Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter From a Birmingham Jail is well known for its reflections on justice. Quotes such as “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” and “Justice too long delayed is justice denied”, are well known and celebrated, but there's another section of the letter focused on King's disappointment with the White moderate. He says,
"I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the White moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the White moderate who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice."
Formerly the director of litigation for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, and currently a law professor at Rutgers Law School, where she runs The Inclusion Project, Elise Boddie combines the expertise of a lawyer with the heart of a community organizer to advance educational justice. Focusing on the original promise of integration, the version hoped for by the Brown family in 1954, laid out in the Green Factors from Green v. School Board of New Kent County in 1968, and updated recently by IntegrateNYC and the 5Rs of Real Integration, her vision of integration aspires to create spaces where children can all live into their full humanity, not ignoring race, not defined by race, but in full view of race. 
LINKS:


Five Myths About School Segregation - Elise Boddie in The Washington Post


Linda Brown and the Unfinished Work of School Integration - Elise Boddie in The New York Times


Ordinariness as Equality - Elise Boddie on the harm of "Colorblindness"

The Inclusion Project

Green v. School Board of New Kent County

NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund


Elizabeth Anderson, U of Michigan


The Imperative of Integration - Dr. Elizabeth Anderson


Cutting School - Dr. Noliwe Rooks


Mother's of Massive Resistance - Dr. Elizabeth McRea


Birthright Citizens - Dr. Martha Jones

 
Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us. 
Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.
Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org.
The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits.
This episode was produced, edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.
Music by Kevin Casey.