Almost 50 years since the Supreme Court ruled the practice of separating black and white children in public schools unconstitutional, Urban Education Prof. Asa Hilliard of Georgia State University analyzed the challenges that remain for African-American students in his keynote address "50 Years since Brown," held last night in Gilmer Hall.
The official theme of this year's Black History Month, "Brown v. Board of Education (The 50th Anniversary)," commemorates the landmark decision that overturned the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling upholding the "separate but equal" doctrine. In the Brown decision May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously to end racial segregation in public schools.
Students and teachers alike attended Hilliard's presentation addressing issues of integration, segregation and quality of education for African-American students.
The event was sponsored by the Office of African-American Affairs, the Griot Society and Student Council.
Dean of African-American Affairs M. Rick Turner introduced Hilliard as "a father, a husband, a teacher, a psychologist, and a historian."
Hilliard gave listeners a historical account of African education systems that were in place prior to slavery.
"Most of the people I know have absolutely no historical sense at all about the history of education," Hilliard said. "We have to start before the Brown years."
Hilliard mentioned several universities in Africa and Mali that existed prior to the slave trade. He questioned the audience as to their familiarity with such universities, emphasizing the shortage of African history in modern curriculums.
"Not one at-risk person came on that ship," he said. "They brought an education tradition -- free public education."
Hilliard described the state of African-American education 50 years after Brown and emphasized ideological aspects of segregation that he said remains today.
"Suppressing group identity -- that's segregation," he said. "Control of socialization -- that's segregation."
La Tasha Levy, director of the Luther P. Jackson Black Cultural Center, said she has been "a huge fan" of Hilliard since she was a child. Levy called him "one of the perfect people to address these issues that we still seem to be cloudy about."
Hilliard stressed the quality of instruction as vital to improving African-American education. Refuting claims of IQ inferiority and negative cultural influence as creating an achievement gap, Hilliard said, "What gap? If kids get the right teachers there will be no gap."
Hilliard ended his speech by looking toward the future.
"I hope 10 years from now nobody will ask me to give a speech [called] 60 Years after Brown -- Now What?," he said. "Because I fear that we may be not much better off."
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