All Deliberate Speed: Reflections on the First Half-Century of Brown V. Board of Education

by Charles J. Ogletree Jr.

Book Overview

A Harvard Law School professor examines the impact that Brown v. Board of Education has had on his family, citing historial figures, while revealing how the reforms promised by the case were systematically undermined.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393058972
• ISBN13: 9780393058970
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.4" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Great!

This is great book. It gives the real story behind brown vs the board of education. Also, it gives a lot of history relating to the struggles of black people in the last 100 years.

"Bearing Witness to the Truth" -- All Deliberate Speed

All Deliberate Speed bears witness to the truth about our two party education system. This book should be on the required reading list for all students in both high school and college. It is a must read for law students who take, or contemplate taking constitutional law courses or anyone who truly wants to understand the impact of Brown v. Board of Education. All Deliberate Speed speaks the truth. In some chapters the author gives you hope and in other chapters, the author allows the reader to ponder the future. Reading and understanding this book should help eliminate un-substantiated bias against integration. However, there is no question that the author points out the damage racial segregation, housed and surrounded by inequality, does to our society.For example, in chapter six, Ogletree clearly exposes the reader to the fact that our government denied African-Americans full citizenship rights through legislation, judicial decisions as well as Jim Crow customs and behaviors.Was the denial of full citizenship rights (education, accommodations, housing, voting) for African-Americans a grant of "affirmative action" for the white majority? Does the phrase "all deliberate speed" give or take away from the impact or the seriousness of the Brown decisions? Ogletree addresses these question and others in his 'adept' analysis of the decisions in Brown v. Board I and in Brown v. Board II. Ogletree masterfully points out that a proper education includes, but is not limited to ethnic diversity, safe buildings, good teacher pay, desks, books, parental involvement, technology, etc. A proper education for all supports ones ability to successfully integrate oneself into our society and is germane to our survival as a nation. All Deliberate Speed is an excellent, excellent book. Easy to read, easy to understand, provocative, educational and truthful. Separate but equal is inherently un-equal.

Timely, Informative, Encouraging & Challenging!

This book is instructive of the history not only of this nation's educational system before during and after the historic Brown decision, but of the struggles African Americans have endured as a race in the face of adversity. The book reflects on the contributions of Charles Hamilton Houston to the strtegy employed by Thurgood Marshall and others.Professor Ogletree further encourages parents to take alternative steps to ensure children receive quality education in order to contribute to the global society in which we all live. As an African American attorney, I am equally challenged to use the law and reason to advocate for improving the way of life for all Americans.Thank you

A Thoughtful, Moving Journey

Professor Ogletree's book personalizes the history and impact of the Brown v. Board of education decision, expressing its importance through his experiences on the front lines of civil rights activism from the 1970s until the present. Professor Ogletree has been uniquely well placed to write about this subject, witnessing many of the most important moments in our recent history of race relations first hand, and he is himself attempting to write a new chapter in this history as the 21st Century dawn. His critique of Brown, Thurgood Marshall, and Clarence Thomas, as well as his discussion of reparations, gives the forward-looking conclusions of the book special depth and resonance. This book is a must-read for anyone concerned with the past, present, and future of racial activism in the United States.

Charles Ogletree: New Breed of Black Leadership

Professor Charles Ogletree has managed to reach the highest levels of American jurisprudence,accompanied by a African American wife and two healthy black children. All of America needs greater exposure to this new breed of Black Leadership.His first book, With All Deliberate Speed is compelling, but equally significant is that fact that he is a living example of a proud Affirmative Action Baby who has not divorced himself from the Black Community in order to receive national and international affirmation from White America.This book is a "must read" for all of those folks born in the 50's whose successes in life are a result of the hard work of civil rights activists to make America accountable to all its citizens. Professor Ogletree has done an incredible job of writing a book that can be read and discussed by all Americans who have not given up on the Constitution. Ogletree provides an insightful context for the average reader to understand that the next step in America's civil rights stuggle is the Reparations Movement. I highly recommend the book to all.Lawrence Watson