Today is the 70th anniversary of the landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, in the wake of its Brown v. Board of Education ruling, to order district courts and school districts to enforce educational desegregation “at all deliberate speed.” That was one of the high points in our nation’s checkered history.
When we look for positive things to say about America, that event is surely near the top of the list. It was a day when our nation showed itself to be capable of kindness, caring, and able to rise above prejudice.
How different from the order of the day today. If our glorious experiment in democracy is indeed destroyed in the next few years, as seems increasingly likely, at least we will be able to point proudly to a moment in time when our nation achieved a measure of grace.