To the editor:

I’d like to commend Kansas University library dean Lorraine J. Harricombe and KU field archivist for African American Collections Deborah L. Dandridge for an engaging and provocative symposium on the legacy of the Brown v. Topeka Board decision which turns 60 next month.

From history-making panelists and thoughtful presenters, we learned about the seething throngs of parents many bused black children faced at newly integrated schools. A separate group filed lawsuits and fought for vouchers to fund separate schools, scholars at the event said. Society, they said, apparently underestimated segregation’s resolve to preserve itself.

Urban districts now have fewer white students, and suburban districts have few black students.

Presenter Theodore Shaw, former director of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, with considerable regret, called Brown “hallowed, but hollow.” Shaw said New York City, his hometown, is also home to the nation’s most segregated schools.

Hasan Kwame Jefferies, an Ohio State University history professor, said “there are links and connections from our segregated past to current movement for vouchers and charter schools.”

Does this mean every suburbanite is a devotee of the late Gov. George Wallace? No. Most simply wanted a nice, new home. But a stubborn segment wanted no part of desegregation, and now we essentially have apartheid schools.

The KU Libraries symposium informed and inspired. But I also left sober but sanguine about our society’s need to embrace our shared history — and each other.