Law Commons^™

Separate But Free, Joshua E. Weishart

Law Faculty Scholarship

“Separate but equal” legally sanctioned segregation in public schools until Brown. Ever since, separate but free has been the prevailing dogma excusing segregation. From “freedom of choice” plans that facilitated massive resistance to desegregation to current school choice plans exacerbating racial, socioeconomic, and disability segregation, proponents have venerated parental freedom as the overriding principle.

This Article contends that, in the field of public education, the dogma of separate but free has no place; separate is inherently unfree. As this Article uniquely clarifies, segregation deprives schoolchildren of freedom to become equal citizens and freedom to learn in democratic, integrated, …

The Role Of Lawyers In Bridging The Gap Between The Robust Federal Rights To Education And Relatively Low Education Outcomes In Guatemala, Maryam Ahranjani

Faculty Scholarship

Relative to other countries in the world and in Central America, the Guatemalan Constitution and the federal education law include a robust and detailed right to education. However, literacy rates and secondary educational attainment, particularly for Indigenous people and young women living in rural communities, remain low. The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated disparities. Once children return to schools after the pandemic, the gaps will be even larger. Lawyers can play a critical role in making the strong Constitutional right to education more meaningful.

Historically Black Colleges & Universities: A Model For American Education, Jennifer M. Smith

Journal Publications

Hungry for freedom and knowledge, enslaved Blacks engaged in a massive general strike against slavery by transferring their labor from the Confederate planter to the Northern invader, and this decided the Civil War. In 1865, the North conquered the South, and slavery officially ended. Having been starved of the opportunity to learn to read or write, the recently emancipated Blacks were eager to learn. Within a year after slavery ended, however, Florida and other Southern states enacted laws to ensure the continuation of the vestiges of slavery in the United States. The legacy of slavery and racism evolved into an …