Last week I spoke at Pepperdine University about Jewish Lessons in Parenting. I began my talk by complimenting my parents and expressing my desire to emulate their parenting in the raising of my own children. One such example occurred today.
At Law School we are reading some of the most well-known Supreme Court Cases. A few weeks ago we read Roe v. Wade (banning 1st term abortion is unconstitutional) and the even more important Casey v. Planned Parenthood (upheld Roe) cases. Last week we read Plessy v. Ferguson (after Civil War, Separate but Equal schools were ruled constitutional).
This week we are reading Brown v. Board of Education. This case overruled Plessy and made Separate but Equal unconstitutional in Public Schools. Brown v. Board of Education paved the way for Civil Rights activists like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to fight for equal rights for all people in all areas of life, beyond public education.
As I was reading the case I remembered a very influential “Parenting” episode from my youth. Growing up, we did not watch many movies. I saw a few movies on TV, like E.T. and The Wizard of Oz but that was about it. But I vividly remember my father strongly encouraging me to watch one particular movie with him when I was twelve years old.
That movie was a PBS special called The American Experience: Simple Justice. It beautifully told the story of Thurgood Marshall as he learned the law and was groomed into the perfect counsel for the Supreme Court cases to reverse Plessy. The climax of the movie is the Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education and the Court’s ruling that Separate but Equal was not constitutional.
My father wanted me to see it and I recall a strong desire to study the law and become a lawyer after watching it. My preferred career path took some detours along the way, but several years later my interest in the law returned in earnest.
Today, our professor at Loyola Law School, Marcy Strauss, showed the very same movie to the class in lieu of a more traditional lecture and Socratic discussion. All the memories I had as a youngster were re-energized and I was quite moved by the movie, again.
Brown v. Board of Education raises some very important issues that are still very relevant to modern discourse. In just 56 years, much has changed in the landscape of race relations in the USA. Some things are still the same, or at the very least follow the same bigoted roots. There are other minorities seeking equal rights as well. Sometimes, we can go overboard in our sensitivities as I will write about tomorrow. And sometimes, one part of the world can be slow to see that Separate cannot be Equal, as I will write about the next day.
This movie is a must see. My father was very wise to encourage me to see it and I will always remember watching it together with him. (Thank you.)
The part of the movie that moved me most when I was a youngster stuck with me until today. I was talking with some friends at school and I mentioned that while reading Brown v. Board of Education I recalled a scene from this very movie. I had no idea that we were going to be watching the movie in class. I recounted the scene as best as my 12 year old brain could understand it and it was just as I remembered it when I saw it tonight.
The scene is of a study that was being conducted to analyze the way segregated black children felt about themselves. The tester would ask questions of the children using dolls, one black and one white. The results of the test showed conclusively that black children felt inferior. The dramatization of the test was very powerful and I found it on youtube so that you can see it for yourself below.
“To a better tomorrow”
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