A 1957 conversation between Martin Luther King, Jr. and J.Waites Waring

The Internet Archive has an invaluable 1957 interview on the "New Negro" and the state of Civil Rights with Rev. Martin Luther King and Judge J. Waites Waring, the judge who played a key role in the Briggs v. Elliot case.

The discussion includes reflections on the impact of Brown v. Board of Education. The interviewer is Richard Heffner who is still interviewing notables all these years later.

In retrospect, one of the more compelling moments in the show is when Heffner asks whether the two men think the violent resistance to civil rights will continue. Both men are optimistic -- King even suggests that the violence might die down in a matter of months.

King: "The violence that we are experiencing now is indicative of the...fact that the diehards are realizing that this system is at its dying point, and this is a last-ditch way to hold on to the old order."

Waring:"I think we are going forward. We are going forward inexorably; we've got to win. It's a question of whether we are going to win in the short term or the long term."

You can download the video or watch it as a video stream.

Alphonse Fletcher, Jr. Marks Brown Anniversary With $50 Million for Civil Rights

Investment banker Alphonse Fletcher announced May 17 that his company will donate $50 million to individuals and organizations working to complete the unfinished work of the Civil Rights movement. A committee is being formed to determine how the funds will be distributed. Fletcher, 38,is a prominent investor philanthropist whose firm, Fletcher Asset Management, has met with remarkable success since it was founded in 1991.

How to Sample Commemorative Events Online

Many of the commemorative events of the past week have webcasts that are archived online. If you follow this link,you can browse through an array of Brown-focused websites, listed in shaded boxes of alternating colors. The 15th box, entitled, "50th Anniversary Commemorative Websites," has links that are listed by state. One major event that's worth checking out:

New York: Brown Plus 50: A Renewed Agenda for Social Justice -- this highly acclaimed conference includes a webcast featuring some of the litigants in the original Brown cases. Part of this event was also webcast on Court TV. That broadcast can also be accesed from the Major Media Coverage of the website.. The conference paid tribute to the Hon. Robert L. Carter, who was one of the attorneys who argued the Brown cases before the Supreme Court on behalf of the NAACP. Many of the participants were particularly impressed by Judge Carter's argument that it was time to stop celebrating Brown and start focusing on the solutions to today's obstacles in achieving educational equality.

New in the "By Media" Section of the Archive

We've added a hyperlinked version of the "Southern Manifesto" -- a 1956 document signed by 96 members of Congress protesting court-ordered desegregation. That's a picture of the manifesto's author, Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-SC) working on the document, while his wife, Jean Crouch Thurmond, looks on.

There are also new links to special Brown coverage.

Photo credit:"Special Collections, Clemson University Libraries"

The Archive is Back

The Brown v. Board of Education 50th Anniversary Digital Archive is back online.

The New York Times : Where School Desegregation Battle Began, Victory Casts a Shadow of Defeat

In Topeka, Kansas, on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Court decision that made civil rights history, The New York Times > Education > educators are ambivalent about the impact of desegration efforts.

Digital Archive Down for the Weekend

The Brown Digital Archive will not be accessible this weekend (May 15-16, 2004) because The College of New Jersey, where the site is hosted, has a planned utilities shutdown for maintenance and cost-savings purposes. The site should be up again on the 17th, just in time for the anniversary.

Today in the blogosphere

Oliver Willis likens American white supremacists who plan to protest the Brown anniversary to al Qaeda in this post. According to a news report linked to Willis' site, a group called White Revolution plans to demonstrate at the Brown v. Board National Historic site on May 15.

More comments from the blogosphere

Paul Street at Empire and Inequality argues that we still live in a state of "educational apartheid:"

To really grasp how badly our post-Brown educational structure mistreats children of color, you need to visit inner-city schools where kids have no idea that Cornell, Columbia, and Northwestern are universities and where teachers chronically quit to escape a militarized, test-based curriculum, absurdly high student-teacher ratios and rotting, dangerous schools. Then visit shiny and leafy white suburban schools that serve as defacto private college preparatory academies within the “public” system. These latter schools attract the best, most energized teachers who enjoy the opportunity to practice their craft in pleasing structures with low student-teacher ratios and the best and latest materials....

Peter Levine has this suggestion for how individuals can mark the anniversary

Last fall, we worked with students at a local high school in Maryland to create an interactive, deliberative website about the epic history of desegregation in their own district. ("We" means the Democracy Collaborative and the Institute for Philosophy & Public Policy, both at the University of Maryland.) We have now collaborated with NABRE, the Network of Alliances Bridging Race and Ethnicity (pronounced “neighbor”), to develop a plan for a replicating the same project in many school districts. This year is the 50th anniversary of Brown v Board of Education, the first of a series of 50th anniversaries of events in the Civil Rights Era. Coming to understand the difficult choices made in one's own community seems both a good way to commemorate this history and an excellent foundation for making choices today.

In a post from February, Joshua Claybourn offers a quote from Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas on the anniversary:

"We're still back in the race business," he said, when asked about the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, a Supreme Court decision that ended school segregation. "We haven't solved the problem of educating people of my race or other minorities. We seem to be answering that by putting black men in prison. That's sad."

New links in the "Media" section

We'll be doing our best to keep up with the various special issues of major publications as well as commemorative websites as they are announced in these last few days before May 17. Right now, there are some new links on the "External websites" section on the media page.

Bloggers on Brown

As May 17th approaches, articles on Brown v. Board of Education aren't just coming from the professional media. We'll make an effort to keep track of some of the commentary that emerges from the blogosphere as well. To begin,here is a post from Crispus:

With the 50th anniversary next week, everybody and their mama is writing about the landmark "Brown vs. Board of Education" case and the aftermath. What's in this This brief article about "Brown's" benefits:


- Just 15 percent of black Americans 25 and older were high school graduates in 1952, the year the high court took the Brown case. The graduation rate stood at 79 percent by 2002, the latest year for which figures are available.

- Sixty-nine percent of black children 5 and 6 years old were enrolled in school in 1954. By 2002, 96 percent of black children ages 5 and 6 were enrolled in school.

- Twenty-four percent of young black adults 18 and 19 years old were enrolled in school in 1954. Their enrollment rate rose to 58 percent in 2002.

These are good stats, so of course we won't hear black "leaders" or intellectuals hype it up, and then further build upon our strengths to increase the good news. They yawn at good stats, and dwell endlessly on bad ones. But fact remains, W.E.B.'s "Talented Tenth" has now become the Talented Twentieth. Yet much work remains, especially given some of "Brown's" negative effects....

A quick spin through the blogosphere also produced these posts. Some are brief pointers to other sites, some excerpt books, and others include original commentary:

Brown v. Board, 50 years later:Debwire

Reactions to Brown in the Richmond Area...:SW Virginia Law blog (scroll down)hey also have an item on Desegregation and the closing of black schools

Brown v. Board of Education: When Slavery Really Ended:Blogcritics.org

Take the Brown v. Board quiz:Stark County Law Library Blawg

Comments: Some more stuff Amp is reading:Alas, a Blog

Fifty Years After Brown v. Board of Education:TheGantelope

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka:SCOTUS blog

Welcome to Balkinization:Discriminations

Audio link up

Audio commentary has been added to the Jim Crow era image gallery.

Welcome to the ASALH Brown v. Board of Education Digital Archive Weblog!

This weblog has been established to provide news and updates about the digital archive created for the Association for the Study of African American Life and History's ongoing commemoration of 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court Decision of 1954.