The Yellow Sentinels

White children finally arrived at my neighborhood Negro elementary school eighteen years after Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education (1954) brought an end to school segregation with all deliberate speed. New books and fresh paint, traffic lights, and a pedestrian crosswalk arrived with them. Silver posts arose too with square yellow heads: crossing lights, like sentinels to be the guardian of white children.

1. HERBERT PATE, et al., Plaintiffs, versus DADE COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD, et al., Defendants. (1969) FINAL JUDGMENT. It is ordered and adjudged that: The Board of Public Instruction of Dade County, Florida, and Edward L. Whigham, as Superintendent of Public Instruction, and his successors in office, are permanently enjoined from operating a dual system of public education segregated by race, and shall henceforth operate a unitary system as described above.2. The transfer of students shall be made effective August 1, 1970 and thereafter. 3. The Court retains jurisdiction of the cause and the parties for the purpose of insuring that the plan here adopted and the required amendments are carried out and the school system operated consistently with the requirements of the United States Constitution. Done and ordered at Miami, Florida this 26th day of June 1970. (Signed) C. Clyde Atkins United States District Judge.

2. Pate v. Dade County School Board, 315 F. Supp. 1161 (S.D. Fla. 1970)