WEBVTT - Revisited: Ms. Buchanan’s Period of Adjustment 0:00:15.356 --> 0:00:21.356 Pushkin back. In season two of Revisionist History, we did 0:00:21.356 --> 0:00:24.676 a four part series on civil rights, and the first 0:00:24.676 --> 0:00:28.716 episode of that series was called Miss Buchanan's Period of Adjustment. 0:00:29.396 --> 0:00:32.396 It's still one of my favorite Revisionist episodes of all time. 0:00:32.676 --> 0:00:35.796 It was about Brown versus Board of Education, the nineteen 0:00:35.876 --> 0:00:39.996 fifty four Supreme Court case that desegregated America's schools and 0:00:40.116 --> 0:00:42.956 is still today maybe the most famous of all Supreme 0:00:42.996 --> 0:00:47.116 Court cases. And our episode was about what happened after 0:00:47.156 --> 0:00:51.156 the Brown decision came down, the heartbreaking consequence that no 0:00:51.196 --> 0:00:56.676 one anticipated and everyone seems to have forgotten. Anyway, it ran, 0:00:57.556 --> 0:00:59.676 and about a week later, I got a call on 0:00:59.796 --> 0:01:04.076 my cell from restricted number. And normally I would never 0:01:04.076 --> 0:01:06.276 pick up a call from a restricted number, but for 0:01:06.316 --> 0:01:08.716 some reason I did, and a voice on the other 0:01:08.796 --> 0:01:12.676 end of the line said, mister Gladwell, hold for the President. 0:01:13.876 --> 0:01:18.116 My first thought was President of what? And my second 0:01:18.156 --> 0:01:22.556 thought was, wow, this is quite the elaborate spam call. 0:01:23.236 --> 0:01:25.196 And I was just about to hang up when I 0:01:25.236 --> 0:01:31.076 hear Malcolm Barack Obama, just listen to your episode on 0:01:31.116 --> 0:01:34.916 the Brown Case. I loved it. My wedding and the 0:01:34.956 --> 0:01:38.036 birth of my two children are clearly the first, second, 0:01:38.116 --> 0:01:40.796 and third most memorable moments of my life, but this 0:01:41.436 --> 0:01:45.756 is a very strong number four. I mean, come on, Malcolm, 0:01:46.316 --> 0:01:50.356 Barack Obama. Anyway, fast forward a couple years and Barack 0:01:50.356 --> 0:01:52.996 Obama's team approached me about doing a project with the 0:01:53.036 --> 0:01:58.196 President about reconstruction that tumultuous window after the Civil War 0:01:58.476 --> 0:02:00.876 that you kind of have to understand if you are 0:02:00.916 --> 0:02:03.516 to understand the story of race and civil rights in America. 0:02:04.196 --> 0:02:09.116 That project launches next week. It's called Reconstruction the Unfinished Promise. 0:02:10.036 --> 0:02:12.436 I know I'm biased, but it's really good, and we're 0:02:12.476 --> 0:02:14.276 going to bring you a preview of it in this 0:02:14.396 --> 0:02:18.476 feed next week. But for today, let's go back to 0:02:18.476 --> 0:02:22.236 where this all began and play for you Miss Buchanan's 0:02:22.276 --> 0:02:26.116 Period of Adjustment, one of my favorite episodes ever and 0:02:26.156 --> 0:02:30.676 apparently some other people's favorite episode as well. On the 0:02:30.676 --> 0:02:33.836 campus of the University of Michigan, there's a gorgeous building 0:02:33.916 --> 0:02:37.156 called the Racam Auditorium, built in the nineteen thirties in 0:02:37.196 --> 0:02:40.676 the Classical Renaissance style, and in January of two thousand 0:02:40.716 --> 0:02:43.996 and four, on one of those cold Michigan days, a 0:02:44.036 --> 0:02:46.676 woman takes the stage in front of a big crowd. 0:02:47.396 --> 0:02:50.316 She's in her sixties. Her name is Missus Thompson. 0:02:51.676 --> 0:02:56.516 Good evening, It's indeed a pleasure to be with you 0:02:56.636 --> 0:03:00.596 this evening here on the campus of the University of Michigan, 0:03:00.636 --> 0:03:06.116 the home of the Wolverines. Is that right? And I 0:03:06.236 --> 0:03:08.476 heard you had a game last night. You only lost 0:03:08.516 --> 0:03:13.036 it by two points, huh. 0:03:13.156 --> 0:03:15.156 She tells a funny story about how she was once 0:03:15.196 --> 0:03:17.876 invited to speak at Nasau and thought she was going 0:03:17.956 --> 0:03:21.196 to the Bahamas, only to discover that it was Nasau County, 0:03:21.276 --> 0:03:24.556 Long Island. She talks a little bit about her childhood 0:03:24.556 --> 0:03:27.996 and her family. Then right in the middle of her talk, 0:03:28.356 --> 0:03:31.436 she starts reading a notice of termination sent many years 0:03:31.436 --> 0:03:34.116 ago to a teacher named Darla Buchanan. 0:03:34.396 --> 0:03:39.076 Dear miss Buchanan, due to the present uncertainty about enrollment 0:03:39.116 --> 0:03:42.396 next year, it is necessary for me to notify you 0:03:42.516 --> 0:03:45.956 now that your services will not be needed for next year. 0:03:47.156 --> 0:03:50.076 The students in the auditorium are wrapped. This is not 0:03:50.156 --> 0:03:54.396 what they expected, but Missus Thompson goes on and reads 0:03:54.436 --> 0:03:55.356 all the way to the end. 0:03:55.916 --> 0:03:57.996 I think I understand that all of you must be 0:03:58.076 --> 0:04:02.876 under considerable strain, and I sympathize with the uncertainties an 0:04:02.916 --> 0:04:07.596 inconvenience which you must be experiencing during this period of adjustment. 0:04:08.756 --> 0:04:12.836 This period of adjustment, remember that line. It's a nice 0:04:12.876 --> 0:04:20.676 bit of condescension and understatement. My name is Malcolm Gladwell. 0:04:21.196 --> 0:04:25.356 You're listening to Revisionist History, my podcast about things Overlooked 0:04:25.356 --> 0:04:32.156 and Misunderstood. This episode is about that ethemism in the 0:04:32.236 --> 0:04:41.916 letter read by Missus Thompson, this period of adjustment. Not 0:04:42.036 --> 0:04:46.236 that long ago. Americans set out to do something revolutionary 0:04:46.756 --> 0:04:50.716 to change the world, but we botched it, and we 0:04:50.756 --> 0:04:53.476 didn't want to admit that fact. So we swept the 0:04:53.516 --> 0:04:56.956 whole episode under the rug and wrote letters to everyone 0:04:57.036 --> 0:05:00.716 concerned to try and absolve ourselves of the whole business. 0:05:01.316 --> 0:05:05.636 I believe that whatever happens will ultimately turn out to 0:05:05.676 --> 0:05:14.756 be the best for everyone concern Yeah. 0:05:14.916 --> 0:05:15.116 Right. 0:05:18.036 --> 0:05:21.036 The letter of termination to Darla Buchanan was written by 0:05:21.076 --> 0:05:24.916 the superintendent of schools in Topeka, Kansas, the capital of Kansas, 0:05:25.276 --> 0:05:27.516 a medium sized city in the upper right hand corner 0:05:27.516 --> 0:05:30.156 of the state. Like a lot of cities and towns 0:05:30.196 --> 0:05:33.756 in the United States, particularly those in the South, Topeka 0:05:33.796 --> 0:05:36.716 had segregated public elementary schools. In the Jim Crow era, 0:05:37.756 --> 0:05:41.516 white children went to neighborhood schools. Black children went to 0:05:41.556 --> 0:05:44.596 a separate system of schools scattered around the city with 0:05:44.676 --> 0:05:48.276 their own black teachers and black principles. In the years 0:05:48.276 --> 0:05:51.076 after the Second World War, the leading civil rights group 0:05:51.076 --> 0:05:55.756 of the day, the NAACP, decided to start challenging segregation. 0:05:56.516 --> 0:06:00.396 Topeka was one of their test cases. They found thirteen 0:06:00.436 --> 0:06:02.516 black families and asked them to go down to their 0:06:02.556 --> 0:06:06.436 neighborhood white school and try and enroll their children. One 0:06:06.436 --> 0:06:09.076 of the couples they asked was Oliver and Leo le Brand. 0:06:10.356 --> 0:06:13.676 Oliver Brown worked for the Santa Fe Railroad. Later he 0:06:13.716 --> 0:06:16.556 was a pastor. This is lee Ola Brown from an 0:06:16.556 --> 0:06:19.276 interview she gave in nineteen ninety one to the Kansas 0:06:19.316 --> 0:06:20.756 State Historical Society. 0:06:21.276 --> 0:06:24.556 My husband Oliver Brown. He was a heavyweight fighter. He 0:06:24.676 --> 0:06:25.996 used to fight golden gloves. 0:06:26.996 --> 0:06:29.956 The Browns had a seven year old named Linda. The 0:06:29.996 --> 0:06:32.676 black elementary school she was supposed to go to was 0:06:32.676 --> 0:06:36.316 caled Monroe. To get there, she had to walk seven blocks, 0:06:36.436 --> 0:06:39.676 often in freezing weather, and cross a busy road, then 0:06:39.716 --> 0:06:43.356 get on a bus. The local white elementary school was 0:06:43.436 --> 0:06:47.796 Sumner just four blocks on the Browns, Linda's playmates from 0:06:47.796 --> 0:06:51.316 the neighborhood all went there. So one day, as instructed 0:06:51.396 --> 0:06:55.116 by the NAACP, Oliver Brown took his daughter by the 0:06:55.156 --> 0:06:58.596 hand and walked her over to enroll at Sumner Elementary. 0:06:58.876 --> 0:07:01.036 As Linda said, when they got over there, and that 0:07:01.196 --> 0:07:03.636 building looks so bigger, being a little kid going upstairs. 0:07:04.196 --> 0:07:06.756 And then when they got ready to talk, they had 0:07:06.796 --> 0:07:09.636 her sit on the outside of the office was talking 0:07:09.676 --> 0:07:10.196 to the principal. 0:07:10.796 --> 0:07:14.556 You could imagine how uncomfortable the conversation was. Oliver Brown 0:07:14.716 --> 0:07:17.956 was not supposed to be there, and the principal would 0:07:17.996 --> 0:07:19.756 have had no idea what to say to him other 0:07:19.796 --> 0:07:22.836 than I'm sorry. This is the way it is in Topeka. 0:07:23.316 --> 0:07:25.916 With little Linda waiting out in the hall, if. 0:07:25.836 --> 0:07:27.916 She said, you could hear the Vossors kinda getting a 0:07:27.956 --> 0:07:30.116 little loud. And he said, well, it wasn't him, it 0:07:30.276 --> 0:07:33.796 was the school board. That was a policy of the 0:07:33.796 --> 0:07:35.756 school board. He couldn't do nothing about it, you know, 0:07:35.956 --> 0:07:38.596 So he couldn't, no way could he could not enroll 0:07:38.676 --> 0:07:40.836 Landon in that school without their approval. 0:07:42.076 --> 0:07:45.436 All the black families got the same answer, your child 0:07:45.596 --> 0:07:50.076 is not welcome, So the local NAACP chapter sued the 0:07:50.076 --> 0:07:53.996 school board. Oliver Brown's name was put first, Brown versus 0:07:54.036 --> 0:07:56.756 to peak a Board of Education. It was bundled with 0:07:56.756 --> 0:07:59.756 a number of other desegregation cases from all around the country. 0:08:00.156 --> 0:08:03.236 More than two hundred plaintiffs in all, went all the 0:08:03.276 --> 0:08:06.716 way to the Supreme Court, and on May seventeenth, nineteen 0:08:06.796 --> 0:08:09.956 fifty four, in one of the most famously decisions in 0:08:09.996 --> 0:08:15.476 American history, the Court ruled in Oliver Brown's favor. The 0:08:15.556 --> 0:08:19.516 practice of educating black and white school children separately was 0:08:19.636 --> 0:08:21.116 ruled unconstitutional. 0:08:23.196 --> 0:08:28.356 It was a unanimous decision and had the broadest possible language, 0:08:28.636 --> 0:08:31.916 which should set for rest, once and for all the 0:08:32.036 --> 0:08:36.116 problem as to whether or not a second class citizenship 0:08:36.716 --> 0:08:40.556 segregation could be consistent any longer with the law of 0:08:40.556 --> 0:08:41.916 the country. 0:08:42.516 --> 0:08:44.596 I'm guessing you were taught about the Brown decision in 0:08:44.636 --> 0:08:48.956 school or have watched a documentary on it. It's a milestone, 0:08:49.636 --> 0:08:52.996 but at the same time it's a strange case. You 0:08:53.036 --> 0:08:55.356 could fill an auditorium with all the scholars who have 0:08:55.396 --> 0:08:58.156 a quarrel with Brown. I mean, just go back and 0:08:58.196 --> 0:09:00.796 read it. It's supposed to be a ruling in favor 0:09:00.836 --> 0:09:03.716 of Oliver and Leola Brown and the families of Topeka. 0:09:04.236 --> 0:09:07.516 But the court actually says something entirely different from what 0:09:07.556 --> 0:09:09.116 the black people of Topeka were saying. 0:09:09.796 --> 0:09:14.236 I went to Monroe School here Intopeka from grade one 0:09:14.276 --> 0:09:14.756 through eight. 0:09:15.316 --> 0:09:17.836 Listen again to Leola Brown's interview with the Kansas State 0:09:17.956 --> 0:09:22.916 Historical Society. On several occasions, Liola is asked about Monroe, 0:09:23.116 --> 0:09:26.156 the black school that her daughter had been attending. Leola 0:09:26.236 --> 0:09:28.916 grew up in Topeka, she went to Monroe as well, 0:09:29.196 --> 0:09:32.436 and Leola Brown makes it very clear that she loved Monroe. 0:09:33.436 --> 0:09:36.956 Oh it's wonderful. I tell you, it was wonderful. And 0:09:37.116 --> 0:09:41.196 had it not been through this boging, you know, school 0:09:41.196 --> 0:09:43.876 and going so far to school, we've possibly never wit of, 0:09:44.396 --> 0:09:46.316 you know. That's what we did. 0:09:47.236 --> 0:09:50.196 Later in the interview, the issue comes up again. The 0:09:50.236 --> 0:09:54.316 interviewer asked Leola specifically, you didn't want your daughter to 0:09:54.316 --> 0:09:56.236 go to the white school because the white school was 0:09:56.276 --> 0:09:59.356 better than the black school, and Liola is adamant, Oh, no, 0:09:59.956 --> 0:10:03.196 that never came up. We were getting a quality education 0:10:03.276 --> 0:10:03.796 at Monroe. 0:10:04.076 --> 0:10:05.196 We didn't have any. 0:10:06.596 --> 0:10:08.916 Bane to pick with our schools. For his education, Misiness 0:10:09.156 --> 0:10:12.236 ignored the teachers because they were qualified and they need 0:10:12.316 --> 0:10:13.196 what they were supposed to do. 0:10:14.356 --> 0:10:17.156 For Leola and Oliver Brown, the lawsuit was a matter 0:10:17.196 --> 0:10:20.396 of principle. They didn't think there was anything wrong with 0:10:20.436 --> 0:10:23.236 the quality of education at Monroe, the all black school. 0:10:23.876 --> 0:10:26.436 They just thought that the Topeka school Board shouldn't be 0:10:26.476 --> 0:10:29.196 telling them where they could or couldn't send Linda to school, 0:10:29.916 --> 0:10:32.556 particularly if the only reason the school board could come 0:10:32.636 --> 0:10:39.036 up with was the color of Linda's skin. Now listen 0:10:39.076 --> 0:10:42.036 to the argument the Supreme Court makes in the Brown decision. 0:10:42.796 --> 0:10:45.036 They agreed that the Browns ought to be able to 0:10:45.076 --> 0:10:49.156 send Linda to Sumner, but their reasoning is different. I'm 0:10:49.236 --> 0:10:54.596 quoting segregation of white and colored children in public schools 0:10:54.876 --> 0:10:59.676 has a detrimental effect upon the colored children. The Court's 0:10:59.676 --> 0:11:04.076 conclusion was that segregation was de facto unequal. That simply 0:11:04.116 --> 0:11:07.716 the act of educating black children separately from white children 0:11:08.036 --> 0:11:12.956 caused harm, serious harm. The court goes on, segregation with 0:11:12.996 --> 0:11:16.076 the sanction of law, has a tendency to retard the 0:11:16.236 --> 0:11:21.916 educational and mental development of Negro children. This was light 0:11:21.996 --> 0:11:26.476 years away from Leola Brown's position. Leola Brown said that 0:11:26.516 --> 0:11:30.076 black run schools like Monroe were good schools, but as 0:11:30.076 --> 0:11:32.396 a matter of principle, she ought to be able to 0:11:32.516 --> 0:11:37.396 enroll into at Sumner. The court said, actually, Monroe is 0:11:37.436 --> 0:11:39.876 not a good school at all. It can't be a 0:11:39.916 --> 0:11:45.996 good school because segregation makes it inherently Inferiorleola Brown said, 0:11:46.156 --> 0:11:49.196 we're fine, we just want some control over our lives. 0:11:49.796 --> 0:11:53.436 The court said, you're not fine at all. Your educational 0:11:53.596 --> 0:12:05.236 and mental development has been retarded by your inferior schooling. Now, 0:12:05.356 --> 0:12:08.356 the court could have said something much more straightforward. How 0:12:08.356 --> 0:12:11.716 about this, schools are where people make the connections that 0:12:11.796 --> 0:12:14.236 allow them to get ahead in the world. You cannot 0:12:14.356 --> 0:12:16.956 lock black people out of the place where social power 0:12:16.996 --> 0:12:21.476 and opportunity reside. That argument would have done the job right, 0:12:21.516 --> 0:12:24.556 but the court doesn't say that. In order to condemn 0:12:24.636 --> 0:12:27.876 the discrimination to Brown's face. The court instead makes the 0:12:27.876 --> 0:12:34.516 case that black people are psychologically crippled. The historian Darryl 0:12:34.556 --> 0:12:37.676 Scott wrote a brilliant book a while back called Contempt 0:12:37.756 --> 0:12:40.356 and Pity, in which she points out that there's been 0:12:40.396 --> 0:12:44.076 a long history behind this talk of psychological damage. It 0:12:44.116 --> 0:12:47.116 goes back to the days of slavery. It's always been 0:12:47.156 --> 0:12:50.356 incredibly useful for white people to explain the problems of 0:12:50.396 --> 0:12:55.116 black people as the result of something personal internal. It 0:12:55.156 --> 0:12:56.836 makes their problems their fault. 0:12:57.236 --> 0:13:00.396 If you go even back to an Antebellum period, you 0:13:00.436 --> 0:13:03.076 would see planners who would talk about how they have 0:13:03.236 --> 0:13:05.836 no sense of family. Now, of course, these are the 0:13:05.956 --> 0:13:08.916 very people who are selling people's families at the auction block. 0:13:10.556 --> 0:13:13.836 They're destroying families, but they were justified in their minds 0:13:13.876 --> 0:13:15.796 by saying they have no sense of families. 0:13:16.316 --> 0:13:20.236 Another historian, Charles Pain, makes a very similar argument in 0:13:20.236 --> 0:13:23.756 his essay The Whole United States Is Southern, which you 0:13:23.796 --> 0:13:25.876 should read, by the way, if you ever want to 0:13:25.916 --> 0:13:29.996 be grabbed by the lapels. Pain argues that in the 0:13:30.036 --> 0:13:33.476 decades after the Civil War, Southern whites attempt to sell 0:13:33.516 --> 0:13:36.196 the rest of America on this way of thinking about race. 0:13:36.756 --> 0:13:40.516 They've basically imposed apartheid on the South through brute political 0:13:40.516 --> 0:13:45.196 and economic force. But they want, quoting Pain, to frame 0:13:45.276 --> 0:13:48.756 the issue in a language of separation customs are a 0:13:48.756 --> 0:13:53.076 way of life and social equality, language that constructed race 0:13:53.196 --> 0:13:57.756 in interpersonal and not structural terms. They want to pretend 0:13:57.836 --> 0:14:02.276 that racial conflict is just a psychological problem. So what 0:14:02.476 --> 0:14:05.276 does the U. S. Supreme Court do? In nineteen fifty four, 0:14:05.316 --> 0:14:08.516 In the Brown decision. It buys into the Southern way 0:14:08.516 --> 0:14:13.076 of thinking about race. Leo le Brown and the other 0:14:13.116 --> 0:14:17.796 plaintiffs say, we have a structural problem. We don't have 0:14:17.836 --> 0:14:20.156 the power to send Linda to the school down the street. 0:14:20.836 --> 0:14:24.636 The court says, no, no, no, it's a psychological problem. 0:14:24.956 --> 0:14:29.356 Little Linda has been damaged in her heart. That may 0:14:29.396 --> 0:14:33.956 seem like a small distinction. Believe me, it's not. We're 0:14:34.036 --> 0:14:39.116 still dealing with the consequences. This is a little bit 0:14:39.116 --> 0:14:41.756 of a tangent, but I think it helps to explain 0:14:41.796 --> 0:14:46.356 why personalizing racial discussions is so problematic. It's about a 0:14:46.396 --> 0:14:49.316 wonderful bit of research done by two political scientists at 0:14:49.396 --> 0:14:55.076 Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Jason Grissom and Christopher Reading. Grissom 0:14:55.116 --> 0:14:58.516 and Redding start with a well known fact White students 0:14:58.596 --> 0:15:00.636 are far more likely to be in gifted in Talented 0:15:00.676 --> 0:15:04.036 programs than black students. If your kid is in a 0:15:04.076 --> 0:15:07.156 gifted in Talented program, you've probably observed this. Where are 0:15:07.156 --> 0:15:10.356 the black kids, right? I might say, well, that's simply 0:15:10.396 --> 0:15:13.356 a reflection of the fact that white kids, for whatever reasons, 0:15:13.676 --> 0:15:16.596 have higher test scores on average and black kids. So 0:15:16.676 --> 0:15:19.156 Grissom and Reading look at a large national sample of 0:15:19.196 --> 0:15:22.956 elementary school kids and say, let's equalize for test scores. 0:15:23.076 --> 0:15:25.916 In other words, let's compare two students, one black and 0:15:25.916 --> 0:15:29.316 one white, but they both are very high achieving. This 0:15:29.436 --> 0:15:33.116 is Grisom, would that difference in probability that they are 0:15:33.436 --> 0:15:36.036 identified by the system as gifted? Would that persist? And 0:15:36.076 --> 0:15:39.396 the answer is that it does. In fact, it's still 0:15:39.396 --> 0:15:41.436 the case that even when you look at two students 0:15:41.436 --> 0:15:45.196 who are similar on math and reading achievement in elementary school, 0:15:45.716 --> 0:15:47.876 a white student and a black student, that white student 0:15:47.996 --> 0:15:50.996 is still more than two times as likely to be 0:15:51.076 --> 0:15:54.596 receiving gifted services as that black student is gifted. 0:15:54.636 --> 0:15:58.356 Programs are supposed to be meritocracies, places where the brightest 0:15:58.396 --> 0:16:01.836 children are given a chance to shine. Grisom's saying, that's 0:16:01.876 --> 0:16:03.636 not the way things work in practice. 0:16:04.156 --> 0:16:06.236 And you can go a little further, because you can 0:16:06.236 --> 0:16:09.076 throw other things into the equation that aren't just achievement. 0:16:09.156 --> 0:16:11.436 You can look at differences in income, the data have, 0:16:12.236 --> 0:16:15.316 how healthy the parents says that child is. We know 0:16:15.396 --> 0:16:18.996 what age that child entered kindergarten. You know, on average, 0:16:19.036 --> 0:16:21.756 white students and black students enter kindergarten at different ages. 0:16:21.796 --> 0:16:24.436 Because of the phenomenon of red shirting, white parents are 0:16:24.436 --> 0:16:27.516 more likely to hold their kids back at the start 0:16:27.516 --> 0:16:30.156 of schooling than black students are. That doesn't explain the 0:16:30.156 --> 0:16:30.836 gifted gap. 0:16:31.396 --> 0:16:33.916 In other words, you match up bright black kids with 0:16:33.956 --> 0:16:36.676 equally bright white kids, then you make sure the two 0:16:36.676 --> 0:16:39.876 groups are similar in age, class, and the health of 0:16:39.876 --> 0:16:42.756 their parents, and you still find that the white kids 0:16:42.956 --> 0:16:45.116 are far more likely to be admitted to gifted and 0:16:45.196 --> 0:16:50.076 talented programs. Kind of a puzzle, right. Finally, Grissom and 0:16:50.116 --> 0:16:54.076 Reddings say, look, in many cases, teachers play a big 0:16:54.156 --> 0:16:57.916 role in which students get into gifted programs. They encourage them, 0:16:57.956 --> 0:17:01.596 they recommend them. So they think maybe the answer here 0:17:01.876 --> 0:17:04.956 lies with not who the child is, but who the 0:17:05.036 --> 0:17:06.116 child's teacher is. 0:17:06.596 --> 0:17:09.916 In the overwhelming majority of school districts in the United States, 0:17:10.276 --> 0:17:12.636 the way that a kid ever gets to be identified 0:17:12.636 --> 0:17:15.996 as gifted is if someone in the school, usually a 0:17:16.036 --> 0:17:18.436 classroom teacher, has to look at that kid and say, 0:17:18.836 --> 0:17:20.436 I think this kid might be gifted. 0:17:21.036 --> 0:17:24.196 So Grissom does something really simple. He looks at the 0:17:24.276 --> 0:17:27.036 race of the teacher, and what he finds is that 0:17:27.076 --> 0:17:30.556 for white kids, there's no effect. It doesn't matter but 0:17:30.636 --> 0:17:31.676 not for black students. 0:17:32.076 --> 0:17:35.236 For a black student, the world looks different. So if 0:17:35.236 --> 0:17:38.596 I'm a black student and I have a black classroom teacher, 0:17:38.756 --> 0:17:42.276 the probability that I'm assigned to giftedness in the next 0:17:42.436 --> 0:17:45.716 year it looks very much like the probability for a 0:17:45.756 --> 0:17:49.556 white student. But if I am a Black student and 0:17:49.596 --> 0:17:53.836 I have a white classroom teacher, my probability of being 0:17:53.916 --> 0:17:56.676 identified as gifted is substantially lower. 0:17:56.956 --> 0:17:58.076 How much lower? 0:17:58.236 --> 0:18:02.156 Okay, So for very high achieving black students, the probability 0:18:02.156 --> 0:18:05.756 of being assigned to gifted services under a white teacher 0:18:06.036 --> 0:18:11.836 is about half the probability as an observably similar black 0:18:11.836 --> 0:18:13.436 student taught by a black teacher. 0:18:14.196 --> 0:18:17.356 If you're black, having a black teacher makes a difference, 0:18:17.916 --> 0:18:20.876 and not just for getting into gifted programs. Having a 0:18:20.876 --> 0:18:23.756 black teacher raises the test scores of black students, it 0:18:23.916 --> 0:18:27.676 changes the way black students behave, and it dramatically decreases 0:18:27.716 --> 0:18:34.076 the chances a black male student would be suspended. A 0:18:34.076 --> 0:18:36.596 group of social scientists recently went over the records of 0:18:36.596 --> 0:18:39.716 one hundred thousand black students in North Carolina over a 0:18:39.756 --> 0:18:42.996 five year period. They found that having even one black 0:18:43.036 --> 0:18:46.436 teacher between the third and fifth grade reduced the chance 0:18:46.476 --> 0:18:48.516 that an African American boy would later drop out of 0:18:48.596 --> 0:18:53.236 high school by how much? By thirty nine percent one 0:18:53.276 --> 0:18:57.956 black teacher. Now, does this mean that white teachers are 0:18:58.036 --> 0:19:02.116 diabolical racists trying to hold down black students. No, this 0:19:02.156 --> 0:19:06.316 isn't conscious discrimination. The point is that teachers have power, 0:19:06.996 --> 0:19:10.996 the gatekeepers. They control the classroom. They decide who gets 0:19:11.036 --> 0:19:14.436 recommended for prizes like gifted programs and who doesn't. They 0:19:14.436 --> 0:19:17.636 decide who stays and who gets suspended. By directing their 0:19:17.676 --> 0:19:21.516 attention to a child, A teacher can inspire by ignoring 0:19:21.556 --> 0:19:24.156 another or sending him more often to the principal's office. 0:19:24.316 --> 0:19:30.276 Teachers can discourage. Listen to Leo La Brown again about 0:19:30.316 --> 0:19:33.196 why she liked her elementary school Monroe so much. 0:19:33.796 --> 0:19:37.396 I loved it. I loved it the teachers who were fantastic. 0:19:37.916 --> 0:19:40.876 We got a fantastic education there. It wasn't any say 0:19:40.916 --> 0:19:44.436 this case wasn't based on that, because we had fantastic 0:19:44.516 --> 0:19:46.996 teachers and we learned, We learned a lot. They were 0:19:47.036 --> 0:19:50.476 good to us, more like an extended family like mothers 0:19:50.516 --> 0:19:52.476 and so forth, because they took an interest in you, 0:19:52.476 --> 0:19:53.036 you know, and. 0:19:54.636 --> 0:19:57.676 They took an interest in you. That's what all the 0:19:57.676 --> 0:20:00.596 research on blacks and whites and gifted programs comes down to. 0:20:01.436 --> 0:20:04.236 You need to have someone who takes an interest in 0:20:04.276 --> 0:20:07.476 you if you want education to work and be fair. 0:20:08.436 --> 0:20:12.516 They made one serious mistake which I will have to 0:20:12.596 --> 0:20:14.996 hold them responsible for. 0:20:15.836 --> 0:20:18.516 I came across another archive of interviews from the Brown 0:20:18.596 --> 0:20:22.916 era Duke Universities behind the Veil Oral History Project. The 0:20:22.956 --> 0:20:26.036 interview you're hearing is from Richmond, Virginia. It's with an 0:20:26.036 --> 0:20:29.996 African American teacher named Celestine Porter, and she says that 0:20:30.076 --> 0:20:32.916 once you grant this idea that a teacher is a 0:20:32.956 --> 0:20:35.516 gatekeeper and that a child needs someone to take an 0:20:35.556 --> 0:20:38.516 interest in them, then that means integration should have been 0:20:38.556 --> 0:20:39.836 pursued very differently. 0:20:40.356 --> 0:20:44.836 They made students do the integration. They should have had 0:20:44.876 --> 0:20:50.516 teachers verse, and they didn't do that at every one 0:20:50.716 --> 0:20:53.676 of those white schools, at every one of the black schools, 0:20:53.956 --> 0:20:55.956 If they were going to sign white children to the 0:20:55.956 --> 0:20:58.876 black school they should have had white teachers. If they 0:20:58.876 --> 0:21:01.356 were gonna sign black children into the white schools, they 0:21:01.396 --> 0:21:04.956 should have had some black teachers there. Now, the first 0:21:05.196 --> 0:21:08.396 people that should have been integrated should have been teaches. 0:21:08.436 --> 0:21:12.036 An administration just first. But they didn't do that. They 0:21:12.156 --> 0:21:13.076 moved the children. 0:21:13.916 --> 0:21:18.156 She's absolutely right. Read the Brown Decision for yourself. The 0:21:18.156 --> 0:21:21.276 court goes on and on about kids, but they have 0:21:21.356 --> 0:21:25.236 virtually nothing to say about teachers. The word teacher comes 0:21:25.316 --> 0:21:27.636 up once in the main text and a few times 0:21:27.676 --> 0:21:30.796 in the footnotes. That's it. How on earth can you 0:21:30.876 --> 0:21:34.516 undertake the greatest transformation of public education in American history 0:21:34.796 --> 0:21:36.436 and barely mentioned teachers. 0:21:37.116 --> 0:21:41.596 Young people didn't not know. Business moved first to have 0:21:41.796 --> 0:21:48.036 borne the brunt oh the segregation process, and it did 0:21:48.076 --> 0:21:52.196 something to the Elstons. It did something to them. It 0:21:52.276 --> 0:21:57.116 made them hay, It gave them a sense of nobody's share. 0:21:57.196 --> 0:22:00.716 Far me and most of the students that had moved 0:22:00.836 --> 0:22:04.116 from the black schools into the white situation, we as 0:22:04.196 --> 0:22:07.436 teachers had been there to nurture, there, to help them along, 0:22:07.756 --> 0:22:12.596 to recognize that difficulties, to work with them when they 0:22:12.716 --> 0:22:16.636 moved into the white situation. Teachers didn't know, they didn't not. 0:22:17.276 --> 0:22:18.316 The teachers were fridled in. 0:22:19.836 --> 0:22:23.876 The Brown Decision was all about children. The signature memories 0:22:23.916 --> 0:22:26.516 of the Brown era are all about black children being 0:22:26.676 --> 0:22:30.116 escorted into previously all white schools. We should have been 0:22:30.116 --> 0:22:37.756 talking about teachers. About three and a half hours dew 0:22:37.796 --> 0:22:40.636 east of Topeka on I seventy, there is a little 0:22:40.676 --> 0:22:44.356 town called Moberley. Moberly is in the area of Missouri 0:22:44.396 --> 0:22:47.316 called Little Dixie because it was settled by mirgrants from 0:22:47.316 --> 0:22:49.916 the South before the Civil War. There was a lot 0:22:49.956 --> 0:22:52.276 of slave owning in Little Dixie compared with the rest 0:22:52.276 --> 0:22:55.156 of Missouri, a lot of racial hostility in that part 0:22:55.196 --> 0:22:57.596 of the state. And I don't think you can understand 0:22:57.596 --> 0:23:00.956 what happened after the Brown Decision without first understanding what 0:23:01.076 --> 0:23:05.956 happened in Moberley. In the early nineteen fifties, Moberley had 0:23:05.956 --> 0:23:09.556 a school system employing around one hundred teachers across its schools. 0:23:10.516 --> 0:23:13.516 One of those schools was black. It was called Lincoln. 0:23:14.396 --> 0:23:18.236 Lincoln had eleven teachers. The year after the Brown decision, 0:23:18.636 --> 0:23:23.156 Mobilely integrates. They do that by closing the one black school, Lincoln, 0:23:23.756 --> 0:23:28.156 combussing all the black students there to white schools. After 0:23:28.236 --> 0:23:31.516 closing Lincoln, the Mobile School system then says, wait, if 0:23:31.556 --> 0:23:34.596 we combine all the students in Mobilely into one school system, 0:23:34.956 --> 0:23:36.756 we don't think we need as many teachers as we 0:23:36.836 --> 0:23:40.836 had before. So they say, let's evaluate all the teachers 0:23:40.836 --> 0:23:44.276 from the two newly combined systems, keep the best ones, 0:23:44.756 --> 0:23:47.956 let the mediocre ones go. I think you can see 0:23:47.956 --> 0:23:51.476 what's coming. They decide to fire every one of the 0:23:51.476 --> 0:23:54.916 eleven black teachers who used to work at Lincoln. So 0:23:54.996 --> 0:23:58.396 the black teachers sue and they lose. They appeal, they 0:23:58.436 --> 0:24:01.476 lose again. In nineteen fifty nine, they asked the Supreme 0:24:01.476 --> 0:24:04.516