In what John Hope Franklin calls "an essential work" on race and affirmative action, Charles Ogletree, Jr., tells his personal story of growing up a "Brown baby" against a vivid pageant of historical characters that includes, among others, Thurgood Marshall, Martin Luther King, Jr., Earl Warren, Anita Hill, Alan Bakke, and Clarence Thomas. A measured blend of personal memoir, exacting legal analysis, and brilliant insight, Ogletree's eyewitness account of the legacy of Brown v. Board of Education offers a unique vantage point from which to view five decades of race relations in America.

"With a new afterword"--Cover.

The significance of Brown -- The legacy of segregation : what Brown meant in Merced -- Brown's promise : black students at Stanford -- Brown's failure : resistance in Boston -- Brown's challenge : carrying the torch -- Life before Brown -- Defeating Jim Crow -- Resistance to Brown -- Marshall and King : two paths of justice -- Reversing the Brown mandate : the Bakke challenge -- The legacy of Thurgood Marshall -- The rise of Clarence Thomas -- Who's getting lynched? : Hill v. Thomas -- Justice Thomas : a new era in race matters -- The Michigan cases : mixed signals -- Meeting the educational challenges of the twenty-first century -- Addressing the racial divide : reparations -- The integration ideal : sobering reflections -- The post O'Connor Supreme Court : the emergence of the Scalia Court?.