HAMPTON, Va. — This week marks the anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling when schools across the United States were integrated.
News 3's Leondra Head spoke to Attorney General Jason Miyares on the current climate and a Hampton man who was in school in the 1950’s during the ruling.
"It was violent," said Robert Watson, Hampton University professor. "I walked to school three and four miles and the white kids would come by on the bus and throw their trash at us."
The Supreme Court’s 1954 ruling ended segregation in schools.
Hampton University history professor Robert Watson grew up in a rural southern town.
"My education from primary school through high school was in an all-Black setting," Watson said. "Even though Brown had been passed in 1954, the state of Mississippi circumvented as much as they could that law."
Hampton University commemorated the anniversary with a forum with several state leaders including Attorney General Jason Miyares, Congressman Bobby Scott.
Hampton
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The anniversary comes at a time when some Virginia colleges will no longer require diversity or racial literacy classes after Governor Youngkin did a review on Virginia Commonwealth University and George Mason University courses.
"What he has said is we should be raising our kids to love each other not judge each other and we have to study our past," Miyares said.
"The Kempsville baseball team recently had to forfeit their team due to an investigation on alleged racism and hate speech," Head told Muyares. "Hearing that, should diversity and equity classes be included in the curriculum?"
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"We need to teach our children that character counts," Miyares responded. "The biggest fault is trying to judge somebody else because of where they were born. I heard about the story. We have a long way to go to get to Dr. King’s vision of a society and country."
Although it has been 70 years since the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling, Hampton University president, Darrell Williams says there's still more that needs to be done when it comes to equity in the classroom.
"Funding for education is one of the big issues," Williams said. "Funding in Black and Brown neighborhoods often doesn’t reach the same level in funding and in equity in broader neighborhoods."
