We conclude that, in the field of public education, the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.

Those words written by Chief Justice Earl Warren for the unanimous decision in Brown vs. Board of Education overturned the concept of separate but equal that had been upheld in 1896 in Plessy vs. Ferguson. Hailed from the beginning as a landmark decision, it has been described as unequalled in social and ideological significance and a catalyst in launching the modern civil rights movement.

Landmark cases usually result from the convergence of two factors. First is a challenge by courageous people willing to test something inherently unfair that has been an entrenched practice in a democratic society. Second is a decision by courageous justices willing to overturn a long-standing practice that is clearly unjust.

In the case of Brown vs. Board of Education, those courageous individuals hailed from five different cities. After many years of working independently to challenge the practice of legally sanctioned apartheid in their school districts, they unified their judicial efforts to form a case that resulted in the Brown vs. Board of Education decision. Their strength and commitment were met by the intelligence and perspicacity of attorneys working with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

The lawyers, including Thurgood Marshall, Charles Hamilton Houston, Jack Greenberg, Spottswood Robinson, Louis Redding and Oliver Hill, worked tirelessly to convince the Supreme Court and the nation that equal justice under the law could be a reality for all citizens. This decision could not come too soon for the families whose children were victims of this violation of justice.

At my son’s graduation from Teachers College, I had the privilege of hearing an inspirational speech by Cheryl Brown Henderson, Rev. Oliver Brown’s daughter. She spoke of how ordinary people can do extraordinary things. There are many parallels between New Jersey’s Abbott decision and Brown and the extraordinary work both represent.

The series of state landmark decisions began when the mother of a Jersey City student named Kenneth Robinson sued Governor Cahill on the grounds that he was not enforcing the state’s constitutional mandate to provide a thorough and efficient education for all. In April 1973, the New Jersey Supreme Court ordered the state government to follow its 98-year-old state mandate.

Because the plaintiffs in Robinson vs. Cahill did not see sufficient progress, the case was continued as Abbott vs. Burke in 1981. After five Abbott decisions, another courageous state Supreme Court mandated parity and supplemental funding, whole school reform, early childhood education, and state-funded school construction to give students in the Abbott districts a chance to receive a quality education equal to that of their suburban peers.

Fifty years after the extraordinary journey of the original Brown plaintiffs, we still struggle with segregation, but now it is much more the result of zoning, housing and socioeconomic patterns. In 1954, nearly 80 percent of African-American students attended schools that were predominantly black, according to the U.S. Department of Education. By 1997, more than 70 percent of black students attended overwhelmingly minority schools. Clearly, there is much more we need to do.

At a recent event, many of us heard an address by South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who characterized racism as “one of the most vicious things on God’s earth.” At the same event, Theodore Shaw, associate director of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund stated, “Although we honor Brown in principle, Brown ended segregation by law, it did not end segregation.”

We still have a long way to go in providing equal opportunity to every child, which is the spirit and intention of Brown and Abbott, as well as the No Child Left Behind Act. All of us, as members of the education community, must concentrate on delivering the promise of Brown and Abbott to all children who have an equal right to a thorough and efficient free public education. This begins by providing them with the resources and the environment to achieve.

—Dr. William L. Librera, Commissioner of Education, State of New Jersey