2004 - Justice Deferred – A Half Century After Brown v. Board of Education

Attribution: Pettigrew, Thomas F.
Researchers: Thomas F. Pettigrew
University Affiliation: University of California, Santa Cruz
Email: pettigr@ucsc.edu
Research Question:
Reviews the history of the racial desegregation of America's public schools.
Published: 1
Journal Name or Institutional Affiliation: American Psychologist
Journal Entry: Vol. 59, No. 6, pp. 521-529
Year: 2004
Findings:
  • Results of longitudinal research that demonstrate effects of desegregation have been positive
  • Legal trends show steps forward and backward toward racial desegregation
  • Desegregated education prepares Black and White Americans for an interracial world.
  • Behind desegregation’s benefit;
    • 1) Involves interracial contact
    • 2) erodes avoidance learning
    • 3) blacks gains access to formerly all-White social networks
    • 4) teaches interracial interaction skills
    • 5) avoids the discriminatory stigma of Black institutions
  • Misconceptions about desegregation:
    • 1) desegregated schools have failed
    • 2) desegregation causes massive “white flight” thus interracial schools are impossible to achieve
    • 3) desegregation necessarily entails massive busing
    • 4) desegregation has become increasingly unpopular with Americans of all races
  • Important attention should be given to residential segregation.
Keywords: Brown vs Board of EducationContact TheoryDesegregationResegregationSegregationWhite FlightRegions: NationalMethodologies: QualitativeResearch Designs: Literature ReviewAnalysis Methods: Content Analysis Sampling Frame:National
Sampling Types: NonrandomAnalysis Units: DocumentData Types: Qualitative-Longitudinal
Data Description:
  • Legal documents.
  • Documents of effects of desegregation.
  • Reviews 4 distinct U.S. Supreme Court eras of racial decisions: the segregation, preparatory, desegregation, and resegregation eras.
  • Segregation era: Plessy v. Ferguson (1986)
  • Preparatory era: Edward White & William Taft
  • Desegregation era: Charles Hughes,
  • McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents, 1950;
  • Sweat v. Painter, 1950,
  • Brown v. Board of Education,
  • Green v. County School Board of New Kent County,
  • Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education,
  • Keyes v. Denver School District No.1,
  • Milliken v. Bradlwy, 1974,
  • Selman v. Simmons-Harris, 2002
  • Missouri v. Jenkins, 1995
Theoretical Framework:
Relevance:
Archives: K-12 Integration, Desegregation, and Segregation Abstracts