As we begin Black History Month, our Vice President of Qualitative Research, Reggie Alston, reflects on a project that reshaped how we think about power, community, and history.
Over the past year, I had the honor of conducting focus groups for the National Park Service and Lexicon&Line at each of the five communities whose legal challenges were consolidated into Brown v. Board of Education. While we often remember Brown as a Supreme Court decision, what became clear to me is this:
Brown is not a ruling, it’s a collection of ordinary people refusing to accept oppressive ideas about who deserves opportunity.
Parents. Students. Community leaders. Teenagers. Each site reminded me that lasting change doesn’t start in courtrooms, it starts in living rooms, classrooms, and community meetings.
Throughout this month, I’ll be sharing reflections from:
• Claymont, Delaware
• Summerton, South Carolina
• Farmville, Virginia
• Topeka, Kansas
• Washington, D.C.
At Ebony Marketing Services, this is our work, elevating community voices so lived experience informs policy, interpretation, and public understanding.
