SPSCC to Honor Landmark Supreme Court Ruling

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By Eric Wilson-Edge

virgil clarkson
Virgil Clarkson is one of the coordinators of the re-enactment of the Brown vs Board of Education Supreme Court case at SPSCC on Friday.

Virgil Clarkson is the embodiment of a grandfather. He’s direct and still affable. He leans into conversation and laughs regularly. Clarkson has a firm handshake filled with 82 years of memories.  When we meet he looks me straight in the eyes and says, with no hint of pretense, that’s he glad to be here.

Don’t be fooled. Clarkson isn’t sitting in a rocking chair whiling away his days. He’s a member of the Lacey City Council. Clarkson is a man of history. He has direct knowledge of events that most of us can only read about in books.

I meet Clarkson along with Rick Hughes at the LOTT building on Adams Street. We’re here to discuss the sixtieth anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education. In 1954 the United States Supreme Court ruled segregation in public schools was illegal. The decision proved to be the loose thread that unraveled segregation in all forms of public life.

Clarkson grew up in Houston. He lived in a predominantly black neighborhood. The professed dogma of the time was “separate but equal.”  Clarkson describes something entirely different. “We never received a new book. You didn’t have an opportunity to see if it was complete except for at the end of the semester. If it wasn’t complete then you had to buy a new book.”

Clarkson and his classmates were forced to improvise due to lack of resources. “If you had good lungs then you could create a vacuum,” says Clarkson. “If you had a good weight, a good one pound rock then you could make a pendulum.”

brown vs board of educationThe Supreme Court voted 9-0 to end segregation in public schools. In announcing the court’s ruling Chief Justice Earl Warren said, “Today, education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments…It is the very foundation of good citizenship…In these days it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education.”

Change came slowly. A number of schools closed rather than allow black students to attend. Private schools started popping up and some states opted for a slow integration process of one grade per year.

A decade ago Rick Hughes worked at Highline Community College. He helped organize an event to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education. Hughes is now the chief legal officer for LOTT. He, Clarkson and a few others started talking a few years ago about how best to honor Brown at age 60.

On Friday, May 23 the Kenneth J. Minnaert Center for the Arts at SPSCC will be transformed into a courtroom. Members of the Washington State Supreme Court will reenact oral arguments from Brown vs Board of Education.  Two local attorneys will stand in for the opposing sides. Afterwards, the college will host a dinner in the Student Union Building with keynote speaker Cheryl Brown Henderson, whose parents filed the now famous suit.

brown vs board of education“This is not a show,” says Clarkson. “You may reap some entertainment out of it but the purpose is to expose the audience to the conditions of the time.” Clarkson encourages everyone to attend but hopes young people will come. “I think it’s important to know where we are but it’s more important to know how we got there.”

The issues contained in Brown vs. of Board of Education are still very much alive. New reports show segregation in schools is back. “We can go to school where we live but where we live is segregated,” says Hughes.

Oral arguments began at 3 p.m. this Friday at the community college. The dinner starts at 6:00 p.m.  Tickets are $30 and can be purchased online at www.spscc.edu/browntix.

Historic photos courtesy SPSCC

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