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1 Blackletter J. 13 (1984)
Brown v. Board of Education and the Black History Month Syndrome

handle is hein.journals/hblj1 and id is 13 raw text is: Brown v. Board of Education and the Black History Month Syndrome DERRICK BELL* *Derrick Bell is Dean of the University of Oregon Law School and former professor at Harvard Law School (1969-1980). As a civil rights attorney he litigated hundreds of civil rights cases during the 1960s. He writes widely in the race/law area and is the author of Race, Racism, and American Law (2d ed. 1980) by Little, Brown & Co. F ebruary has become the time in which we move through the series of racial pride-oriented programs which have become the now predictable agenda of Black History Month. This year, I am thinking ahead to the coming commem- oration of the 30th anniversary of the Supreme Court's precedent-making deci- sion in Brown v. Board of Education. Strangely, I am not looking forward to the event with enthusiasm. Usually, as I approach the fateful day, May 17th, I feel a rising sense of pride about a court case that the skill of black lawyers and the courage of their black clients made possible. The pride is accompanied by a renewed determination to make real the Court's promise to end racial segregation and discrimination in the public schools of this country. But now, my most strong determination has been diluted by still another year of mostly no progress toward a goal that once seemed so close. Considering how many thousands of black children have and will complete what schooling they obtain without much of any improvement traceable to the Brown deci- sion, my mind travels back to a time years before 1954. Then, the expectations of most working-class blacks were more limited, bordered as they were by church on Sunday and the proverbial good time on Saturday night. There was, as I recall, a hard-driving, rhythm and blues song quite popular in black communities back in the late 1940s or early 1950s. The opening line went, Have you heard the news? There's good rockin' tonight. I'm goin' to hold my baby tight as I can, tonight she'll know I'm a mighty man. Pass on the word. There's good rockin' tonight. With the heavy beat capable of luring even poor dancers like me onto the dance floor, the lyrics of Good Rockin' Tonight promised a good time for all. Pretty girls, and plenty of food and libation. In short, a Saturday night party not to be missed. Much older now, I see in the carefree, rhythmic invitation to a good time, a less happy social comment with implications far beyond the song's Saturday night fish fry This article originally appeared in Education Week in February 1984. The Black Letter Journal 13

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