Hurston saw Brown’s assimilationist logic as insulting rather than honoring Black people

Evidence

Not many Americans immediately recognized the assimilationist reasoning behind the Brown decision. But Zora Neale Hurston did. She was then sixty-four and living in Florida, and she was as sharp as ever despite her recent literary descent. “If there are not adequate Negro schools in Florida, and there is some residual, some inherent and unchangeable quality in white schools, impossible to duplicate anywhere else, then I am the first to insist that Negro children of Florida be allowed to share this boon,” wrote Hurston in the Orlando Sentinel. “But if there are adequate Negro schools and prepared instructors and instructions, then there is nothing different except the presence of white people. For this reason, I regard the ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court as insulting rather than honoring my race.” Calling out civil rights leaders, she framed it a contradiction in terms to scream race pride and equality while at the same time spurning “Negro teachers and self-association.” Hurston’s widely reprinted letter was praised by segregationists and antiracists, but sparked only ire from assimilationists. — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 929

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: A canonical instance of the book’s whole thesis: the most famous liberal-victory decision in US law rests on the racist premise that Black schools are inherently inferior. Hurston alone saw it; her alignment with segregationists’ praise and antiracists’ praise against assimilationists’ ire is a perfect compact demonstration of the three-way scheme.
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: does Hurston’s near-unique clarity of eye suggest intellectual outsiders see assimilationist racism best, or is it a contingent case?
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s stated discomfort — assimilationism as the default home of well-meaning people — given Hurston was attacked by assimilationists for making exactly the antiracist point.