[by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]¸ü¶àÌýÁ¦Çë·ÃÎÊ51VOA.COM [00:01.20]Sixty-two years after a U.S. Supreme Court decision banned segregation, [00:08.60]American schools remain divided by race. [00:14.20]That is the opinion of Valerie Jarrett, [00:17.84]a special advisor to President Barack Obama. [00:23.24]She met with educators on Wednesday to mark the anniversary of the court ruling. [00:31.20]In 1954, the Supreme Court decided that public schools could not separate students by race. [00:42.96]The case was known as Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. [00:50.73]Chief Justice wrote the opinion of the court's nine members. [00:57.75]"We conclude that in the field of public education [01:02.84]the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place," he said. [01:09.01]"Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." [01:15.49]The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) [01:23.08]helped families fight racial segregation laws. [01:27.76]The family of student Linda Brown objected to her being sent to a school far from her home. [01:37.20]They said they wanted her to attend a good school closer to home where white children went. [01:47.80]"To separate them from others of similar age and qualifications [01:54.96]solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community [02:05.10]that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone," wrote Justice Warren. [02:15.77]Laws that permitted racial segregation were called "Jim Crow" laws. [02:23.71]"Jim Crow" was the name of a black slave in a stage play in the 1830s. [02:32.52]His character was dull and meant to represent blacks in America. [02:39.68]Blacks were brought to America against their will as slaves in the 17th and 18th centuries. [02:49.16]Although slavery was banned after the U.S. Civil War, [02:54.60]segregation and discrimination did not stop. [03:00.18]"Jim Crow" laws were in effect for many years, [03:05.22]mostly in the southern United States. [03:08.35]They enforced separate schools and restrooms for blacks and whites. [03:15.72]Some "Jim Crow" laws created rules and taxes on blacks who tried to vote. [03:24.16]That enabled white males to remain in power. [03:30.07]While the Supreme Court ruled against segregation in the Brown vs. Board of Education case, it continued. [03:40.66]In Little Rock, Arkansas, the governor ordered National Guard troops [03:46.88]to prevent black students from entering schools for whites in 1957. [03:54.20]By 1958, seven states still had laws segregating public schools, [04:02.75]and three states did in 1961. [04:07.28]On Wednesday, educators gathered at the White House [04:13.32]to talk about how segregation continues in this century in education and other places. [04:21.80]For example, in Cleveland, Mississippi, schools are divided by race. [04:28.76]Schools on the east side of town are black; schools on the west side are mostly white. [04:37.40]Last Friday, a federal court ordered the schools integrated, [04:43.44]ending that division, according to CNN.com. [04:49.59]The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) [04:55.49]investigated other places like Cleveland, Mississippi. [05:00.60]It found that in areas where people are poor, [05:05.24]and where students were black or Hispanic, schools were more "isolated." [05:12.45]Isolated schools are where 75 percent or more of students are of the same race or economic class. [05:22.86]Hispanic students, the GAO said, were "triple segregated" by race, [05:30.39]economics and language, reported the newspaper USA Today. [05:37.53]I'm Marsha James.