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May 17, 2024, marks the 70th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, one of the most significant Supreme Court decisions and a major victory for the Civil Rights Movement. We must, however, resist the simplified narrative of the end of segregation and teach a more comprehensive story that includes analyzing Brown’s complex impact, the opposition to desegregation, and the ongoing movement for inclusive education.

School hardening policies—such as the presence of police and security, metal detectors, and harsh discipline codes—contribute to a criminalization culture in schools and students being pushed out of classrooms and into the school-to-prison pipeline. For Black girls, this criminalization culture causes serious additional harms.

May 3 is the Freedom To Learn National Day of Action, a day of advocacy for inclusive education and young people’s freedom to read, learn and build a just future. Our collective responsibility is to counter disinformation, uplift honest history and engage our communities to serve all children.