ATLANTA
Spelman College President Beverly Tatum has championed
racially diverse relationships for most of her life: as a child growing up in
New England, as a young professor teaching about the psychology of racism, and
as an author writing about cross-racial interaction.
Her perspective as a self-titled “integration
baby” led her to predict the June 28 Supreme Court decision striking down
voluntary integration efforts in two public school districts.
“The current composition of the Supreme
Court…increases the possibility that the Court may side with the Department
of Education and rule that any use of race as a selection criteria is
unconstitutional,” she wrote in her latest book, “Can We Talk About
Race?” which was published in April.
The topic of resegregation has been on many minds following
the high court’s decision. The high court voted 5-4 to strike down school
integration plans in Louisville, Ky. and Seattle.
While the decision does not affect several hundred public
school districts under federal court order to desegregate, it does jeopardize
similar programs in hundreds of cities and counties using voluntary integration
as a means to diversify their schools.
The court’s majority opinion, written by Chief Justice John
Roberts, asserted that classifying students by race perpetuates the unequal
treatment outlawed by the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision which
banned the “separate but equal” education system.
