Assumptions About Accountability
Making the Right Policy to Honor an Essential Human Value
One of the most moving and eye-opening experiences of my life was attending a national conference, hosted by the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People and the National Education Association, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision. Like most Americans, I had been taught that Brown was the turning point toward justice and equity in educational opportunity for all, the watershed moment where Americans were forced to face the fact that schools for African American children were separate and unequal—and that something must be done to live up to the worthy principles embedded in constitutional law.
After the opening ceremonies, which were full of noble rhetoric and tears, a cluster of elderly African American teachers who had lost their jobs after Brown took the stage. Their rundown schools had been closed, their credentials were denigrated, and their mission as teachers and their dedication to the