Throughout Black History Month, our Vice President of Qualitative Research, Reggie Alston, is reflecting on a focus group project conducted at each of the five communities whose legal challenges were consolidated into Brown v. Board of Education.
In Claymont, Delaware, I had the privilege of speaking with Miss Joan Anderson, whose experiences are connected to Gebhart v. Belton, one of the five cases that formed Brown v. Board of Education.
Miss Joan didn’t describe history in legal terms. She described it in feelings:
• What it meant to attend a segregated school
• How inequality shaped expectations
• How courage often looked like quiet persistence
Her story reminded me that ordinary people don’t always see themselves as “change makers” until history catches up with them.
At Ebony Marketing Services, this is why qualitative work matters. When we slow down and truly listen, we don’t just document history, we honor it.
