Oliver Hill died Sunday at the blessed age of 100.
In 1954 Hill participated in a series of cases that evolved into Brown v. Board of Education. When the dust of legal arguments settled, America was faced with the notion of integrated education. For the rest of his life, Oliver Hill witnessed this country wrestle with integration…battled against integration…dance around integration…and integrate by force, with soldiers lining the walkways leading to the doors of public schools.
Both of my parents attended segregated and then desegregated schools. They struggled to overcome years of inadequate education and the resentment that resulted from knowing their education was anything but equal.
I was raised knowing that many battles were waged on my behalf and feeling the responsibility that comes from being blessed with opportunities so many were denied.
So I pause today and remember Oliver Hill and those who battled with him so that I could go to school and get an education.
And I pray for the strength the continue their work, because this nation is still making a mess of the math...still comfortable with the policy of have and have not…still questioning education as a right…and still not making the grade.
Oliver Hill has passed on.
This legacy is ours…
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3 comments:
And this country is still struggling with it, all these years later, as seen by the recent Supreme Court vote affecting Seattle (my area) and KY. Seattle, of all places, can't get much more blue and progressive that that -- they can put that shit on you anywhere.
Thank you for this post. I'm grateful to Oliver Hill and all others who have paved the way for my children to go the school they attend -- it's the only one in the area with the International Baccalaureatte (IB) program, and given the demographics, I'm sure that if not for those folks efforts over the years, children of color would not be attending that particular school.
I'm worried about this Supreme Court in so many ways...
Keep up the great work, ABB!
Oliver Hill was a great man. He left a legacy that honors our country and helps to lift the shame of inequality from our future. His work isn't finished, and it didn't begin with him, either. He was a golden brick in the road to promise.
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