Linda Brown was only a third-grader at the start of the lawsuit that would become the landmark 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education. But, though her father was the force behind the school desegregation suit, her death last weekend was a reminder of just how much one child's impact can be felt. As historian Mary Frances Berry told TIME, the Brown case set important legal precedent, lifted a heavy stigma and galvanized a movement—even though, ironically, in the long run, it actually didn't lead to the full integration of American schools.
In fact, James Meredith, the first African-American student at Ole Miss, told us he feels that in many respects "Brown never happened." You can click here to read more from Meredith on Linda Brown's legacy and the unfulfilled promise of the case.
Here's more of the history that made news this week:
“This is the century that split the atom, probed the psyche, spliced genes and cloned a sheep. It invented plastic, radar and the silicon chip. It built airplanes, rockets, satellites, televisions, computers and atom bombs. It overthrew our inherited ideas about logic, language, learning, mathematics, economics and even space and time. And behind each of these great ideas, great discoveries and great inventions is, in most cases, one extraordinary human mind.“ (March 29, 1999)
“This spring, Dr. Salk's vision and his delicate laboratory procedures and logarithmic calculations are to be put to the test. Beginning next month in the South and working North ahead of the polio season, the vaccine that Salk has devised and concocted will be shot into the arms of 500,000 to 1.000,000 youngsters in the first, second and third grades in nearly 200 chosen test areas. A few months after the 1954 polio season is over, statisticians will dredge from a mountain of records an answer to the question: Does the Salk vaccine give effective protection against polio?” (March 29, 1954)
“Padding about uncertainly in the tumbled sawdust of the big cage, the last three or four lions responded to a cue from outside the bars, wheeled and sped toward the runway leading to their own cages. The crowd that packed Manhattan's cavernous Hippodrome one night last week was up in its seats, streaming toward the exits past the array of jabbering freaks in the lobby. And ducking into the wings with the last salvo of applause still drumming in his ears a small man, in a shirt and breeches that had once been spotless white, shouldered through a clutter of clowns, girls, circus hands and hangers-on, scurried up a spiral staircase to his dressing-room. He was streaked and spattered with muck from head to foot. Sweat trickled down his nose and cheeks, dripped from his chin. As he collapsed into a chair while an attendant pulled off the dusty boots, Clyde Beatty, the most celebrated trainer of lions and tigers in the world and part owner of the newest and most extraordinary U. S. circus, honestly sighed: ‘It's good to sit down!’” (March 22, 1937)
The Hidden Past Jane Perlez at the New York Times has this fascinating profile of Chinese historian Shen Zhihua, who is trying to convince his country’s leaders that they have nothing to fear if they open their archives to researchers like him.
Written by the Victors Joshua Rapp Learn at Smithsonian.com takes a look at how modern genetic and linguistic research is calling into question the narrative of South American history that was passed down from Spanish conquerors.
Shoddy Science As a counterpoint to the above, this editorial in the journal Nature questions how historians are using new DNA research and cautions against its misuse.
Re-Interpreted Zoë Beery at The Outline profiles Cheyney McKnight, who is one of the relatively few black people who work as re-enactors or interpreters at American historical sites that address slavery.
Diverse Views In an op-ed for The Chronicle of Higher Education, historian Priya Satia argues that historians must work to end the dominance of “a cloistered group of white men” when it comes to history’s influence on the modern world.
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