Education inequities still exist 70 years after Brown v. Board

By Wayne Edwards,

Kevin Chang Barnum, Khalilah Brown-Dean, Meg Dalton, Catie Talarski

Published May 15, 2024 at 11:10 AM EDT

Attorneys who argued the case against segregation stand together smiling in front of the U. S. Supreme Court Building, after the High Tribunal ruled that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. Left to right are George E. C. Hayes, of Washington, DC; Thurgood Marshall, Special Counsel for the NAACP; and James Nabrit, Jr., Professor and Attorney at Law at Howard University in Washington. — Attorneys who argued the case against segregation stand together smiling in front of the U.S. Supreme Court Building, after the High Tribunal ruled that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. Left to right are George E. C. Hayes, of Washington, DC; Thurgood Marshall, Special Counsel for the NAACP; and James Nabrit, Jr., Professor and Attorney at Law at Howard University in Washington.

Seventy years ago, Brown v. Board of Education outlawed racial segregation in public schools. This hour, we look at the historic Supreme Court decision — and some of the inequities that still exist in education today.

We speak with the Executive Director of a youth development organization in Hartford working to close education opportunity gaps.

And later, we talk about the legacy of Ellen Peters, the first woman appointed Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court. She wrote the opinion in Sheff v. O’Neill, a landmark school desegregation case here in Connecticut.

Known for her landmark ruling in Sheff v. O’Neill, Ellen Ash Peters was Yale Law School’s first female faculty member and in 1984 was appointed Connecticut's first female Chief Justice of the state Supreme Court.

GUESTS:

Kathy Trusty: Independent historian and children’s author.
Andrea Williams: Executive Director, ConnectiKids.
Chief Justice Richard A. Robinson: Chief Justice, Connecticut Supreme Court.
Richard Palmer: Former Connecticut Supreme Court Justice, Chairman of the state Public Defender Services Commission.

Disrupted is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode.