by
Ryan Clement
ON 17 May 2024, I wrote a blog about Brown v Board of Education, which I had first come across when I read for my Master of Laws (LL.M.) many moons ago.
ONE OF THE PLEASURES OF WRITING is when someone says that they were introduced to a subject matter through what I had written. As is clear, amongst many other things, I often seek to simplify or summarise the law as much as is reducibly possible.
MY LL.M. was the last of my formal legal studies – my B.A. in English was my last of all. I often wondered what I would have become had it not been for, to cite Mr. Blair, “Education, Eduction, Education.” Obviously, I shall never know. But, what I do know is that I am grateful for the many educational opportunities that came my way that many of us take for granted, which are not universally accessible to all for various reasons. Ironically, I have been a trustee of a school for deaf children, a founding trustee of another for autistic children, been and am a governor of maintained and non-maintained schools. What goes around, comes around.
FOR MANY REASONS, the case of Brown v The Board of Education resonates with me. It was a bold move for the family/families to take, especially given the political climate and racial tensions in the U.S. at the material time. I remind you, the decision in Brown was made in 1954 before much of what we know famously about the civil rights movement. To put it in its historical context of what ensued: What happened to Emmett Till was in 1955. Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat on 1 December 1955 for a white person and was arrested, which led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, lasting in excess of a year. “I Have a Dream” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, was on 28 August 1963. Following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on 22 November 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act into law, which JFK had previously proposed. The Civil Rights Act 1964 outlawed discrimination based on race, colour, religion, sex, and national origin. These were undoubtedly tumultuous times across the Atlantic. However, they were times of struggle that led to the shaping of equality laws globally. 🌏🌍🌎 For example, in the U.K., the first major anti-discriminatory law was passed 1 year later, being the Race Relations Act 1965, which was expanded by the Race Relations Act 1968, followed by the Equal Pay Act 1970, the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and back to an even more expanded Race Relations Act 1976, which remained in force until the current amalgamated Equality Act 2010 came into force on 1 October 2010. It is on the giant shoulders of those who fought for equality in the face of extreme adversity that many of us stand today.
BROWN v BOARD OF EDUCATION was the beginning of a movement and a major turning point in anti-discrimination practices and laws in and beyond the shores of Stateside itself!
Copyright © Ryan Clement 2024
Ryan Clement 