Chapter 2: Legacy of Brown: Lau and Language Policy in the United States

T he 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 also recalls the anniversary of Lau v. Nichols, decided exactly 20 years later in 1974. The two decisions were monumental in the history of civil rights and, interestingly, have shared similarities in the ways in which they have been reinterpreted since they were first decided several decades ago. The history of both of these decisions reminds us that the struggle for civil rights in the United States is not over. The great promise of this democracy is an equal opportunity to affect the decisions and the laws that rule our lives. The great challenge is to make good on that promise. Brown v. Board of Education and Lau v. Nichols are both morality tales about the inherent difficulty of sustaining minority rights in the face of majority interests. In this chapter, we argue that the two cases have been intertwined in interesting ways and that three types of strategies have been used to undermine both decisions: legal, regulatory, and public relations. In concert, these strategies have been at least moderately effective in undoing the promise of equity that each decision represented.