Talking Points #7 on Lawrence

“One More River to Cross” By: Charles Lawrence
Premise- This article is about:

• nation's schools
• desegregation
• segregation
• labeling
• whiteness
• privilege
• race
• labeling
• schools
• students
• separation
• classifications
• feelings
• equal protection
• Supreme Court
• North vs. South
• realization
• "separate but equal"

Author's Argument:

Lawrence argues that Brown v. Board of Education has not been a complete success because segregation is still an issue in schools. He also goes on to assert that the public, especially the school systems and courts, need to better educate themselves on different types of segregation in order to end it. Finally, he argues how damaging segregation can be to children in the middle of it.

1) "If one views the Brown case narrowly, as a case intended to desegregate the nation's schools, history has proven it a clear failure". (281) Lawrence is saying that if you really think about it, the whole purpose of the Brown case has not proven to end all segregation and therefore it was not a complete success.

2) "Professor Charles Black has noted that the significance of segregation was best understood by looking at what it meant to the people who imposed it and to those who were subjected to it". (282) Lawrence is proving that in order to understand segregation, it is vital to study the people who were victims of it. That is the most effective way, learn about the problem before you attempt to fix it. (band-aid on broken bone)

3) "Many black schools that existed within the segregated school systems of the South were in fact superior to their white counterparts". (284) Lawrence includes this fact about segregation in the South to prove that colored children are "smart", thus crushing labels given to them such as "dumb".

4) "The exclusion or segregation of blacks in public facilities was settled policy and reached considerable maturity in the North before moving South in full force". (285) Lawrence brings this point up to prove that lack of education and understanding was what caused the spread and thriving of segregation.

5) "Once the state has effectively institutionalized racial segregation as a labeling device, only minimal maintenance is required". (286) Lawrence is saying that once the state actually recognizes segregation is a tool to label minorities, they will only do the bare minimum and will not go above and beyond the solve the problem.

Questions/Comments/Points to Share:

Although lengthy and hard to understand at times, I felt that this article enlightened me on the subject of segregation and how to solve the problem. There is still segregation occuring, I watched it in the movie"For One Night". It was a true story about a colored teenage girl getting her high school in her hometown of Butler, Georgia, to integrate the prom after thirty-one years of segregation. This story took place in the year 2002, which is sort of impossible to comprehend because you would think segregation was a thing of the past.