After Brown

Abstract

This chapter traces the U.S. Supreme Court’s mnemonic jurisprudence from Brown v. Board of Education to the present. It shows how, despite occasional instances of redemptive memory—especially during the Warren Court era (1953–1969)—the parenthetical mode of memory continued to predominate. The chapter shows how debates over the legacy of slavery and segregation gradually shifted into debates over the legacy of Brown. Anti-classification readings of Brown have been underwritten by narratives of parenthetical memory, whereas anti-subordination readings of Brown have relied on narratives of redemptive memory. The debates have been most poignant in the context of affirmative action and other race-conscious remedies for de jure or de facto race discrimination. In recent years, the parenthetical mode has once again gained the upper hand.