What Brown v. Board of Education Should Have Said

The Nation's Top Legal Experts Rewrite America's Landmark Civil Rights Decision

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Edited by Jack M. Balkin

New York University Press

Due/Published August 2001, 336 pages, cloth

ISBN 0814798896

As the 50th anniversary of Brown approaches, America's schools are increasingly divided by race and class. Liberals and conservatives alike harbor profound regrets about the development of race relations since Brown, while disagreeing heatedly about the proper role of the courts in promoting civil equality and civil rights.

In this volume, nine of America's top constitutional and civil rights experts have been challenged to rewrite the Brown decision as they would like it to have been written, incorporating what they now know about the subsequent history of the United States but making use of only those sources available at the time of the original decision. In addition, Jack Balkin gives a detailed introduction to the case, chronicling the history of the litigation in Brown, and explaining the current debates over its legacy.

Contributors: Bruce Ackerman, Jack Balkin, Derrick Bell, Drew Days, John Hart Ely, Catharine MacKinnon, Michael McConnell, Frank Michelman and Cass Sunstein