Dead-End Road - Tapa blanda

DEAD-END ROAD may be more aptly entitled, "Another Brown vs. Board of Education". This book captures the historical, educational and political events surrounding Jasper Brown and his struggles to integrate the public schools in Caswell County, North Carolina. During the height of the Civil Rights Movement, Jasper Brown, a God-fearing man, husband, father and community leader, took a bold stand in pursuit of justice, freedom and equality of education for his four children and other black children living in Caswell County. Starting in 1956, jasper, and other freedom lovers, throughout the auspices of the Caswell County Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), initiated desegregation of the Caswell County School System. After exhausting all administrative means to integrate the schools, jasper and others filed a lawsuit and embarked upon a bitter court battle. Six years later, the Federal 4th Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia ordered Caswell County officials to integrate the public schools. On January 22, 1963, the first day of school integration, Jasper shot two white men in self-defense and was arrested to stand trial. Ebony and Newsweek magazines ran stories about the shooting. During the trial, the late, Honorable Thurgood E. Marshall assisted with Jasper's defense. Although the civil rights movement initiated by jasper and others was successful, Jasper and his family suffered humiliation, degradation, dehumanization, financial loss and even threats on their lives. Yet, through it all, Jasper and his family held fast to their faith and trust in God that His justice would prevail.

Deborah F. Jefferson was born in1950 and raised as a country girl in a small rural setting of Vance County, Henderson, North Carolina.¿ She received her secondary education from thepublic schools of Vance County,and later moved to Washington, D. C. where she attended and graduated from Temple Business Schoolwhile working for the federal government.Call it fate, or divineintervention, in 1971, Deborah met, and shortly thereafter, married herhusband, Bernard Brown.¿ From the onsetof their relationship, Bernard shared with her the trials and tribulations hisfamily experienced when his father, Jasper Brown, sought to integrate thepublic schools in Caswell County, North Carolina in the late 1950's and early1960's.Beginning in 1976, the Lordblessed Bernard and Deborah with three children.¿ Desiring to raise their children away fromthe hustle and bustle of city life, the family relocated to Henderson, NC in 1983.¿When their children were enrolled in the Vance County Public Schools,Bernard and Deborah soon realized the true meaning of the old adage:¿ The more things change, the more they staythe same.In 1988, Deborah F. JeffersonBrown, a full-time wife, mother, and real estate business owner, decided thatit was time, once again, to take a stand.¿A political novice, Mrs. Brown ran for the District #1 School Board seatand was elected to serve on the Vance County Board of Education.¿ One of the very first decisions she had tomake as a School Board Member dealt with the integration of an elementary schoolin her district.Mrs. Brown served on the VanceCounty Board of Education for 12 years.¿It was during her tenure as a School Board Member that she began to morefully appreciate and understand the role and accomplishments of her father-in-law,jasper Brown, in desegregating the Public Schools in Caswell County, North Carolina.Mrs. Brown believes thateducation, politics and politicians, play a fundamental role in all our livesand that there are valuable life lessons to be learned wh