Press Releases

Washington, D.C. On the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, Marian Wright Edelman, President and Founder of the Children's Defense Fund, issued the following statement about the continuing pattern of inequality for Black children. She called for a renewed struggle to ensure equal opportunity in America's public school systems and economic life:

“Fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, forty years after President Johnson declared a War on Poverty, 108 years after Plessy v. Ferguson, and 141 years after President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, a Black child still lacks a fair chance to live, learn, thrive, and contribute in America. Our nation's doors of educational and economic opportunity still have not opened to all of God's children who are Black, Brown, White, Native and Asian American, and poor.

The strong Black traditions of family and hunger for education have been undermined by White resistance to Brown and our nation's choices not to invest adequately in quality public schools for all children. America's current education and economic systems—and the absence of early education investments—inhibit healthy child development and family stability. It is time to change the priorities of our nation which refuses to end child poverty and illiteracy in order to give tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires. It's time to challenge leaders who choose to spend almost three times as much per prisoner as per public school pupil.

In 2004, it is morally and economically indefensible that:

• A Black baby is almost three times as likely to be born to a mother who has had no prenatal care. A Black infant is more than twice as likely as a White infant to die during the first year of life. The Black infant mortality rate in 2001 was about the same as the White infant mortality rate in 1975.

• Black children have more than three times as many newly detected tuberculosis cases as White children, and three-and-a-half times as many cases of pediatric AIDS. Black teenagers die from asthma at four times the rate of White teenagers, and older Black teenaged girls die from heart disease at almost twice the rate of White teenaged girls.

• Black children are more likely to be sick because they are more likely to be poor. They are more likely than White children to have no regular source of health care, to have an unmet medical need, to have delayed medical care, and to have had no dental visits in two or more years. They are more than five times as likely to have to rely on hospital emergency rooms.

• A Black baby today has a two in five chance of being born into poverty and faces a losing struggle to escape poverty throughout childhood. Black families are more than twice as likely as White families to live in overcrowded housing. Black fathers are twice as likely as White fathers to be unemployed, and when Black men find work, they bring home $162 a week less than White men. Even when both Black parents work, they earn about 10 percent less than a White family.

• A Black preschool child is three times as likely to depend solely on a mother's earnings. Because the Black woman still faces discrimination as a Black and as a woman, she is the lowest paid among workers and her female-headed family is among the poorest in the nation.

• A Black child's mother is more likely to go out to work sooner, to work longer hours, and to make less money than a White child's mother. As a result, young Black children are far more dependent on full-time day care arrangements than White children. A Black child is seven times as likely as a White child to be on welfare.

• A Black child is only half as likely as a White child to grow up in a family with parents who graduated from college.

• A Black child faces a one in three chance of attending a school with 90 percent or more minority enrollment, and is more than twice as likely as a White child to be suspended, expelled, or given corporal punishment. A Black child is more likely than a White child to drop out of school, is more than twice as likely to be behind grade level or to be labeled mentally retarded, but is only half as likely to be labeled gifted. Whites are almost 3.5 times more likely than Blacks to take Advanced Placement exams. The longer a Black child is in school, the further he or she falls behind.

• In Southern districts after Brown, White students by the thousands abandoned public schools for private schools often supported by public funds. This legacy continues to this day. In Lee County School District in South Carolina, White students are almost 900 times more likely to attend private schools than Black students. In Clarendon County, South Carolina, one of the five school districts named in Brown, White students are 124 times more likely to be in private schools than Black students. Clarendon County Black parents are once again in court seeking to ensure equitable school funding for their children and those in other poor rural South Carolina districts.

• A Black youth is twice as likely as a White youth to be unemployed. A Black student who graduates from high school has a greater chance of being unemployed than a White student who dropped out of elementary school. A Black college graduate has a greater chance of being unemployed than a White high school graduate.

• Between the ages of 10 and 17, a Black youth is three-and-a-half times as likely as a White youth to be arrested for violent crimes, and is almost twice as likely to be arrested for serious property crimes. Younger Black male teens have a one in eight chance of being arrested before age 17 and an older Black male teenager is more than seven times as likely as his White peer to be a homicide victim and four times as likely to be killed by a gun. Black youths are more than three times as likely to be detained in a juvenile or adult correctional facility—the conclusion of a winding, uphill struggle to beat the odds.

Brown was a landmark turning point in America's long and hard journey from slavery to freedom. It spawned huge changes in many aspects of American life, but the struggle is not over. The most urgent challenges of our time are ending child poverty and inequality of opportunity and ensuring every child a non-discriminatory, quality public education.”

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In addition to this statement, the Children's Defense Fund's latest information on inequalities in our nation's school systems can be found on our website at:

www.childrensdefense.org/brown

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The mission of the Children's Defense Fund is to Leave No Child Behind and to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start, and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities. CDF provides a strong, effective voice for all the children of America who cannot vote, lobby, or speak for themselves. We pay particular attention to the needs of poor and minority children and those with disabilities. CDF educates the nation about the needs of children and encourages preventive investment before they get sick, into trouble, drop out of school, or suffer family breakdown. CDF began in 1973 and is a private, nonprofit organization supported by foundation and corporate grants and individual donations. We have never taken government funds.