Preeminent Brown v. Board of Education scholar James T. Patterson will speak
at 12:30 p.m. Monday, March 8, 2004 at the Robert H. Jackson Center. The public
is invited free-of-charge.
“James T. Patterson is Ford Foundation Professor of History at Brown University
where he has taught twentieth-century U.S. history since l972,” says Jackson
Center President Gregory L. Peterson. “His research interests include
political, legal and social history, as well as the history of medicine, race
relations and education.”
Patterson has chosen “Reflection on Brown v. Board of Education”
as his topic for the lunch-hour speech. In 2001, he published the book Brown
v. Board of Education: a Civil Rights Milestone and Its Troubled Legacy.
His expertise on the subject is recognized by educators throughout the nation.
Other publications written by Patterson include: America in the Twentieth
Century; The Dread Disease: Cancer and Modern American Culture; Grand
Expectations: The United States, l945-74; and America’s Struggle
against Poverty in the Twentieth Century. He is a Bancroft Prize winner.
“Patterson’s most profound contribution to the history of Brown
is that he explores the questions that still swirl around the case,” notes
Peterson. “Could the Court or President Eisenhower have done more to ensure
compliance with Brown? Did the decision touch off the civil rights movement?
To what extent has desegration affected the academic achievement of African-American
children?”
“The appearance of James T. Patterson is specifically sponsored by the
Jamestown Public School District through the Teaching American History Grant
from the U.S. Department of Education,” explains Kidder. “Professor
Patterson’s speech is part of an in-service program for 50 social studies
teachers throughout Chautauqua County. We hope other teachers and students will
be able to attend the event.”
Mr. Paul Benson, Project Director of the Teaching American History Grant program
in the Jamestown Public School District, will introduce Professor Patterson.