Long history of segregation, exclusion aired at forum on race
The debate about equitable public education dates back more than 150 years in Connecticut, to a time where a white educator, Prudence Crandall, was prosecuted after opening an academy for young women of color, in Canterbury.
Crandall’s case was cited in the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education, where the court ruled that segregation in schools was unconstitutional even if it was equal.
Panelists at a discussion on race Tuesday night, organized by the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, reflected on that central idea: that segregation is still a longstanding issue in public education, along with many other barriers to achieving true equity.
“America’s public education system didn’t start with inclusion,” said Bianca ShinnDesras, director of Family Advocacy at Domus Kids, a nonprofit in Stamford.
“When you think about public education that was started through the Puritans in 1634 and maybe earlier, Blacks from the beginning were excluded, women were excluded. ... If you had a disability you were excluded,” she said.
“So, I think we also have to think about the components of exclusion — of the foundation, which started with exclusion,” she said.
In the first of four public forums scheduled for this week and next week, civic and municipal leaders from western Connecticut discussed some of the most pressing and complex racial issues facing the state and country during a national reckoning on race — days before state and national elections in which those issues are paramount.
“Over the spring and summer and into the fall, America was confronted once again by the ugly truth that systemic
racism persists throughout our society,” said Joe DeLong, executive director and CEO of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities.
“The effects of systemic racism have consequences in housing, education, health, public safety, wealth and nearly every other part of daily life,” he said. “In fact, race is still the number one predictor of success and well-being in our country.”
The forums, titled “CCM CARES: Communities Advancing Racial Equity Series” — debuted with seven panelists who offered their thoughts on race disparities in policing, housing and public education.
Panelists said the education system must be revamped to ensure all students receive the same quality education, regardless of their race, socio-economic status or place of residence.
The main way in which public schools are currently funded, based on city or town property taxes, deepens the disparities, panelists said.
Arecent study by the Fed
eral Reserve Bank of Boston showed resources among school districts are not being distributed equitably, said Christopher Keating, the Hartford Courant’s Capitol bureau chief, who moderated the discussion.
The findings suggested it costs more to operate a school system in an urban area than it would in a suburban or rural one, he said.
Panelists argued many urban areas have more students who need unique or additional services in comparison to suburban or wealthier school districts. For example, there might be more English language learners, more children with special education needs and a higher need for social services in an urban school district.
“And all of those are the impact that we need to begin to look at when we talk about fair school financing,” said Panelist Aidee Nieves, Bridgeport City Council president. “Equity comes from equally funding every child the same, to ensure that they receive a quality education.”
Equitable housing
Educational disparities won’t be solved in a vacuum, Shinn-Desras said.
Without housing equity and affordable housing in a community, for example, it would be challenging, at best, to reduce disparities in education, panelists said.
The wealth disparity between white and Black Americans is partly tied to home ownership, and historically racist policies — such as redlining — which made it almost impossible for families of color to increase their “wealth, property and social mobility,” according to one of the videos shared during the discussion.
Panelist Anthony Bennett, a pastor at Mount Aery Baptist Church in Bridgeport, recounted the stories of members of color in his congregation, who in the 1960s and 70s, had white acquaintances purchase property for them in Bridgeport and Fairfield to bypass discrimination and gain access into those communities.
Ahalf-century later, legal policies still exclude many people from communities of color, Nieves said. Minimum lot sizes and street parking rules are two examples, she said.
In communities struggling with widespread poverty, for example, she said, residents often see the opening of liquor stores more quickly. In more suburban or wealthier areas, community members would likely protest the opening of liquor stores, she said.
“There’d be a NIMBY effect,” or a not in my backyard effect, she said.
Zoning regulations are needed, Shinn-Desras noted, but community members must also accept and understand why they were created.
“When you look at zoning and regulations, it’s to keep certain people out, in certain communities,” she said.
Various efforts are underway to break through exclusionary laws. For example, a housing advocacy group, The Open Communities Alliance, recently announced it had purchased land in Woodbridge to force the New Haven suburb to provide more affordable housing.
The group said the move was designed to challenge a zoning policy that reserves a vast majority of land there for single-family homes on large lots and bans the development of multi-family housing across the entire town.
Police accountability
In response to recent widespread Black Lives Matter protests and calls for change, Connecticut’s lawmakers recently passed a police accountability law signed by the Governor Ned Lamont.
The law, which created an independent authority to investigate charges of police abuse and tightens punishment of police officers found to have committed “heinous’ acts, has divided the state, largely along political lines.
Many Republicans and police union leaders say the law goes too far. Proponents, all or virtually of them Democrats, say the law was diluted.
Panelist Bennett, the Bridgeport pastor, said while he doesn’t think the bill goes far enough in holding individual police officers accountable for wrongdoing, it does reignite a decades-long conversation about why Black and brown people think the law should even exist in the first place.
Shaun McColgan, deputy chief of police in Danbury, said there are “many good parts” to to the law, there are some other parts that are misunderstood both by the police and the public, and that there were some parts he felt were rushed into action.
“What that bill did was open [the] conversation,” he added. “I think a big part of what we’re doing here tonight is part of what that bill has accomplished.”
But Bennett said the same conversation continues to resurface time and again without achieving any real progress.
“As I’ve stated, as other people have stated around the country, the conversation is a little bit tiring,” Bennett said.
Shinn-Desras called the new law essential and tied it to reforms in other areas, including housing and education.
“It’s important, but it has a long road to prove success,” she said. “We have many pieces of legislation that exist but that doesn’t necessarily mean it will translate to equity or that it will translate to justice.”
For more information about the upcoming forums on Oct. 22, 26 and 28 at 6:30 to 8 p.m. via Zoom and Facebook Live, visit: http://www.ccmcares.com. The next conversation on Thursday, Oct. 22 ifeatures panelists from the New Haven area including Mayor Justin Elicker.