ABSTRACT
In May 1954, when the U.S. Supreme Court declared in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas that the separation of the races in schools was illegal, many observers remarked that the ruling would stand as one of the Court’s most important decisions of the 20th century. Since then, there have been hundreds—if not thousands—of books, articles, dissertations, theses, and papers that have discussed the decision. Entire courses on Brown have found their way into the college curriculum in history, political science, and education departments. Amidst all this study and comment, however, there has been one book, Richard Kluger’s (1975) Simple Justice, that has stood out as the best researched and most thorough treatment of the history of Brown. Now a recently published book by James T. Patterson, entitled Brown v. Board of Education: A Civil Rights Milestone and Its Troubled Legacy, completes the story. Patterson’s book joins Simple Justice and brings the Brown story forward into the 21st century.
