to sell 0:11:21.956 --> 0:11:24.636 the rest of America on this way of thinking about race. 0:11:25.156 --> 0:11:28.916 They've basically imposed apartheid on the South through brute political 0:11:28.956 --> 0:11:33.596 and economic force. But they want quoting pain to frame 0:11:33.676 --> 0:11:37.356 the issue in a language of separation. Customs are way 0:11:37.396 --> 0:11:41.796 of life and social equality, language that constructed race in 0:11:41.796 --> 0:11:46.836 interpersonal and not structural terms. They want to pretend racial 0:11:46.876 --> 0:11:51.636 conflict is just a psychological problem. So what does the U. S. 0:11:51.636 --> 0:11:54.676 Supreme Court do in nineteen fifty four in the Brown decision? 0:11:55.316 --> 0:11:58.036 It buys into the Southern way of thinking about race. 0:12:00.396 --> 0:12:03.116 Leo Le Brown and the other plaintiffs say, we have 0:12:03.236 --> 0:12:07.036 a structural problem. We don't have the power to send 0:12:07.076 --> 0:12:11.036 Linda to the school down the street. The court says, no, no, no, 0:12:11.396 --> 0:12:15.636 it's a psychological problem. Little Linda has been damaged in 0:12:15.756 --> 0:12:20.516 her heart. That may seem like a small distinction. Believe me, 0:12:20.916 --> 0:12:27.076 it's not. We're still dealing with the consequences. This is 0:12:27.116 --> 0:12:29.276 a little bit of a tangent, but I think it 0:12:29.356 --> 0:12:33.676 helps to explain why personalizing racial discussions is so problematic. 0:12:34.356 --> 0:12:36.596 It's about a wonderful bit of research done by two 0:12:36.636 --> 0:12:41.236 political scientists at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Jason Grissom and 0:12:41.316 --> 0:12:45.196 Christopher Reading. Grissom and Reading start with a well known 0:12:45.236 --> 0:12:48.116 fact white students are far more likely to be in 0:12:48.196 --> 0:12:52.196 gifted and talented programs than black students. If your kid 0:12:52.236 --> 0:12:54.636 isn't a gifted in towented program, you've probably observed this. 0:12:55.316 --> 0:12:58.196 We're the black kids right now. You might say, well, 0:12:58.276 --> 0:13:00.556 that's simply a reflection of the fact that white kids, 0:13:00.836 --> 0:13:03.716 for whatever reasons, have higher test scores on average than 0:13:03.756 --> 0:13:06.596 black kids. So Grissom and Reading look at a large 0:13:06.676 --> 0:13:10.556 national sample of elementary school kids and let's equalize for 0:13:10.636 --> 0:13:11.156 test course. 0:13:11.516 --> 0:13:14.316 In other words, let's compare two students, one black and 0:13:14.356 --> 0:13:17.316 one white, but they both are very high achieving. 0:13:17.676 --> 0:13:18.396 This is grisome. 0:13:18.676 --> 0:13:22.636 Would that difference in probability that they are identified by 0:13:22.636 --> 0:13:24.916 the system as gifted? Would that persist? And the answer 0:13:24.996 --> 0:13:27.796 is that it does. In fact, you know, it's still 0:13:27.836 --> 0:13:29.836 the case that even when you look at two students 0:13:29.876 --> 0:13:33.596 who are similar on math and reading achievement in elementary school, 0:13:34.156 --> 0:13:36.316 a white student and a black student, that white student 0:13:36.396 --> 0:13:39.316 is still more than two times as likely to be 0:13:39.516 --> 0:13:42.076 receiving gifted services as that black student is. 0:13:42.636 --> 0:13:46.396 Gifted. Programs are supposed to be meritocracies, places where the 0:13:46.396 --> 0:13:49.836 brightest children are given a chance to shine. Grisom's saying 0:13:50.036 --> 0:13:52.076 that's not the way things work in practice. 0:13:52.596 --> 0:13:54.636 And you can go a little further because you can 0:13:54.676 --> 0:13:57.516 throw other things into the equation that aren't just achievement. 0:13:57.556 --> 0:13:59.836 You can look at differences in income, the data have, 0:14:00.636 --> 0:14:03.756 how healthy the parent says that child is. We know 0:14:03.836 --> 0:14:07.436 what age that child entered kindergarten. You know, on average, 0:14:07.436 --> 0:14:10.156 white students and black students enter kinder garden at different ages. 0:14:10.196 --> 0:14:12.836 Because of the phenomenon of red shirting, white parents are 0:14:12.876 --> 0:14:15.916 more likely to hold their kids back at the start 0:14:15.956 --> 0:14:18.556 of schooling than black students are. That doesn't explain the 0:14:18.596 --> 0:14:19.276 gifted gap. 0:14:19.796 --> 0:14:22.316 In other words, you match up bright black kids with 0:14:22.396 --> 0:14:25.076 equally bright white kids, then you make sure the two 0:14:25.116 --> 0:14:28.276 groups are similar in age, class and the health of 0:14:28.316 --> 0:14:31.156 their parents, and you still find that the white kids 0:14:31.396 --> 0:14:33.596 are far more likely to be admitted to gifted and 0:14:33.596 --> 0:14:38.516 talented programs. Kind of a puzzle, right. Finally, Grissom and 0:14:38.556 --> 0:14:42.516 Reddings say, look, in many cases, teachers play a big 0:14:42.596 --> 0:14:46.356 role in which students get into gifted programs. They encourage them, 0:14:46.396 --> 0:14:50.036 they recommend them. So they think maybe the answer here 0:14:50.316 --> 0:14:53.356 lies with not who the child is, but who the 0:14:53.436 --> 0:14:54.516 child's teacher is. 0:14:54.996 --> 0:14:58.356 In the overwhelming majority of school districts in the United States, 0:14:58.716 --> 0:15:01.036 the way that a kid ever gets to be identified 0:15:01.076 --> 0:15:04.436 as gifted is if someone in the school, usually a 0:15:04.436 --> 0:15:06.836 classroom teacher, has to look at that kid and say, 0:15:07.236 --> 0:15:08.836 I think this kid might be gifted. 0:15:09.436 --> 0:15:12.636 So Grissom does something really simple. He looks at the 0:15:12.716 --> 0:15:15.436 race of the teacher, and what he finds is that 0:15:15.516 --> 0:15:18.956 for white kids, there's no effect. It doesn't matter, but 0:15:19.076 --> 0:15:20.076 not for black students. 0:15:20.516 --> 0:15:23.636 For a black student, the world looks different. So if 0:15:23.676 --> 0:15:26.076 I am a black student and I have a black 0:15:26.116 --> 0:15:29.876 classroom teacher, the probability that I'm assigned to giftedness in 0:15:30.356 --> 0:15:33.516 the next year it looks very much like the probability 0:15:33.556 --> 0:15:36.676 for a white student. But if I am a Black 0:15:37.196 --> 0:15:41.996 student and I have a white classroom teacher, my probability 0:15:42.036 --> 0:15:45.116 of being identified as gifted is substantially lower. 0:15:45.676 --> 0:15:46.476 How much lower? 0:15:46.636 --> 0:15:50.596 Okay, So for very high achieving black students, the probability 0:15:50.596 --> 0:15:54.196 of being assigned to gifted services under a white teacher 0:15:54.436 --> 0:16:00.236 is about half the probability as an observably similar black 0:16:00.276 --> 0:16:01.836 student taught by a black teacher. 0:16:02.636 --> 0:16:05.756 If you're black, having a black teacher makes a difference, 0:16:06.356 --> 0:16:09.356 and not just for getting into gifted programs. Having a 0:16:09.356 --> 0:16:12.196 black teacher raises the test scores of black students, It 0:16:12.316 --> 0:16:16.116 changes the way black students behave, and it dramatically decreases 0:16:16.156 --> 0:16:22.476 the chances a black male student would be suspended. A 0:16:22.516 --> 0:16:25.036 group of social scientists recently went over the records of 0:16:25.036 --> 0:16:28.116 one hundred thousand black students in North Carolina over a 0:16:28.156 --> 0:16:31.396 five year period. They found that having even one black 0:16:31.436 --> 0:16:34.876 teacher between the third and fifth grade reduced the chance 0:16:34.916 --> 0:16:36.956 that an African American boy would later drop out of 0:16:36.996 --> 0:16:41.676 high school by how much? By thirty nine percent one 0:16:41.716 --> 0:16:46.396 black teacher. Now, does this mean that white teachers are 0:16:46.436 --> 0:16:50.516 diabolical racists trying to hold down black students. No, this 0:16:50.556 --> 0:16:54.716 isn't conscious discrimination. The point is that teachers have power, 0:16:55.436 --> 0:16:59.436 the gatekeepers. They control the classroom. They decide who gets 0:16:59.476 --> 0:17:02.836 recommended for prizes like gifted programs and who doesn't. They 0:17:02.876 --> 0:17:06.076 decide who stays and who gets suspended. By directing their 0:17:06.076 --> 0:17:09.956 attention to a child, a teacher can inspire by ignoring 0:17:09.996 --> 0:17:12.596 another or sending him more often to the principal's office. 0:17:12.756 --> 0:17:18.956 Teachers can discourage. Listen to Leola Brown again about why 0:17:19.036 --> 0:17:21.636 she liked her elementary school Monroe so much. 0:17:22.236 --> 0:17:22.916 I loved it. 0:17:23.516 --> 0:17:24.156 I loved it. 0:17:24.236 --> 0:17:28.276 The teachers who were fantastic. We got a fantastic education there. 0:17:28.316 --> 0:17:30.636 It wasn't, as you say, this case wasn't based on that, 0:17:31.316 --> 0:17:34.756 because we had fantastic teachers and we learned. We learned 0:17:34.796 --> 0:17:36.676 a lot, and they were good to us, more like 0:17:36.716 --> 0:17:39.796 an extended family like mothers and so forth. Because they 0:17:39.796 --> 0:17:41.516 took an interest in you, you know, and. 0:17:43.076 --> 0:17:46.076 They took an interest in you. That's what all the 0:17:46.116 --> 0:17:48.996 research on blacks and whites and gifted programs comes down to. 0:17:49.836 --> 0:17:52.636 You need to have someone who takes an interest in 0:17:52.676 --> 0:17:55.916 you if you want education to work and be fair. 0:17:56.876 --> 0:18:00.956 They made one serious mistake which I will have to 0:18:01.036 --> 0:18:03.436 hold them responsible for. 0:18:04.236 --> 0:18:06.956 I came across another archive of interviews from the Brown 0:18:06.996 --> 0:18:11.276 era Duke Universities behind the Veil Oral History Project. The 0:18:11.356 --> 0:18:14.476 interview you're hearing is from Richmond, Virginia. It's with an 0:18:14.476 --> 0:18:18.436 African American teacher named Celestine Porter, and she says that 0:18:18.476 --> 0:18:21.316 once you grant this idea that a teacher is a 0:18:21.356 --> 0:18:23.996 gatekeeper and that a child needs someone to take an 0:18:23.996 --> 0:18:26.956 interest in them, then that means integration should have been 0:18:26.956 --> 0:18:28.276 pursued very differently. 0:18:28.796 --> 0:18:33.276 They made students do the integration. They should have had 0:18:33.316 --> 0:18:38.956 teachers first, and they didn't do that at every one 0:18:39.156 --> 0:18:42.116 of those white schools, at every one of the black schools. 0:18:42.356 --> 0:18:44.396 If they were going to sign white children into the 0:18:44.396 --> 0:18:47.276 black school they should have had white teachers. If they 0:18:47.276 --> 0:18:49.756 were gonna send black children unto the white schools, they 0:18:49.796 --> 0:18:53.396 should have had some black teachers there. Now, the first 0:18:53.636 --> 0:18:56.796 people that should have been integrated should have been teacher 0:18:56.876 --> 0:18:58.196 and administrations first. 0:18:59.116 --> 0:19:00.116 But they didn't do that. 0:19:00.316 --> 0:19:01.556 They moved the children. 0:19:02.356 --> 0:19:06.556 She's absolutely right. Read the Brown Decision for yourself. The 0:19:06.596 --> 0:19:09.676 court goes on and on about kids, but they have 0:19:09.796 --> 0:19:13.676 virtually nothing to say about teachers. The word teacher comes 0:19:13.756 --> 0:19:16.076 up once in the main text and a few times 0:19:16.076 --> 0:19:19.236 in the footnotes. That's it. How on earth can you 0:19:19.316 --> 0:19:22.956 undertake the greatest transformation of public education in American history 0:19:23.236 --> 0:19:25.036 and barely mentioned teachers. 0:19:25.556 --> 0:19:30.036 Young people did not know business moved first to have 0:19:30.236 --> 0:19:36.476 borne the brunt oh the segregation process, and it did 0:19:36.476 --> 0:19:40.636 something to the Elstons. It did something to them, It 0:19:40.716 --> 0:19:45.516 made them hay, It gave them a sense of nobody's share. 0:19:45.636 --> 0:19:49.116 Farm Me and most of the students that had moved 0:19:49.276 --> 0:19:52.516 from the black schools into the white situation. We as 0:19:52.636 --> 0:19:55.836 teachers had been there to nurture there to help them along, 0:19:56.156 --> 0:20:00.996 to recognize their difficulties, to work with them when they 0:20:01.116 --> 0:20:04.996 moved into the white situation. Teachers didn't know. They didn't 0:20:05.036 --> 0:20:05.676 know teachers. 0:20:05.676 --> 0:20:09.476 The teachers were afraid of them. The Brown Decision was 0:20:09.516 --> 0:20:13.076 all about children. The signature memories of the Brown era 0:20:13.316 --> 0:20:16.556 are all about black children being escorted into previously all 0:20:16.556 --> 0:20:24.916 white schools. We should have been talking about teachers. About 0:20:24.956 --> 0:20:27.196 three and a half hours deue east of Topeka on 0:20:27.316 --> 0:20:31.556 I seventy, there is a little town called Moberly. Moberly 0:20:31.716 --> 0:20:34.436 is in the area of Missouri called Little Dixie because 0:20:34.476 --> 0:20:36.476 it was settled by margrants from the South before the 0:20:36.476 --> 0:20:39.196 Civil War. There was a lot of slave owning in 0:20:39.196 --> 0:20:41.916 Little Dixie compared with the rest of Missouri, a lot 0:20:41.996 --> 0:20:44.756 of racial hostility in that part of the state. And 0:20:44.836 --> 0:20:46.836 I don't think you can understand what happened after the 0:20:46.836 --> 0:20:51.876 Brown Decision without first understanding what happened in Moberly. In 0:20:51.916 --> 0:20:55.636 the early nineteen fifties, Moberley had a school system employing 0:20:55.676 --> 0:20:59.396 around one hundred teachers across eight schools. One of those 0:20:59.436 --> 0:21:04.436 schools was black. It was called Lincoln. Lincoln had eleven teachers. 0:21:05.236 --> 0:21:08.956 The year after the Brown decision. Moberley integrates. They do 0:21:08.996 --> 0:21:12.676 that by closing the one black school, Lincoln. I'm busting 0:21:12.836 --> 0:21:17.436 all the black students there to white schools. After closing Lincoln, 0:21:17.516 --> 0:21:20.516 the Mobiley school system then says, wait, if we combine 0:21:20.556 --> 0:21:23.476 all the students in Mobile into one school system, we 0:21:23.556 --> 0:21:25.836 don't think we need as many teachers as we had before. 0:21:26.396 --> 0:21:29.556 So they say, let's evaluate all the teachers from the 0:21:29.596 --> 0:21:33.436 two newly combined systems. Keep the best ones, let the 0:21:33.516 --> 0:21:36.916 mediocre ones go. I think you can see what's coming. 0:21:38.156 --> 0:21:40.596 They decide to fire every one of the eleven black 0:21:40.636 --> 0:21:43.756 teachers who used to work at Lincoln. So the black 0:21:43.796 --> 0:21:47.356 teachers sue and they lose. They appeal, they lose again. 0:21:47.836 --> 0:21:50.276 In nineteen fifty nine, they asked the Supreme Court to 0:21:50.276 --> 0:21:54.396 consider the case. The Supreme Court says, no, Brown is 0:21:54.436 --> 0:21:58.516 the great victory, Moberly is the great defeat, and they're connected. 0:22:01.716 --> 0:22:04.316 Let me give you a flavor of the case. The 0:22:04.356 --> 0:22:07.716 black teachers say, you can't possibly say that we were 0:22:07.756 --> 0:22:10.596 the absolute worst of all teachers in the combined system. 0:22:11.276 --> 0:22:14.516 We've been evaluated for years by our superintendent and have 0:22:14.596 --> 0:22:18.796 been given high marks. The white school board counters with sure, 0:22:19.436 --> 0:22:22.756 but you are being compared to other black teachers. You 0:22:22.796 --> 0:22:25.716 need to be compared to white teachers. So the black 0:22:25.756 --> 0:22:29.156 teachers say, yeah, but we stack up really well against 0:22:29.156 --> 0:22:32.116 white teachers. And by the way, this was not a stretch. 0:22:32.756 --> 0:22:36.596 Virtually every profession except teaching was closed to educated African 0:22:36.596 --> 0:22:39.476 Americans in those years. If you were smart and liked 0:22:39.556 --> 0:22:43.236 learning in that era, you became a teacher. The court 0:22:43.316 --> 0:22:48.636 then says, so what I'm quoting human capabilities cannot be 0:22:48.676 --> 0:22:56.636 reduced to a mathematical formula. Intangible factors such as personality, character, disposition, industry, 0:22:56.676 --> 0:23:01.316 and adaptability vitally affect the work of any teacher. I 0:23:01.356 --> 0:23:04.716 think there's one intangible factor missing in that list, don't 0:23:04.756 --> 0:23:08.396 you what could it be? Dispose? It begins with an r. 0:23:12.676 --> 0:23:14.836 Forgive me for going on and on about this one 0:23:14.836 --> 0:23:17.676 obscure case, but you have to get the flavor of it. 0:23:18.916 --> 0:23:22.396 The plaintiffs say, wait, one of miss is a superstar 0:23:22.916 --> 0:23:27.196 graduate degrees qualifications ratings to the roof. Her name is 0:23:27.276 --> 0:23:31.556 mary Ala Timminy. And the white superintendent agrees she's a star, 0:23:32.316 --> 0:23:36.076 but he says, I'm still not hiring her because and 0:23:36.156 --> 0:23:39.756 when quoting here from the judge's decision because she gave 0:23:39.916 --> 0:23:43.756 the impression that she considered herself superior to other teachers 0:23:44.476 --> 0:23:50.876 and was resentful towards authority. Resentful towards authority, You think 0:23:51.076 --> 0:23:55.396 she just got fired. The judge simply can't get mary 0:23:55.396 --> 0:23:59.156