Race and Societal Reactions to Brown vs. Board of Education: A Sociological Analysis of Selected Newspapers in the North, 1954-2004
On May 17, 1954, the United States Supreme Court announced in Brown v. Board of Education, that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." The decision denied legal segregation and changed race relations in America forever. However, racial segregation in public schools has remained 50 years after Brown due largely to what sociologists Joe R. Feagin and Bernice McNair Barnett (2005:1102) theorize as "systemic racism," in "Success and Failure: How Systemic Racism Trumped the Brown vs. Board of Education Decision." This research study is a qualitative sociological analysis of "systemic racism" as defined by Feagin and Barnett (2005) and the changing societal reactions to Brown v. Board in selected Northern newspapers from 1954-2004. Specifically, this study content analyzes published works on Brown and articles contained in the New York Times and the Pittsburg Courier. Analyzing each tenth year anniversary after the May 17, 1954, decision helps to add insight into the nature of "systemic racism" and the perception of inequality.
School:
Dillard University
Department:
Sociology and Social Work
Research Advisor:
Bernice McNair Barnett
Department of Research Advisor:
Educational Policy Studies/Sociology
Year of Publication:
2005