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60 Years After Landmark Decision, Examining Local Impact Of 'Brown V. Board'

Thomas J. O'Halloran
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Library of Congress/Wikimedia Commons

Sixty years after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education, historians and advocates say the country still has a ways to go when it comes to equality in education.Over the weekend, activists around the country remembered the 1954 ruling that desegregated the nation’s public schools.

Brown v. Board was decided May 17, 1954, after the father of 9-year-old Linda Brown of Topeka, Kansas sued for the right for his child to go to her neighborhood school.

The decision effectively began the process of breaking the back of Jim Crow segregation throughout much of the country.

Sixty years later we are still examining the lasting legacy of the decision as it is related to the challenges facing today's public schools.

Paula Wright, member of the Duval County School Board, local author and historian Jim Crooks, and University of North Florida professor Judith Poppell, whose dissertation focused on the desegregation of Jacksonville’s Raines High School, joined Melissa Ross for more on what some have marked as a bittersweet occasion.

You can follow Melissa Ross on Twitter @MelissainJax.

Melissa Ross joined WJCT in 2009 with 20 years of experience in broadcasting, including stints in Cincinnati, Chicago, Orlando and Jacksonville. During her career as a television and radio news anchor and reporter, Melissa has won four regional Emmys for news and feature reporting.