As Brown v. Board Turns 65 Years Old, Students Say "Retire Segregation"

The landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka turns 65 Friday. In New York City, some student activists are celebrating with what they're calling a "retirement party" for school segregation.

"For it to be 65 years ago, not much has changed," said Jace Valentine, a senior at a Brooklyn high school. Valentine is a member of the student-led advocacy group Integrate NYC, which planned on distributing 25,000 newspapers across the city on the anniversary . The papers feature statistics, like these:

• 80 percent of white students attend only 15 percent of the city's public high schools.

• 83 percent of New York City students are Asian, black or Latino. Only 39 percent of teachers are.

• A UCLA study named New York City's among the most segregated school systems in the country.

The newspaper also includes students' personal stories. Some are similar to Valentine's own experience of being the only black student in her elementary school, where she said kids would insult her and mock her dreadlocks. "

I was called tarantula legs, octopus," she told WNYC. "One time I was in the bathroom and these girls came talking about how they were going to cut my hair. I cried blue murder."

The student activists with IntegrateNYC say New York City's leaders have to take more steps to overcome the challenges of de facto segregation. They have a list of proposals, which they refer to as the "5 Rs" of real integration: race and enrollment (creating diversity of race, class, ability and home language), resources, relationships, restorative justice, and representation. They're calling on officials to prioritize diversity in all public school admissions, provide a more culturally-responsive curriculum, create a formal ethnic studies program, and hire more teachers of color. A task force on diversity convened by Mayor de Blasio has built its recommendations around the same themes.

As Brown turns 65, they say it's time for a new generation to take over.  "We are going to celebrate our vision for the future while sending segregation off," said Julisa Perez, a sophomore at Brooklyn College. Their "Retire Segregation Party" is scheduled for 4:30 pm on the red steps in Times Square.