ABSTRACT

One legacy of the Brown decision is seldom discussed openly in children's literature. The implementation of Brown has had, and continues to have, a complicated effect upon the school system's mechanisms for diagnosing, sorting, and educating students with disabilities. Movements for desegregation and inclusive education are entwined both in their common goals for a more just and humane educational system, and also in seeing these goals stymied and distorted in similar ways upon implementation. This chapter discusses Virginia Hamilton's 1971 The Planet of Junior Brown and Cynthia Voigt's 1980s Tillerman series, which are among a small handful of texts that address the important long-term legacy of the Brown decision. They represent the intersection of race and disability only obliquely. Good critical thinking and decision-making skills will naturally lead to students' making the mature critical decision to participate in the corporate economy of the United States in such a way that the nation will be advanced along with its students.