Brown v. Board of Education’s twentieth birthday was marked by blacks with mixed emotions. Yes, there had been conspicuous successes. Southern schools were increasingly integrated; Negroes had become more active politically; public facilities now opened to black and white alike; more federal programs attacked black poverty and illiteracy; job opportunities and income levels, though still behind those of whites, had risen appreciably; and, most important, blacks had gained in racial pride and self-respect. Yet something lacked. Few causes had ever had more federal energy thrown behind them than racial equality, yet the job remained undone. And there was uncertainty and suspicion over what the future held. “The question,” wrote Roger Wilkins in May of 1974, “is whether the momentum generated by the activities of the last 20 years . . . will almost automatically lead to racial justice in this country, as some whites seem to think, or whether, as most blacks hold, the largest and hardest job is yet to be done, and whites have quit the game before the first quarter has even ended.” Indeed, the hard part did lie ahead. Metropolitan areas, where by 1970 nearly three-quarters of all blacks lived, still had the most rigidly segregated school systems. And one-third of America’s black population remained desperately impoverished. The legal and economic gains propelling more and more blacks into middle-class ranks were themselves a mixed blessing. “The real danger,” noted black economist Robert Browne, “is that an enormous gap will develop between the blacks who have, and those who don’t. Then we’re on our way to having a permanent black underclass. That would be intolerable.” Brown’s twentieth anniversary came and went with Richard Nixon still President, and still, to blacks, distant and indifferent. His southern strategy dismissed the black vote; his domestic advisor had counseled “benign neglect” of black problems; and his lieutenants dismantled “black” federal programs only barely begun. The Departments of Justice and HEW now whistled white tunes. “By 1971,” contended Gary Orfield, “it was clear that HEW had given up its mission of bringing the nation’s public schools into compliance with constitutional requirements for desegregation.
