IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT
COURT
FOR
THE
WESTERN
DISTRICT OF
WESTERN
DIVISION
Kalima
Jenkins, et al. plaintiff|
v.
State
of
|
|
Civil Action
no.
77-0420-CV-W-4
BRIEF OF THE
QUALITY EDUCATION, RESPECTING REMEDY
AMICUS CURIAE
Come now The Kansas City
Citizens for Quality Education, as amici, and proffer to the court herewith
their brief respecting a remedy for disestablishing the vestiges of the dual
system of state-imposed segregation found to be extant in the
I. SCOPE AND PURPOSE OF BRIEF,
AMICUS CURIAE
This brief is narrowly tailored
to focus attention upon, and to offer a remedy for, what amici perceive to be
the real problem underlying the unequal education being accorded black students
in the
None of this is new. Fifty years
ago, Dr. Carter G. Woodson, the founder of the Association for the Study of
Negro Life and History, and the founder of "Negro History Week,"
published his classic: The Mis-Education of the Negro (AMS Press, 1977),
which has subsequently been reprinted. Throughout the length and breath of this
brief, resort to this book and others will be made to substantiate and
explicate the contentions of amici.
Hear now the words of Dr.
Woodson:
As another has well said, to handicap a
student by teaching him that his black face is a curse and that his struggle to
change his condition is hopeless is the worst sort of lynching. It kills one's
aspirations and dooms him to vagabondage and crime. It is strange, then, that
the friends of truth and the promoters of freedom have not risen up against the
present propaganda in the schools and crushed it. This crusade is much more
important than the anti-lynching movement, because there would be no lynching
if it did not start in the schoolroom. Why not exploit, enclave, or exterminate
a class that everybody is taught to regard as inferior!
In fact, the content of this
nation's textbooks and curricula, as well as the pedagogical perspectives and
practices of its educational personnel—and this locality's—are indissolubly connected
with the racist notion of white superiority and black inferiority. The words of
Woodson are again edifying:
The "educated Negroes" have the
attitude of contempt toward their own people because in their own as well as in
their mixed schools Negroes are taught to admire the Hebrew, the Greek, the
Latin and the Teuton and to despise the African. id. p. 1....
The thought of the inferiority of the Negro
is drilled into him in almost every class he enters and in almost every book he
studies. If he happens to leave school after he masters the fundamentals,
before he finishes high school or reaches college, he will naturally escape
some of this bias and may recover in time to be of service to his people.
Practically all of the successful Negroes
in this country are of the uneducated type or of that of Negroes who have had
no formal education at all. The large majority of the Negroes who have put on
the finishing touches of our best colleges are all but worthless in the
development of their people. If after leaving school they have the opportunity
to give out to Negroes what traducers of the race would like to have it learn
such persons may thereby earn a living at teaching or preaching what they have
been taught but they never become a constructive force in the development of
the race. The so-called school, then, becomes a questionable factor in the life
of this despised people.
No less an authority than Chief
Justice Taney, author of that infamous exegesis on the origins and import of
American constitutional racism, Dred Scott v. Sanford, 60 U.S. 393
(1857), sheds light on the plight of the African in America. He states:
The words "people of the United
Sates" and "citizens" are synonymous terms, and mean the same
thing....The question before us is, whether the class of persons described in
the plea of abatement (African descendants) compose a portion of this people,
and are constituent members of this sovereignty? We think they are not, and
that they are not included, and were not intended to be included, under the
word "citizens" in the Constitution, and can therefore claim none of
the rights to citizens of the
Generations of black and white
teachers, administrators, policy makers, business persons—in short, everyone
educated in America—grew up under a system in which the racist notion,
above-referenced, was the central, unalterable premise. Indeed, so deeply, in
the view of amici, is this concept embedded that its validity is implicitly
accepted as a matter of course, and this implicit acceptance, now,
subconsciously and automatically influences persons—both black and white—in
their day-to-day approaches to education, conceptually, pedagogically
administratively, and fiscally.
Some may marvel at, or object to
the contention of amici that both black and white educational personnel are
equally impaired, hence ill-equipped to properly educate black youth.
Therefore, the following is submitted. In a book entitled Behavior
Modification in Black Populations: Psychological Issues and Empirical Findings (Plenum
Press, 1982), Samuel M. Turner & Russell T. Jones, Editors, Dr. Lloyd Bond
states in "The I.Q. Controversy and Academic Performance":
There is ample evidence...that teachers,
both black and white, have generally negative attitudes toward minority
children. Such children are viewed by their teachers as less able and generally
uneducable. Id. p. 115.
Recently, that is, within the last three or
four decades, considerable research on race of teacher as a factor influencing
the academic performance of black students has been undertaken...The general
pattern which emerges from these studies is that teacher race, per se, does not
directly affect student performance. The conclusion is consistent with other
findings mentioned earlier which suggest that black and white teachers do not
differ significantly in their orientation toward black students. Id. p. 116.
As a consequence of this deeply
embedded notion of white superiority/black inferiority, textbooks, reference
books, and other books produced by major educational publishers are
distinguished by their omissions, distortions, half-truths, and, sometimes,
outright lies about the African contribution to any aspect of American or world
civilization, including but not limited to: the scientific, historical,
aesthetic, mechanical, philosophical, theological, mathematical, economic,
medical or political.
These "intellectual torts"
committed against persons of African descent are both intentional and
unintentional. They are intentional in that, to make a profit, these book
publishers must—to use a colloquialism—"give the people what the
want"; that is, they must give them what they have been behaviorally
modified to want and accept: Information validating the notion of white
superiority/black inferiority. Otherwise, their books are likely to be burned,
banned, or barred by a brainwashed, irate citizenry; or by the equally brainwashed,
irate educational personnel.
These intellectual torts are
unintentional in that authors, researchers, and editors, themselves victims of
the racist notion, above-referenced, are oblivious to any breach of
intellectual honesty; blind to, and incapable of assimilating any,
countervailing information; and ignorant of the truth.
This racist notion, in fact,
infects every aspect of American life, to greater and lesser degrees, and all
Americans. Given this notion, black civil rights "leaders,"
themselves infected, hold that the only solution to the problem in education is
forced integration, forced busing, and massive consolidation. These
"leaders" do not believe that anything which is all black or
predominantly black—not by law, but simply in fact—is equal to anything that is
all white or predominantly white, even if all other things are equal. This is
because they have been "mis-educated," according to Dr. Woodson, who
states:
With "mis-educated Negroes" in
control themselves, however, it is doubtful that the system would be very much
different from what it is or that it would rapidly undergo change. The Negroes
thus placed in charge would be the products of the same system and would show
no more conception of the task at hand than do the whites now exploiting Negro
institutions as educators, but the former have no more vision than their
competitors. Taught from books of the same bias, trained by Caucasians of the
same prejudices or by Negroes of enslaved minds, one generation of Negro
teachers after another have served no higher purpose than to do what they are
told to do. In other works, a Negro teacher instructing Negro children is in
many respects a white teacher thus engaged, for the program in each case is
about the same....The present system under the control of the whites trains the
Negro to be white and at the same time convinces him of the impropriety or the
impossibility of his becoming white. Mis-Education, p. 23.
To frontally assault
"mis-educated Negroes," history has shown, is not without its perils,
however, for this class of persons constitutes the pool from which civil rights
"leaders" are drawn. Nevertheless he continues:
This is slightly dangerous ground here,
however, for the Negro's mind has been all but perfectly enslaved in that he
has been trained to think what is desired of him. The "highly
educated" Negroes do not like to hear anything uttered against this
procedure because they make their living in this way, and they feel that they
must defend the system. Few mis-educated Negroes ever act otherwise; and, if
they so express themselves, they are easily crushed by the large majority to
the contrary so that the procession may move on without interruption.
The result, then, is that the Negroes thus
mis-educated are of no service to themselves and none to the white man. The
white man does not need the Negroes' professional, commercial or industrial
assistance; and as a result of the multiplication of mechanical appliances he
no longer needs them in drudgery or menial service. The "highly
educated" Negroes, moreover, do not deed the Negro professional or
commercial classes because Negroes have been taught that whites can serve them
more efficiently in these spheres. Reduced, then, to teaching and preaching,
the Negroes will have no outlet but to go down a blind alley, if the sort of
education which they are now receiving is to enable them to find the way out of
their present difficulties. Mis-Education, p. 24–5.
The mental aberrations
attributed to "mis-education" by Woodson to blacks are,
interestingly, shared by a significant number of white "liberals,"
and for the same reason: whites are superior; blacks are inferior, and the only
way to solve the problem in education is by compulsory integration, whatever
the consequences.
Amici believe neither in the
inherent superiority of white people, nor the inherent inferiority of black
people. Amici believe only in desegregation; that is, the removal of laws and
practices which deny or qualify liberty, due process and equal protection.
Amici do not believe in compulsory integration, deeming it to be wasteful,
harmful and racist.
Thus, amici fully applaud this
Court's decision of September 17, 1984, both its letter and spirit. However,
amici must point out that a fully "integrated" school district can
still have critical lingering vestiges of racial segregation where the
conditions of education: textbooks, curricula, and educational personnel,
retain their roots (cause) and continue to yield their “segregative” fruit
(effects). Texts, curricula, and educational personnel are the keys.
Integration, per se, is irrelevant.
II. THE REMEDY
A. THE ISSUE
WHAT COST-EFFECTIVE REMEDY(IES) CAN BEST
ACCORD QUALITY EDUCATION TO BLACK STUDENTS IN THE KCMSD, GIVEN SAID DISTRICT'S
VESTIGIAL LEGACY AND PRACTICE OF FURNISHING INFERIOR EDUCATION TO SAID
STUDENTS, WHERE THE COURT ORDER REQUIRES AN INTRADISTRICT REMEDY; THE KCMSD IS
67.7% BLACK; AND THE COURT ORDER ENCOURAGES, WHERE POSSIBLE, A NEIGHBORHOOD
SCHOOL POLICY, CONSONANT WITH THE 14th AMENDMENT?
B. OVERVIEW OF PREVAILING LAW
Since the Supreme Court's epochal ruling in
Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954) (Brown I), which
specifically struck down the alleged and illusory "separate but
equal" doctrine enunciated in Plessy v. Ferguson. 163 U.S. 537
(1896), federal courts have strained to fashion a remedy which would have the
effect of reducing, to within constitutionally permissible limits, that
"... feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community..."
which stunted and distorted "the hearts and minds" of generations of
black students "... in a way unlikely ever to be undone." Brown
I, supra, at 494.
At best, all that can be said is that the
struggle continues, as evinced by the instant litigation.
Many lawyers have earned substantial legal
fees; many bus companies have earned significant profits; many so-called
"experts" have been in receipt of copious retainer fees, but the
problem and the challenge of eradicating, "root and branch," Green
v. County School Board of New Kent County, et al, 391 U.S. 430, 438 (1968),
those vestiges of segregation which have corrupted the "hearts and
minds" of generations of black students remains unremedied.
Indeed, while it may be true that many of
the branches of de jure segregation (unequal facilities, race-specific school
etc.) have been lopped off, the insidious root of that tree (the myth of white
superiority/black inferiority) remains intact.
Fortunately, as this Court has previously
and correctly noted:
Since these defendants have failed to
comply with their constitutional obligations, this Court not only has the power
but the duty to enter a decree which will correct the continuing effects of
past discrimination as well as bar discrimination against blacks in the future.
Louisiana v. United States, 380 U.S. 145 85 S.Ct. 817,13 L.Ed.2d 709
(1965).
Jenkins v. State of Missouri,
supra, at 1505.
For a long while after Brown II, 349
U.S. 294 (1955), it was popularly supposed that the only means of rectifying
the constitutional wrongs imposed or permitted by state law was to
"integrate" the school administrative and student populations. Green
v. County School Board, supra; Swann v. Board of Education, 402 U.S.
1 (1971); Keyes vs. School District No1, Denver, Colo., 413 U.S. 189
(1973); and Liddell v. State of Missouri, 731 F2d 1294 (8th Cir. 1984)
and the cases cited therein.
What precisely "integration" is,
however, in contradistinction to "desegration" has not been clearly
defined. Thus, the terms have been used loosely and often interchangeably to
refer to a situation in which black and/or white students are transported to
each other, mandatorily, so that by proximity to white students, those deprived
black students can be made whole.
C. AMICI'S VIEW OF DESEGREGATION V.
INTEGRATION
It is respectfully submitted, however, that
such a practice (compulsory integration), though doubtless well-intended, is
counter-productive, and probably harmful to black and white students, for such
a practice confirms in the "hearts and minds" of black students that
"feeling of inferiority" referenced in Brown I, supra. For, if
they were not inferior, why are they incapable of being educated other than in
immediate proximity to whites? And, such a practice inculcates a
"seige" type mentality in white students, which precipitates white
flight away from the incoming blacks, who, it is supposed, must be inferior if
they are incapable of being educated other than in immediate proximity to whites,
miles away from their communities. See, e.g. Keyes, supra, 413 U.S. at
250. No rational person seeks or enjoys the company of inferior persons. In
short, "integration" accepts and assumes the racist notion of white
superiority/black inferiority.
For the purposes of clarity, therefore,
amici offer the following definitions:
1. Segregation—The
maintenance of laws and practices which deny or qualify the liberty, due
process and equal protection rights of individuals, guaranteed by the U.S.
Constitution. See, e.g., Brown I, 347 U.S. at 494.
2. Desegregation—The removal
of laws and practices which deny or qualify the liberty, due process, and equal
protection rights of individuals, guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. See.
e.g., Swann v. Board of Education, supra, 402 U.S. at 17.
3. Freedom of Choice --The
right of the individual to chose, unencumbered by laws, the manner in which he
shall exercise the rights guaranteed to him by the U.S. Counstitution. See.
e.g., Green v. County School Board, supra, 391 U.S. at 439–440.
4. Integration—The absence of
the right of the individual to choose, unencumbered by laws, the manner in
which he shall exercise the rights guaranteed to him by the U.S. Counstitution.
See, e.g., Keyes v. School District No. 1, supra, 413 U.S. at 225–6.
It will be observed that desegregation and
freedom of choice vest the individual with freedom; whereas, integration and
segregation divest the individual of freedom. Hence, integration and segregation
are inimical to the exercise of individual freedom, while desegregation and
freedom of choice are conducive to the exercise of individual freedom. Since
freedom is a personal right, Missouri ex.rel. Gaines v. Canada, 305 U.S.
337, 351 (1938); Sweatt. v. Painter, 339 U.S. 635 (1950), legal
proscriptions of that "personal right" should be stricken as
constitutionally infirm.
Amici respectfully submit that the only way
to eradicate that inferiority that pervades the black community is to tackle it
at its source: in the curricula, textbooks, and educational personnel. The
minds of generations of blacks have been deliberately distorted, warped, and
destroyed by the incessant forced ingestion of misinformation, lies,
half-truths, and blatant omissions respecting the contributions of blacks to
world and American civilization in every field of study in this nation's public
and private schools. It is here that amici drop anchor. For, it is here that
the real problem lies.
The National Alliance of Black School
Educators, Inc.'s Task Force on Black Academic and Cultural Excellence issued a
seminal report in November 1984 entitled “Saving the African-American Child.”
This vitally compelling report is annexed to this brief to facilitate the
court's review. (Webmaster's note: A link is provided to NABSE for those
interested in requesting a copy of this report.)
That report's ethos is stated as follows:
"Excellence" in education is
much more than a matter of high test scores on standardized minimum or advanced
competency knowledge and to develop the rational reflective and critical
capacities of our children. We have every right to expect that, upon completion
of public school work, our children will have the general skills to enter the
world of work and to be fully functional members of the society. But more than
this, we want the content of education to be true, appropriate, and relevant.
We want the educational processes to be democratic and humane. We want the aim
of educational processes to be the complete development of the person and not
merely preparation for the available low-level jobs, or even for high-level
jobs, that may serve no purpose beyond individual enhancement.
Among other things, excellence in
education must prepare a student for self-knowledge and to become a
contributing problem-solving member of his or her own community and in the
wider world as well. No child can be ignorant of or lack respect for his or her
own unique cultural group and meet others in the world on an equal footing. We
believe that this type of excellence in education is a right of the masses and
is not merely for a small elite.
Id., p. 15.
That report, moreover, also corroborates
amici's view respecting the dire importance of focusing attention upon the
contributions of Africans to American and world civilization in the curricula
of our nation's schools:
African-American's Deep Historical
Respect for Education. The world's first recorded tradition of higher education
was in Africa.12 Throughout African history from ancient
"prehistoric" times to ancient KMT (Egypt) and throughout the
continent education was an instrument of survival and enrichment.13,14 Contrary
to some popular belief, it was not only the Ancient Nile Valley cultures of
Africa that exemplified educational excellence, Africa.15–18 but also a
continent-wide African culture as a whole which placed the highest value on a
democratic comprehensive education system.
Destruction of African and African
American Social Institutions. Slavery in America, like colonization in Africa,
depended upon the destruction of all the ancient highly developed African
social institutions in Africa and in its diaspora among the enslaved African
Americans. This was especially true for the educational institutions.19–24
Later, to justify brutal treatment of slaves, history would be rewritten to say
that our institutions never existed or that they were never developed to any
sophisticated level. Slaves were denied the right to develop independent
educational institutions. But special "schooling" for slaves was
provided. It was a special schooling, training, or "miseducation"
that was designed to keep African Americans in a subservient position. 25–28
With brutal honesty, that report continues:
A culturally salient and sensitive
education is a frontal attack on the cumulative effects which prolonged and
persistent racism has had on American society. The study of the history and
culture of African Americans as reflected in schools, especially in textbooks
in all academic subjects, has historically been more neglected and less
influenced by quality historical scholarship than any other topic. To a very
large degree, the negative attitudes and reactions which many European Americans
have toward African Americans are shaped by the sins of omission and commission
that are operative in public education's treatment of African and
African-American history and culture. H. Jesse Arnelle notes:
We no longer can tolerate a school
system which while educating the black child about the contribution of the
white man in America, observes minimally and derisively the black man's
contribution in every field of endeavor, and fails, therefore, to educate the
white and black child in any meaningful way.44
Among other things, culture serves
certain vital psychological and social functions. It is the material and the
source of a group identity. It is the material and the source of a group
identity. It is group identity which serves as the basis for group unity, a
unity which enables a group to mobilize its resources in support of itself. The
suppression, destruction, distortion of a group's history and culture by
others, and the surrender of one's own natal cultural forms serves to produce
pathology within groups and within individuals.45–50 African American children
must be given the opportunity to experience an appropriate cultural education
which gives them an intimate knowledge of, and which honors and respects, the
history and culture of our people.
Academic excellence cannot be reached
without cultural excellence. We expect African Americans to meet academic
standards of excellence. We also know that African American history and culture
will be unavoidable if truth and quality are in public schools, not as an
appendage to subjects but as an integral part.
Id., pp. 23–24.
D. THE PREMISES OF AMICI
In light of the foregoing, amici
submit, respectfully, the following premises:
1. Education should not be
incidental to integration; rather, integration should be incidental to
education. Quality education is paramount, and it should take precedence over
tangential societal aims.
2. Quality education will more
sooner actualize tangential societal aims than the current program which
pursues those aims, first, at the expense of quality education. Under the
latter postulate, both quality education and societal aims suffer. Under the
former, both aims are realized.
3. Quality education is the process
and the end product of that process of imparting information, knowledge,
values, and discernment, which best enables a particular person, or class of
persons to realize his or their highest potential.
4. An essential precondition for the
rendition, or receipt of quality education is an environment and pedagogical
materials which enable a person or a class of persons to feel good about
themselves, their past, and their potential. Such an environment and such
materials promote an open heart, an eager and inquiring mind, and a willing
hand. The absence of such an environment and such materials promotes a closed
heart, a dull and malevolent mind, and an idle hand. Thus, the proper
environment and pedagogical materials are inseparable from the rendition or
receipt of quality education.
5. Quality education should take
precedence over racial diversity in the formulation of a desegregation order,
and the remedies therein.
6. No student should be traumatized
or stigmatized by racially biased curricula, textbooks, or teachers.
The foregoing premises are
cost-effective in that when contrasted with the costs, consequences, and
scholastic outcomes of mandatory transportation, for integration, the costs, consequences,
and scholastic outcomes of curricula revision, text revision, and teacher
re-education, will be found to be not only less expensive, but also socially
and scholastically superior. Keyes, supra, 413 U.S. at 242. In other
words, attacking the "real problem" is more cost effective and less
expensive than ignoring the "real problem," because ignoring the real
problem means wasting millions with neglible, or even negative results; while
attacking the real problem will yield profits to the city, the school district,
the state, and the students, of a magnitude too great to measure. Attacking the
real problem, in short, solves the problem.
In this wise, it may be useful to
consider the findings of the NABSE's report, Saving the African American Child:
Inherent in racial balance remedies
that give priority to the placement of African American students in a perpetual
minority relationship with European American students are the false assumptions
that African American children inevitably suffer intellectually when their
education occurs mainly in African American schools and that the motivation and
achievement of African American children necessarily improves when they are
enrolled in majority-white schools. The racial composition of a school, when
considered alone, does not necessarily have a substantial positive effect on
academic performance of African American children. Significant evidence does
not exist to support any claim that racial mixing alone has contributed to the
excellence in the academic growth of the masses of African American students.54
It is not simply the addition of African American children to a previously
all-white school that makes a positive difference; it is the elimination of
many of the negative factors within the school and the teaching and learning
process, African American or European American, that enhances growth and
development.
Sufficient school desegregation
history exists to indicate that the path to equal educational opportunity and a
quality education for most African American students is not via the outworn
over-reliance on racial balance remedies. The rigid adherence to racial balance
remedies that ignore the diversity among cities imposes inequitable burdens on
African American students and their parents, gives scant attention to the
educational essentials of equal educational opportunity, ignores or deprecates
the importance of African American history and culture, and/or denies African
American students and their parents some choice. This approach is not only
nonproductive but is actually a denial of equal educational opportunity.
Id., p. 25
Moreover,the KCMSD is already, roughly,
70% black. Thus, there are too few whites with whom to integrate, at any event.
See Ross v. Houston, 699 F. 2d 218, 224 (5th Cir. 1983). Although,
faithful adherence to a neighborhood school policy will result in the return of
significant numbers of whites to the public school—and their return en masse
will augur greater public support for the KCMSD—this return should not
precipitate a return to mandatory transportation, or gerrymandered attendance
zones for integration purposes. For curriculum revision, text revision, and
educational personnnel re-education, coupled with the scrupulously equal
allocation of resources, on a per pupil basis, will remedy the real
constitutional harm: the deliberate, malevolent, inculcation of inferiority
complexes in black students. Should one-race schools, owing to housing
patterns, eventuate, such would not offend the constitution, for the district
would, nevertheless, be a "unitary" district. Ross v. Houston,
supra, 669 F. 2d at 227–8; Swann v. Board of Education, supra, 402 U.S.
at 26; Liddell v. State of Missouri, supra, 731 F. 2d at 1314.
It should be understood, however, that
amici do not oppose desegregation. Amici, in fact, favor the removal of laws
and practices which deny or qualify liberty, the pursuit of happiness, life,
the privileges and immunities guaranteed to all citizens, due process and the
equal protection of the laws. Amici are simply of the view that in the context
of the instant litigation, priority should be given to rectifying the real
problem: removing the inferiority complexes. This result is not obtained by
chasing (seeking to "integrate" with) white people all over—or out
of—the school district. It is only obtained by slaying the dragon of racism
which infects the pedagogy. Increasingly, it has come to be recognized that
pupil reassignment, into and of itself, is insufficient. Much more is required.
Milliken v. Bradley, 433 U.S. 267, 281-2 (1977); Reed v. Rhodes,
455 F. Supp. 569, 597 (ND, Ohio 1978). Amici contend that what is required is a
frontal assault on the "real problem," which should run from
kindergarten through 12th grade and be made applicable, not simply in
predominantly black schools—although, obviously it should especially be the
case there—but in all schools of the KCMSD.
The premises of amici shall amount to
naught, however, unless the educational personnel have the power and means to
effect these ends, and unless the parents of the students are seminally
involved in the process.
Thus, to the extent that a neighborhood
school policy is implemented, a necessary corollary to such a policy is a Board
of Education which reflects such a policy. To this end, the Court is requested
to cast a scrutinizing eye at the current "at large" component of the
election system to determine whether such a component is compatible with the
long range and short range quality education imperatives alluded to above:
namely, whether persons from outside of a given neighborhood school district
would be more or less inclined to confer the requisite power and resources on
the most capable educational personnel to effect the salutary cost-effective
ends embodied in the premises of amici. A reluctant or hostile Board of
Education invites, indeed, compels further litigation.
This neither suggest, nor mandates that
a system of racial quotas be imposed on the Board of Education, or, for that
matter, upon educational personnel. The current crisis in the KCMSD is glowing
testimony to the fact that incompetence, ignorance, indifference, hostility,
and insensitivity transcend race. The key concern is that, to the extent that the
Court adopts all or part of the premises of amici, the implementation of those
premises not be impeded by persons—of any race—opposed to such, and that the
premises, above-referenced, adopted by this Court in its remedial Order, lose
nothing in translation.
As has been brilliantly illustrated by
Dr. Reginald M. Clark in Family Life and School Achievement: Why Poor Black
Children Succeed or Fail (U. of Chicago Press, 1983), parents play a vital,
if not the most vital, role in assuring that their children achieve a quality
education. Thus, parents must be integrally involved in fashioning,
implementing, and assuring the continuing viability of the premises,
above-referenced, whether power or means are at issue: at home; on school
committees; and/or on the Board of Education. Moreover, concomitant with
power/means sharing, these parents must, further, be made to understand that
they also share responsibility for the perceived success or failure of these
premises—to the extent that the court adopts such—and must, further, be
accountable for the conduct and performance of their children.
Indeed, without the power or means to
effect the extirpation of the root cause of the problem—the myth of white
superiority/black inferiority and its malicious myrmidons—quality education,
these students will stand as "victims of constitutional
wrongdoing...without redress," Liddell v. State of Missouri, supra,
731 F. 2d at 1315, regardless of whatever else this Court may order.
E. MOLLIFYING THE OPPOSITION
This Honorable Court is respectfully
urged, moreover, to consider that the primary impetus driving certain members
of the black community's insistence upon consolidation and busing for racial
balance—including plan 6c—is their historically justified belief that the
physical plant, equipment, textbooks, supplies, teacher's salaries,
extracurricular activities, furniture, in short, every educational asset which
money can buy will be inferior to that of all-white, or predominantly white
schools, because, left to their own devices, it is felt that white people will
do as they have always done in similar circumstances in the past:
disproportionately allocate fiscal resources to all-white or predominantly
white schools. If the court can assure these persons that resources will be
allocated on a per pupil basis, then a critical hurdle impeding the conclusion
of this litigation will have been overcome. If such assurances conjure images
of Plessy v. Ferguson, supra, this Honorable Court is respectfully urged
to consider that the most vocal proponents of consolidation and busing are
those blacks whose generation knew not the vaunted advantages of Plessy.
All they knew was its pain.
Presumably, liberal white proponents of
consolidation and busing will, likewise, be mollified by such judicial
assurances.
The equalization of resources, on a per
pupil basis, though necessary to assure future equality, is not, standing
alone, sufficient to remedy the vestigial effects of past discrimination, however.
Further, compensatory measures and resources are needed to eradicate the harm
done to black students in the KCMSD. Thus, except to the extent that the
intradistrict plan sumitted by the KCMSD in response to the Court Order of
January 25, 1985, involves either the importation of students from districts
adjoining the KCMSD, or the exportation of students from the KCMSD to adjoining
school districts—in Kansas or Missouri—amici adopt, and incorporate herein by
reference, as though set out haec verba, that aspect of the KCMSD's plan
which is denominated: "III. Educational Component for Remediation and for
Attracting and Holding Integrated Enrollments," unless said aspect
enervates the premises previously advanced by amici herein.
Amici respectfully request that this
court retain jurisdiction of this cause pending specific consummation of such
remedies as it may prescribe. Cognizant of the fact, however, that this
Honorable Court has a busy calendar, amici respectfully request that this court
enpanel an Oversight Commission, composed of persons representative of the
disparate views heretofore advanced, including amici herein, to monitor the
activities of the board of Education, administrators, and teachers, and to
report to this court any deviations from or distortions of the specific
remedies prescribed by this court; and that such commission, no fewer than
three whom are black, be composed of five persons and vested with such powers
and resources and emoluments and duties as are normally accorded special
masters under Rule 52, F.R.C.P. In this wise, the judicial economy of this
court can be preserved, and minor problems associated with implementation,
which are certain to arise—if the precedents from other jurisdictions have any
value—can be made to conform with this court's orders without specific judicial
intervention—unless an aggrieved party is dissatisfied—consistent with such
guidelines as this court may care to enunciate.
Inevitably, there must come a time when
this litigation shall conclude. But when? Amici respectfully submit that this
litigation shall be deemed to be concluded when the Court enters an Order upon
the Report and Recommendation of the Oversight Commission that both of the
following two conditions shall have obtained: 1. That black students, as a
whole, on a grade-by-grade basis, are performing consistently with those
standards established by the State of Missouri for the determination of
competence for students generally administered throughout the State by the
State of Missouri, or by some other means; and 2. That the Oversight Commission
shall have certified to the Court that no less than one year has elapsed since
it had occasion to certify a grievance to this Court arising from the specific
implementation of the remedies prescribed by this Court, whether the Commission
or another affected party be the grievant.
F. MEASURING THE EFFICACY OF THE
REMEDIAL HEARING
The efficacy of the hearing on remedy,
now before the Court, should be measured by the issue framed by the Order of
September 17, 1984, to wit:
What cost-effective remedy(ies) can
best accord quality education to black students in the KCMSD, given said
district's vestigial legacy and practice of furnishing inferior education to
said students, where the KCMSD is 67.7% black; and the court order encourages,
where possible, a neighborhood school policy, consonant with the 14th
Amendment?
In assessing the utility of the expert
testimony adduced at the hearing on remedy, this Honorable Court is further
urged to remember the following salient features about the underlying
litigation:
1. The victims in need of a remedy
are black students in the KCMSD.
2. Quality education is the desired
end.
3. The locus in quo is the
deographic confines of the KCMSD.
4. The City of Kansas City,
Missouri, though not a party, has a vested interest in any remedy, for not only
is it benefitted by an educated, responsible, and self-sufficient citizenry,
but its capacity to attract and retain new businesses, from abroad, and their
workforces, is directly proportional to the perceived quality of public
schools.
5. Quality education and forced
integration are neither, necessarily, synonymous—as many would have the court
believe—nor compatible; indeed, it would appear that, in too many instances,
they have been mutually exclusive.
6. The premises previously advanced
by amici stand as fresh, troubling, and inevitable challenges to all parties to
this litigation, which cannot, in good faith, be avoided.
7. The State of Missouri should bear
the brunt of such monetary remediation as this Court may order, since it is the
original and principal constitutional violator.
Amici are cognizant of the fact that by
urging this Court to measure the efficacy of any remedy by its conformance to
amici's premises, amici are also inviting this court to abandon the traditional
remedial molds held sacrosant albeit haplessly so, in other jurisdictions. In
so doing, amici are further cognizant of the fact that they are inviting this
court to enter the shrine of American history by fashioning a remedy which,
firstly, acknowledges, then secondly, obliterates the efficient cause of the
disparity between blacks and whites in today's America those same
"inferiority complexes" which are identified in Brown I,
supra, sidestepped in Brown II, supra, and all but forgotten until Milliken
v. Bradley, supra, 433 U.S. at 280–1, adumbrates them in form, but misses then
in substance.
By the phrase"adumbrate...in form,
but miss...in substance" amici only mean to suggest that remediation, that
is, requiring defendants to provide remedial education to enable black students
"to overcome past inadequacies in their education" Milliken, supra,
at 284, should consist of much more than enabling a functionally illiterate
11th grader to read out of a 4th grade primer. For, unfortunate and as
necessary as this may be, unless remediation also contemplates restoring to these
black students a sense of self-hood, pride, and capacity, which can only be
derived from a conceptual and pragmatic break from the
"mis-education" of the past, when all is said and done, all that will
remain is a functionally illiterate 11th grader.
The past is, indeed,
prologue. Hear again the words of Chief Justice Taney as he characterizes the
prevailing mood of the nation in 1857, which mood constitutes the conceptual
root and vortex of present day perceptions, approaches to education, with respect
to persons of African descent:
They had for more than a century
before been regarded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to
associate with the white race, either in social or political relations; and so
far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect;
and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his
benefit. He was bought and sold, and treated as an ordinary article of
merchandise and traffic, whenever a profit could be made by it. This opinion
was at that time fixed and universal in the civilized portion of the white
race. It was regarded as an axiom in morals as well as in politics, which no
one thought of disputing, or supposed in society daily and habitually acted
upon it in their private pursuits, as well as in matters of public concern,
without doubting for a moment the correctness of this opinion.
Dred Scott v. Sandford,
supra, 60 U.S. at 407.
Therefore, remediaation, yes, but let
it be known that "Curriculum offerings and programs...designed to
compensate minority group children for unequal educational opportunities
resulting from past or present racial isolation" Milliken, pupra, 433 U.S.
at 285, must be principallly aimed at and have a substantive impact upon
"...that feeling of inferiority" referenced in Brown I; for
only such an approach "...promises realistically to work, and
indispensable realistically to work now." Green v. County School Board,
supra, 391 U.S. at 438–439. All else has been tried. All else has failed. For
the words of Justice Taney yet live.
What one reaps is what one sows, truly.
American public education has sown welfare recipients, and so has it reaped. It
has sown juvenile delinquency, and so has it reaped. It has sown white racism,
and so has it reaped. It has sown black dependence and despair, and so has it
reaped.
This court, however, is pivotally
situated to sow new seed. It can sow quality education; that is, the TRUTH,
with bias or malice toward none, and it can reap a quality citizenry. It can
sow racial harmony, by insisting upon the promulgation of the TRUTH (quality
education) while abandoning sources of discord (forced integration), and reap
racial harmony. It can sow a proud, patriotic, self-reliant citizenry at the
stroke of a pen, and reap a proud, patriotic and sellf-reliant citizenry.
On the other hand, by disregarding the
most central indispensable, and quintessential fact of American history—black
chattel slavery—from which all that is American derives its essence; and by
disregarding the laws, decrees, policies and attitudes which, in spite of the
eradication of the institution of servitude, have filled the void to assure the
continuance of the condition of servitude, all the court's time, energy and
acumen will have been for naught. The battle is for the mind. The mind. So has
it ever been. SO shall it ever be.
Listen, for one last time, to the
admonition of Dr. Carter G. Woodson:
In like manner, the teaching of
history in the Negro area has had its political significance. Starting our
after the Civil War, the opponents of freedom and social justice decided to
work out a program which would enslave the Negroes' mind inasmuch as the
freedom of body had to be conceded. It was well understood that if by teaching
of history the white man could be further assured of his superiority and the
Negro could be made to feel that he had always been a failure and that the
subjection of his will to some other race is necessary the freedman, then,
would still be a slave. If you can control a man's thinking you do not have to
worry about his action. When you determine what a man shall think you do not
have to concern yourself about what he will do. If you make a man feel that he
is inferior, you do not have to compel him to accept an inferior status, for he
will seek it himself. If you make a man think that he is justly an outcast, you
do not have to order him to the back door. He will go without being told; and
if there is no back door, his very nature will demand one.
Mis-Education, pp. 84–5.
Hence, this Court rightly established
the liability of the State of Missouri, which denied Dred Scott and which
barred Lloyd Gaines for the educational torts committed against black students,
and KCMSD, which stipulated to its complicity, in the perpetration of these
educational torts. Jenkins v. State of Missouri, supra, at p. 1493. The
only question now worthy of consideration is whether this Court is willing to
assault the bastion of the beast (mis-education culminating in inferiority
complexes), or whether it will resign itself to building tall fences
(neighborhod schools without more) in a futile effort to contain the beast.
History, a city, and a people are at
stake either way.
Amici neither covet, nor presume upon
this court. Amici seek only to clarify some perspectives which, heretofore, no
other party, nor amicus, has dared to address... for whatever reason.
Amici can think of no more fitting
denouement than to conclude with the prophetic words of Mr. Justice Powell, in
his concurring opinion in Keyes v. School District No 1., supra, 413
U.S. at 253:
It is well to remember that the
course we are running is a long one and the goal sought in the end—so often
overlooked—is the best possible educational opportunity for all children.
Communities deserve the freedom and the incentive to turn their attention and
energies to this goal of quality education, free from protracted and
debilitating battles over court-ordered student transportation. The single most
disruptive element in education today is the widespread use of compulsory
transportation, especially at elementary grade levels. This has risked
distracting and diverting attention from basic educational ends, dividing and
embittering communities, and exacerbating, rather than ameliorating,
interracial friction and misunderstanding. It is time to return to a more
balanced evaluation of the recognized interest of our society in achieving
desegregation with other educational and societal interest a community may
legitimately assert. This will help assure that integrated school systems will
be established and maintained by rational action, will be better understood and
supported by parents and children of both races, and will promote the enduring
qualities of an integrated society so essential to its genuine success.
III. RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION
Amici make the following recommendations to
the Court:
1. That the premises of amici,
above-referenced, be adopted in toto.
2. That the Court accept amici's
recommendations relative to Article III of the KCMSD's plan, as qualified by
amici.
3. That the Oversight Commission be
constituted having the power of special masters.
4. That the financial burden of
rectification and remediation be borne by the State of Missouri.
Further amici seeketh naught.
Signed
Larry Delano Coleman, Esq.
The Kansas City Citizens for
Quality Education
8801 E. 63rd St. #
208
Raytown, Missouri 64133
(816) 737-3840 (o)
(816) 737-3177 (fax)
Lcole81937@aol.com–email
www.Larrydcoleman.com–website
Certificate
of Service
This is to certify that on this
3rd day of May, 1985, a copy of the attached "Brief of the Kansas City
Citizens for Quality Education, Respecting Remedy, as Amicus Curiae" was
mailed to the below named counsel of record:
Arthur Benson, Esq.
Benson & McKay
911 Main St., #1430
Kansas City, MO 64105
Attorney for Plaintiffs
_________________
William Webster
Attorney General, State of MO
Supreme Court Building
P. O. Box 899
Jefferson City, MO 65101
Attorney for Defendants
State of Missouri
_________________
James Borthwick
Blackwell Sanders et. al.
5 Crown Center
2480 Pershing Road
Kansas City, MO 64108
Attorney for Defendants
Kansas City, MO School District
APPENDIX
Bibliography of the books sited
in this Brief from the National Alliance of Black School Educators, Inc.'s Task
Force on Black Academic and Cultural Excellence's report—Saving the
African-American Child.
12. James, George G. M. (1976) Stolen Legacy. San Francisco: Julian
Richardson.
13. Meyer, I. (1900) Oldest Books in the World: An Account of the
Religion, Wisdom, Philisophy, Ethics Psychology, Manners, Proverbs, Sayings,
Refinements, etc. of the Ancient Egyptians. New York: E.W. Dayton.
14. Massey, G. (1974) Book of the Beginnings. Secaucus, New Jersey:
University Bookstore (first published 1881).
15. Williams, C. (1974) The Destruction of Black Civilization. Chicago:
Third World Press.
16. Ngubane, J. K. (1979) Conflict of Minds. new York: Books in Focus.
17. Hilliard, A. G. III (1984), "Pedagogy in Ancient KMT
(Egypt)," Paper presented to first Annual Ancient Egyptian Studies
Conference. Los Angeles.
18. Blyden, E. W. (1967) Christianity, Islam and the Negro. Edinburgh:
University Press (first published 1887).
19. Padmore, G. (1936) Africa: How Britain Rules Africa London.
20. Williams, C. (1974) op. cit.
21. Rodney, W. (1974) How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Washington,
D.C.: Howard University Press.
22. Chinuweiza (1975) The West and the Rest of Us. New York: Vintage.
23. Bullock, H. A. (1970) A History of Negro Education in the South New
York: Praeger.
24. DuBois, W. E. B. (1973) Black Reconstruction in America 1860–1880.
New York: Atheneum (first published, 1935).
25. King, K. (1971) Pan Africanism and Education: A Study of Race,
Philanthropy, and Education in the Southern States of America and East Africa.
Oxford: Clarendon Press.
26. Weinberg, M. (1977) A Chance to Learn: A History of Race and
Education in the United States. New York: Cambridge University Press.
27. Spivey, D. (1978) Schooling for the New Slavery: Black Industrial
Education: 1868–1915. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
28. Woodson, C. G. (1977) Miseducation of the Negro. Washington, D. C.:
Associated Publishers (first published 1933).
44. Arnelle, H. J. (1979) "Education and the Just Society,"
The North Central Association Quarterly.
45. Fanon, F. (1967) Black Skin White Mask. New York: Grove.
46. Heller, K., Holtzman, W., and Messick, S. (eds.) (1983), Placing
children In Special Education: Strategies for Eequity. Waashington, D. C.:
National Academy Press.
47. Wigder, A. (1982), Ability, Testing, Uses and Consequences.
Washington D. C. : National Academy Press.
48. Hilliard, A. G. III, "The Socio-Political Implications of
Minimum Competency Testing" in Neel, J. and Goldwasser, S. W. (Eds.)
(1982), Minimum Competency Education. Atlanta: Georgia State University
Department of Educational Fundations, pp. 85–106.
49. Miller, V. (February 1979), "The Emergent Pattern of
Integration," Education Leadership.
50. Powell, G. J. (1973) Black Monday's Children: A Study of the Effects
of School Desegration on Self Concepts of Southern Children. New York: Appleton
Century Crofts.
54. Miller, V. (February 1979), "The Emergent Pattern of
Integration," Education Leadership
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