EXCERPTS FROM REMARKS
MADE BY
L. DOUGLAS WILDER
TO
EDUCATING FOR A DIVERSE AMERICA : A SUMMIT AND SYMPOSIUM
JANUARY 29 -30, 2004
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN

When I was asked to participate in this very important forum, I was very pleased to learn of the sensitivity and deep interest of Dr. Larry Faulkner. That this was not intended to be just another symbolic gesture or foot-note and commemoration of the Brown v Board of Education decision. And I am grateful for being included into what I hope will be a most beneficial undertaking.

What has happened since Brown is what we are called upon to analyze and assess. Where we go from here could be determined by how we go about the accurate interpretation of that history. People have used the concept of "the movement" to cover various periods. Some others, particularly those in Civil Rights Studies, conceptualize it as a twentieth-century phenomenon, reaching back to the Niagara Movement of W. E. B. DuBois and the formation of the N. A. A. C. P. Unquestionably, the movement between the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955-56 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 saw several developments in the broader social context in which the movement matured: long term secular trends in the economy of the South; changes in the moral sensitivities of the white majority; the impact of developments on the international scene; and a multiplicity of political influences. 

One of the things that I discussed with Dr. Faulkner, was the need to be as candid and .constructively critical as possible of the past 50 years relative to racial progress in this country This leads to the question of generational change and generational development. 

Unquestionably, there has been much that is good which has happened since Brown. This is no time for cynicism or despair. But we must briefly review our nation's history since its inception. I am acutely aware that you are as familiar with this history, and even more so than myself in some instances. I just want to be sure that we're singing from the same sheet of music.

When the First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia in 1774, it established as one of its goals to, "to wholly discontinue the slave trade" . But in codifying the laws of the new nation in 1787, the framers of the Constitution did not abolish slavery; they did an about face and wrote slavery into the law, declaring that each slave, for purposes of taxation and representation, would count as three-fifths of a person. 

In 1867, two years after the Civil War, Pennsylvania Congressman Thaddeus Stevens and Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts , sought the seizure of slaveholder's property and redistribution of the land to slaves as compensation for generations of unjust treatment. It became known as "forty acres and a mule". This would have been a true "reconstruction of the South".

By 1877, the North pulled out its troops. Reconstruction, which had already proven weak in many parts of the deep South, collapsed. 

Nowhere was the sharing of second class citizenship more prominently displayed than by the dismal educational opportunities provided to Negroes. The history of the nation, portrayed in the early colonization and subsequent legalization of slavery is replete with instances of making certain that those who were forced to live their lives in bondage should never have the enlightening of their minds with format education. 

In fact, it was a crime in my state of Virginia , and many other states had similar laws, for anyone to formally teach and educate those persons. Even after the Civil War and the period of Reconstruction, the ''Black Codes", among other things, continued in the suppression of acquiring equal access to education. 

In addition to inferior facilities for Negroes, the "Separate but Equal" doctrine in education had great disparity in pay. The highest paid African American teacher received less than the lowest paid white teacher. This resulted in many of those who defied that practice being fired, thus further depleting the ranks of expertise readily available. Though this practice was corrected by the federal courts, the problem of inferior quality of education and second class citizenship still existed. 

In Virginia , in Prince Edward County , the N.A.A.C.P. brought a suit styled Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County . At the time of the filing of that suit, there was already pending litigation in Clarendon County , South Carolina . There were also two other cases in Kansas known as Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka,  Kansas . All of these cases addressed the central issue of separate but equal. That doctrine emanated from the U.S. Supreme court case of Plessy v. Fergusson decided in 1898. This decision affirmed the separation of facilities such as schools, libraries, hospitals, and other tax-supported places of public accommodation. 

The U.S. Supreme Court consolidated these cases, which all came under the aegis and controlling legal authority of Brown. The decision of the court was rendered May 17, 1954. We are now fifty years since that historic decision and many are assessing where we, as a Nation have come. 

When I returned home from the war in Korea , 50 years ago in 1953 I was as disillusioned and disappointed as anyone could be. Job prospects were slim, and slimmer for African-Americans, even though I had graduated from college prior to being drafted into the army. I was still reeling from the impact of going overseas to fight for freedoms for those in another country when I could not enjoy those freedoms in my own country. I questioned the law and my continuing belief in the system. Just when it appeared that my positive hopes were at their nadir, something akin to a cataclysm occurred. Nine white men ruled that the law had been wrong and that a separate system of education for the American people was in violation of the U.S. Constitution. 

That decision, more than any other thing, restored my continuing to believe in a system of law and not of men. Brown v. Board of Education was the primary reason for my choosing to pursue the profession of the law. What has followed and happened since that decision is what we must analyze and evaluate. What the direction of the country is now, with reference to a pluralistic society in America , and how successful has been that effort are still to be addressed. 

Immediately following Brown, there were efforts to thwart the effects of the court ruling. Billboards were plastered allover the South, with signs calling for the impeachment of Earl Warren, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, who wrote the unanimous decision. In Virginia , there were efforts entitled "Nullification and Interposition". This was a highly questionable, legal tactic designed to interpose the right of the state to render nugatory the actions of the federal government, claiming the sovereignty of the state. In addition, there was initiated the doctrine of "Massive Resistance". This effort was led by Harry F. Byrd, Sr., the U.S. Senator from Virginia and a former Governor. A part of that strategy called for the "Southern Manifesto" defying the implementation of Brown. One of the aims of those who initiated and drafted the Southern Manifesto of 1956­Richard Russell of Georgia , Strom Thurmond of South Carolina and Harry Byrd- was to force those wavering Senators into line. They wanted to make them proclaim their determination to resist the Supreme Court in order to "obtain a unity of action" that would convince northerners and the Court to reconsider imposing desegregation on the South. Public Schools, in some parts of the state notably, Prince Edward County , were closed in order to subvert the Court order. Hundreds of millions of tax dollars and other resources were wasted in that losing effort. The course of history would have been remarkably altered had there been efforts of compliance instead. The approach to resolving other racial issues may have been dramatically improved. No more effective and eloquent a spokesperson for the cause of equality and justice in America existed than that of Thurgood Marshall. He was the lead counsel in the Brown Case and argued and won numerous cases before the U. S. Supreme Court, becoming the first African- American ever to serve on that Court. Speaking from a wheelchair on July 4th, citing the conditions of America in 1992. This was his challenge: 

 "I wish I could say that racism and prejudice were only distant memories. .. and that liberty and justice were just around the bend. I wish I could say that America had come to appreciate diversity and to see and accept similarity. But as I look around, I see a nation of unity but of division-afro and white, indigenous and immigrant, rich and poor, educated and illiterate. Even many educated whites and successful Negroes have given up on integration and lost hope in equality. They see nothing in common-except the need to flee as fast as they can from our inner cities. . . . We cannot play ostrich. Democracy cannot flourish amid hate. Justice cannot take root amid rage We must go against the prevailing wind. We must dissent from the indifference. We must dissent from the apathy. We must dissent from the fear, the hatred and the mistrust. We must dissent from a government that has left its young without jobs, education or hope. We must dissent from the poverty of vision and the absence of moral leadership. We must dissent because America can do better, because America has no choice but to do better. The legal System can force open doors and some times even knock down walls. But it cannot build bridges. That job belongs to you and me. We can run from each other, but we cannot escape each other. We will only attain freedom if we learn to appreciate what is different and muster courage to discover what is fundamentally the same. Take a chance, won't you? Knock down the fences that divide. Tear apart the walls that imprison. Reach out: freedom lies just on the other side. "

Those observations by Marshall are as relevant and appropriate today as they were in 1992. His challenge is ongoing. He charges all of us, white and African-American, rich and poor, educated and uneducated. No one group escapes the challenge nor should they. Federal and State government sanctions of the injustices of slavery and segregation are long past. But we must acknowledge that the bridges must be built.

Inevitability of change is natural. We can affect that by being positive in how we want that evolution to occur. It will not happen by chance. There is no arithmetic progression that automatically comes about. That is why we must analyze and evaluate what has happened and what next should take place. There are hard questions to be asked as to whether we have seen an improvement in the education of our children, and if not, why not. What were the effects of "busing" and has "affirmative action" worked or been set back? A century and a quarter after slavery, a huge racial chasm remains. Andrew Hacker in his celebrated book, Two Nations, states that "race is more than a subject to be studied or an issue for debate. Given these conditions, objectivity is hardly possible" . No, we have not arrived at the "promised land", and we may never get there. The past fifty years have shown a recognition by some that the system was not inclusive of the recognition of African Americans in "We the people. . . ". 

The results of the latest report documenting the re-segregation of America's public schools, which was recently released, should come as no surprise. Anyone who has lived or worked in inner city America knows the situation to be as stark as the report indicates. School re-segregation has occurred and it has almost been seamless. One can see who is on the bus, who's driving the bus, from whence they come and where they go. Why is this important to our discussions here? With the shrinking number of graduates trom these schools, how can the pool from which you could draw for college enrollment, any where, be sustained, much less enlarged? 

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has stated in the Michigan case, in which she wrote the majority opinion that maybe in about 25 years, there will be no need for these guidelines relative to affirmative action. She is optimistic and I wish I could share in her optimism. But there may be an unintended message here. It just might be that in the period leading up to thanime, if things don't get better, some people might not care. I have great respect for Justice O'Connor, but found it interesting that in her book, when asked the question as to what it will take for women to be at the level of acceptance in America as equal participants, she sets a somewhat different parameter of time. She essentially said that when women are truly representative and accepted in all aspects of American life, that will be the mark of true acceptance. 

One of the things that I thought gave great strength to the Michigan case was the empirical data compiled and reported upon by its professors and administrators at the school of law. Of the more than 1,000 law students attending the University of Michigan Law School in the spring of 1965, only one was African American. The Law School Faculty in response developed their plan of authorized diversity. And the admissions were greatly increased. But they also chronicled what has been the experience after law school of this group of minority lawyers. They cited the achievements, the rate of successful passage of the Bar. And they sought the hard answers to the questions of the overall effectiveness of their efforts to embark upon a program of affirmative action. We cannot afford to wait until our young people are ready to go to college to be ready for them to learn. We must teach them at the earliest practicable time, those things that some of us now think were just natural and a part of growing up. 1. Respect 2. The importance of the family group 3. Planned marriages 4. In home and out, they should learn not to neglect art music, drama, literature and writing. 5. Our churches can help in teaching character, right conduct and sacrifice. 

I don't know of any college or university today that is not committed to "equal opportunity" in faculty hiring or student admission. We know that though this may be the practice now. In the past, qualified candidates were turned down just because they were Catholic or Jewish. In many cases the applicants wouldn't waste the time and money applying if they were African American. They knew the results beforehand, if they were not athletes. Affirmative action is necessarily different item equal opportunity. Under the latter, a set of standards is agreed upon and any who meet them may be considered. Affirmative action is the deliberate ensuring that the consideration of race for a diverse student body can be a factor. People rationalize separate standards, and that is what some regard affirmative action to be, in many ways. Reserving places for athletes, fashionable prep schools graduates with average or mediocre grades have been regularly accepted for matriculation by certain prestigious schools. Children of alumni with records and test scores not as good as other students, have been also enrolled by using separate standards. 

There has been and there is a racial divide in this nation. How we deal with that is the true question. Slavery ended in this country almost one hundred forty yeas ago. There are those who demand reparations for that which has not happened on that scale with any other Americans. Some, even a few African Americans argue that affirmative action merely ratifies our status as victims with the need for continual subsistence and second class status. The real question is were there wrongs committed and by whom and with what sanctions? Have those wrongs, resulting in much of what still divides us, been corrected? If not, why not, and if not now, when? However long it takes, and whatever else must be done, we must continue to close the racial divide. It is up to us and the time for it to happen has always been the same...it is now. 

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