The First Lady went to Topeka, Kansas to deliver a speech about the Anniversary.
On the eve of the 60th anniversary of the landmark Brown v Board of Education Supreme Court decision, First Lady Michelle Obama speaks at Senior Appreciation Day in Topeka, Kansas, where the historic civil rights case began.
On this commemoration, there is a tendency in some quarters to take the glass half-empty approach to what's happened in the past 60 years.
Yes, schools have gone back to being re-segregated.
Yes, there continues to be inequality in the schools, and it's still a funding issue. If the discrepancy in funding didn't seem to follow the re-segregation, I don't think it would be that much of an issue.
But, don't let anyone tell you that Brown is outdated.
That Brown wasn't necessary.
Brown was absolutely, positively necessary.
Brown v. Board of Education was the death knell to what I call the ' Delusional World of Mad Men'.
Where we had a group of people believing that they were big fish in a big pond.
When, in actuality, they were fish in a pond where 90% of the rest of the fish were shoved into sardine cans.
Brown v. Board opened those sardine cans and let all the rest of the fish come out and swim in the pond. To be given the chance to swim in the pond and make it.
There is a underlying lie, that there simply weren't qualified Black people to do jobs, and suddenly, after the Civil Rights Movement, all these folks just 'happened' to appear.
That's a DAMN LIE.
The truth is, there were generations upon generations of highly qualified Black people who never got the chance to dream. To fulfill their 'passions'. To explore ' possibilities'. All things that the youth of today do routinely.
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