( CNN ) -- I was born in Tallahassee , Florida , in 1954 , the year of the landmark school desegregation case , Brown v. Board of Education . The struggle for integration has shaped my life from the very beginning . When my father , an art professor at Florida A & M University , sought to pursue his doctorate in art education at Florida State University , the state of Florida chose to pay his transportation to Penn State rather than open its doors to an African-American graduate student . In 1957 , he completed his degree at Penn State , and in 1958 became the first African-American professor at Bridgewater State College , now Bridgewater State University , in Massachusetts , where I grew up . My parents were part of the great migration , moving to the North to escape segregation . They achieved their goal . My three siblings and I attended predominantly white public schools in our small Massachusetts town without protest or high court drama , and graduated well-prepared for the colleges we all attended . Forty-four years later , in 2002 , my husband and I left Massachusetts and returned to the South -- initiating our family 's reverse migration . Eventually our sons , and even my parents , moved to Atlanta , too . They returned to a region very different than the one they remembered . Fifty years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 , their choice of housing and their freedom of movement are unencumbered by race . But 60 years after racial segregation was outlawed in schools , public education is again segregating along racial lines . And not just in the South , but across the United States . Schools are more segregated today than in the 1980s , according to a new report released by researchers at UCLA 's Civil Rights Project , `` Brown at 60 : Great Progress , a Long Retreat and Uncertain Future . '' This is the result of continued patterns of residential segregation , and a series of Supreme Court decisions that have quietly undermined the implementation of Brown through a shift away from court-ordered busing and other mandated desegregation strategies . As school districts move back to `` neighborhood school '' policies , white students will likely have less school contact with people of color than their parents had . Particularly for young white children , interaction with people of color is likely to be a virtual reality rather than an actual one , with media images ( often negative ones ) most clearly shaping their attitudes and perceived knowledge of communities of color . For students of color , the return to segregation means the increased likelihood of attending a school with limited resources . Most highly segregated black and Latino schools have high percentages of poor children . At most highly segregated white schools , middle-class students are in the majority . The negative educational impact of attending high-poverty schools is well-documented . Whether a student comes from a poor or middle-income family , academic achievement is likely to decline if the student attends a high-poverty school . Conversely , academic performance is likely to improve if the student attends a middle-class school , even if his or her own family is poor . The learning conditions which are taken for granted in middle-class suburban schools are too often absent in impoverished classrooms . It is not surprising that the outcomes associated with high-poverty schools across the country are bleak : lower test scores , higher dropout rates , fewer course offerings and low levels of college attendance . If we remember that the original impetus for the Brown lawsuit was not simply a symbolic fight for the acknowledgment of the equality of all children , but a struggle for equal access to publicly funded educational resources , we can see that the struggle continues . So , what must we do ? In particular , white children will need to be in schools that are intentional about helping them understand social justice issues like prejudice , discrimination and racism , empowering them to think critically about the stereotypes to which they are exposed in the culture . Such tools are needed to help them acquire the social skills necessary to function effectively in a diverse world , and are essential for continued progress in a society still struggling to disentangle the racism woven into the fabric of its founding . The hopeful news is that there are educators around the country working hard to create anti-racist classrooms and learning environments even when their classrooms are predominantly white . Children of color in under-resourced , racially isolated schools also need these same tools . But they will also require powerful advocates to insure that they have committed and well-trained teachers , a challenging curriculum and the educational resources needed to inspire their own striving for excellence . Providing these resources equitably is a daunting task , one that has never been accomplished in the history of education in the United States . Yet we fail to do it at our own peril . In 2014 , the question we all must ask is : How do we build strong school communities where every student , regardless of race , is supported to achieve his or her personal best , and teach the skills needed to live in healthy , democratic society ? When we can answer that question , the promise of Brown v. Board of Education will be fulfilled .
The 60th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education is May 17 , 2014 . The Supreme Court case desegregated public schools . Public schools are again segregating along racial lines . Spelman College president : We fail to address school segregation at `` our own peril ''