The Eckstein School 1950s (Continued)
IN 1954 THE SUPREME COURT DECIDED THE LANDMARK CASE OF BROWN VERSUS BOARD OF EDUCATION
The Court did not debate whether the existing schools were “equal”, which under Plessy they should have been, but whether the principle of separate was constitutional.
On May 17, 1954, Chief Justice Earl Warren read the decision of the unanimous Court:
“We come then to the question presented: Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other “tangible” factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities?
We believe that it does…
We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore, we hold that the plaintiffs and others similarly situated for whom the actions have been brought are, by reason of the segregation complained of, deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment.â€
When asked to describe his reaction to the Supreme Court verdict, Thurgood Marshall, chief attorney for the plaintiffs in the Brown versus Board of Education, exclaimed,
“I was so happy, I was numb.”
When Ralph Ellison, author of Invisible Man (1952), learned of the decision he wrote,
“another battle of the Civil War has been won. The rest is up to us and I’m very glad. What a wonderful world of possibilities are unfolded for the children!”
The Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision did not abolish segregation in other public areas, such as restaurants and restrooms, nor did it require desegregation of public schools by a specific time.
But the decision was symbolic for those who dreamed of a society based on justice and racial equality. And a mass Civil Rights movement emerged with the goal of eliminating institutionalized racism from American life.
The Bibbs family lived on Bates Road in Glendale.
Deborah Bibbs attended Eckstein School from kindergarten to third grade when her family left Glendale.
Her older siblings Priscilla, Conrad, and Ronald also went to Eckstein, but the family moved away before her younger siblings Zeathea, and Margaret started school.
As a child Deborah loved food. Many of her Eckstein memories are about food – picnics outside school, eating her lunch on the way to school, the apples in the yard behind the school, and penny candy from the store down the street.
However, she recalls a school project about Indians, and that her Indian name was “Bright Eyes.” Does anyone else who participated in the Indian project remember their Indian name?
She also remembers a bus trip to the zoo, and the task of writing down the names of all the animals she saw there.
And being voted Queen of First Grade, an honor she shared with Wanda Reid.
