Why All Deliberate Speed?
Seventy-one years ago, the Supreme Court told the nation to desegregate its schools "with all deliberate speed."
The nation leaned in on the "deliberate" part. In the years after Brown II in 1955, Southern states treated those four words as permission to stall. They shut down public schools, opened private academies for white children, and ran "freedom of choice" plans designed to change nothing. By 1964, Justice Hugo Black had seen enough, writing:
There has been entirely too much deliberation, and not enough speed.
We are still deliberating. Here in Massachusetts, 63% of our public schools are segregated or intensely segregated. I know that number well, because I chaired the state advisory council that reported it in 2024. Two years later, with our recommendations largely unaddressed, families sued the state to force action.
Nationally, the Justice Department has now walked away from more than 50 desegregation cases, the Education Department is dismantling the tools schools use to identify discrimination, and the gaps in our test scores barely move from year to year.
That's why I'm starting this newsletter.
What you'll get
All Deliberate Speed arrives in your inbox every Sunday. It's a weekly briefing on educational equity: school segregation, funding, discipline, access, and the policies and politics that shape who gets an excellent public education and who doesn't.
Each issue opens with my take on the week's most important story. After that come short, readable sections on the news that matters: court decisions and federal policy, new research, stories from Massachusetts and from districts across the country, and tools you can use to organize and advocate. Each story is introduced and put in context, so you'll know why it matters, not just what happened. Each issue closes with a list of other stories worth your time.
My first issue is a good example. It leads with Nikole Hannah-Jones's wrenching essay about her daughter's education and the fierce debate it set off. It also covers the Justice Department's retreat from Brown, what this year's MCAS results say about who our schools are serving, why Metco hasn't added a single suburb in nearly 50 years, and how private fundraising is quietly deepening inequality inside Boston's public schools.
What I promise
Only sources worth your trust. I'll link to strong reporting and serious research, not whatever went viral.
The strongest version of the other side. When people disagree about school choice, testing, or integration, I'll present their best arguments fairly before telling you where I stand, and I will tell you where I stand.
A point of view earned the hard way. I've come at this work as an educator and scholar at BU Wheelock, as an elected member of the Brookline Select Board, as chair of the state's Racial Imbalance Advisory Council, and as an organizer with Brookline for Racial Justice & Equity. I've seen how these decisions get made, and how often they get put off.
Who this is for
Students and researchers who want the week's developments in one place. Educators and school leaders who live with the consequences of policy every day. Policymakers who have the power to change it. Advocates and parents who are tired of waiting.
In other words, people who are informed, and impatient.
Seventy-one years of deliberation is enough. Subscribe for free, forward this to someone who should be reading it, and reply anytime with a story I should be following. Let's pick up the speed.