A Prophesy for Effective Schooling in an Uncaring World

Boston College Third World Law Journal Volume 27 Issue 1 Ensuring an "Adequate" Education for Our Nation's Youth: How Can We Overcome the Barriers? Article 1 1-1-2007 A Prophesy for Effective Schooling in an Uncaring World Derrick A. Bell Jr. New York University School of Law, Follow this and additional works at: http://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/twlj Part of the Education Law Commons Recommended Citation Derrick A. Bell Jr., A Prophesy for Effective Schooling in an Uncaring World, 27 B.C. Third World L.J. 1 (2007), http://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/twlj/vol27/iss1/1 This Symposium Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at Digital Commons @ Boston College Law School. It has been accepted for inclusion in Boston College Third World Law Journal by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Boston College Law School. For more information, please contact . A PROPHESY FOR EFFECTIVE SCHOOLING IN AN UNCARING WORLD Derrick A. Bell, Jr.* Abstract: In his Keynote Address, Professor Derrick A. Bell, Jr. recalled his prediction that the desegregation mandates of the Brown v. Board of Education decisions, though well-intended, would fail to provide black children with the equal education to which they were entitled. In similar fashion, he predicts in this article that, though the intentions of advocates for an adequate education for all students are commendable, such a goal does not appear feasible given the underlying racial barriers that continue to marginalize the black community. With this prediction, however, Bell acknowledges that the initiatives of those demanding an adequate education for all students will undoubtedly beneªt some students, and that these initiatives must proceed regardless of the opposition they face. No participant in a gathering entitled Ensuring an “Adequate” Education for Our Nation’s Youth: How Can We Overcome the Barriers? can expect that such a task will be accomplished easily. Most, though, would not be willing to concede that it will be impossible to achieve their worthy goal. And yet, that is my prediction. I offer it along with two admonitions. First, even educational initiatives that eventually fail will beneªt some children’s schooling. Second, we must persevere in our efforts even as we recognize that the forces of opposition arrayed against us will prevail. As the Biblical prophets learned, even Heavenly endowed truth is not welcome, nor even recognized, when it diverges from deeply held views and ªrmly ªxed policy directions.1 Although I am not endowed with Heavenly insight and prophetic powers, I identify with the Biblical prophets. They told those in positions of authority what they had learned from God. They knew they were right. They were almost always ignored and not infrequently persecuted. From that day to this, * Visiting Professor, New York University School of Law; A.B. Duquesne University; LL.B. University of Pittsburgh Law School. Many of the thoughts set forth in this article derive from my previous publications, many of which are cited below. 1 See generally Sheldon Blank, Jeremiah: Man and Prophet (1961); Steven M. Fettke, Messages to a Nation in Crisis: An Introduction to the Prophecy of Jeremiah (1983); J. Alec Motyer, The Prophesy of Isaiah: An Introduction & Commentary (1993). 1 2 Boston College Third World Law Journal [Vol. 27:1 there has been a suspicion regarding prophets. Indeed, according to Mark 6:4, Jesus observed that “a prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house.” During the heady period in the 1960s and 1970s, when the elimination of racial discrimination was a matter of “when” not “whether,” we refused even to consider that our hard-fought school desegregation policies might be well-intended, but far from realistic. Alas, President Bush is not the ªrst leader who, facing disaster, insisted that we “stay the course”2 and maintain our resolve—repeating the word resolve as a substitute for analysis, reconsideration, or simple mother wit. From 1960 to 1968, I believed desegregating public school systems was the best means to achieve effective schooling for black children. During that period I worked ªrst as a litigator handling and supervising hundreds of cases and later as a government administrator working to implement Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.3 In the mid 1970’s, having gained the time for reºection that a law teaching position provides, I concluded reluctantly that our integrationist ideals no longer meshed with those of the parents we represented. Often at great risk, those parents sought better schooling for their children, whether in desegregated or racially separate schools. In a law review article that gained me few friends and a substantial amount of enmity, I argued that civil rights lawyers were misguided in requiring racial balance of each school’s student population as the measure of compliance and the guarantee of effective schooling.4 Predicting that the quality of schooling for most black children would not be achieved by school desegregation strategies focused on racial balance, I urged that educational equity rather than integrated idealism was the appropriate goal. In short, while the rhetoric of integration promised much, court orders to ensure that black youngsters received the education they needed to progress would have achieved more. That insight was hardly prophetic, given the willingness of so many white parents to move to the suburbs or private schools to avoid desegregation.5 The Supreme Court’s 1974 decision in Milliken v. 2 See Peter Baker, Bush’s New Track Steers Clear of “Stay the Course,” Wash. Post, Oct. 24, 2006, at A1 (arguing that the term “stay the course” was originally “meant to connote steely resolve,” but has “instead . . . become a symbol for being out of touch and rigid in the face of a war that seems to grow worse by the week”). 3 Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VI), 42 U.S.C. § 2000d (2000). 4 See generally Derrick A. Bell, Jr., Serving Two Masters: Integration Ideals and Client Interests in School Desegregation Litigation, 85 Yale L.J. 470 (1976). 5 Even to this day, studies have shown that “the strongest predictor of white private school enrollment rates . . . [is] the percentage of students living in the district who are 2007] A Prophesy for Effective Schooling in an Uncaring World 3 Bradley allayed white middle-class fears that the school bus would become the Trojan Horse of their suburban Troys.6 Perhaps because school integration was experiencing setbacks, the Serving Two Masters article eased me out of the civil rights family.7 My status as the ªrst black tenured on the Harvard Law School faculty, rather than strengthening my case, provided an explanation for my fall from grace. Critics viewed the article as further proof of the old saying that Harvard could mess up more black men than bad whiskey. My article was prompted by personal ex (...truncated)