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With All Deliberate Speed

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This is the only documentary I have ever seen on the historic Brown vs. education decision. As an educator, I think it should be shown in contemporary high school classrooms to help our students understand that it wasn't that long ago that racial prejudice was institutuionalized in this country, and what a struggle it was to even start to bring about change. This video is a little on the long side, but can be watched over several class periods. An excellent discussion started and educational tool for the high school classroom. Teachers of history, psychology, street law, and civics classes should seriously consider making this a part of their curiculum.

In 1896, the Supreme Court ruled that "seperate but equal" was a legal doctrine, with a sole dissenting vote, the first John Marshall Harlan. In 1954, NAACP attorney, and later the first black Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall argued--and won--that it is NOT legal, in the milestone "Brown v. Board of Education" decision. The title of this film is the phrase which gave the states "adequate" time to integrate--or desegregate--their school systems.

I was impressed with the film for a couple of primary reasons: (1) We are accustomed to celebrity knowledge. Anyone remotely aware of civil rights know of King, or Malcolm X, of Medgar Evers. But there were and are others--many others--working in the dark before those figures even became celebrities. (And we know little, if anything, of them!) (2) Desegretation wasn't just a movement pushed by black people, but blacks and whites has to work TOGETHER. And they did, hence the laws going the way they did.

The important theme of the film is that, despite Brown v. Board, there were two counties, one in South Carolina and the other in Virginia, who resisted the law using the phrase that makes up the film's title. One went so far as to close the school system for some time, lest they have to permit black people into white classrooms!

I thought the film put together the history of these events appropriately. They fit into contexts, for example, and the film included those contexts. For instance, our school history/fairy tales indicate that slavery/racism was at least deinstitutionalized after the Civil War. Not so. As many an activist points out in the story, much of the South was using any technique they could to continue the caste system by which black people were "inferior," maintained that way by inferior schools.

I thought the producers did a fine job too of describing how astute Marshall was in arguing Brown, and that, had the prior Chief Justice, someone of a contrarian, had not passed away and been replaced by Earl Warren, Brown might not have gone the way it did, and our country would be a different--and less desirable--place.

Oh, another reason I liked the film is that many of the activists, most of them black, in the film, acknowledged that the world IS a better place regarding race relations that it was a half century ago. Frankly, I get tired out by young activists--black and white--who contend that nothing has changed. Is there work to do? Always. But it does no good to suggest that nothing has changed, that we're in a despair-filled pit of racial bigotry and we always will be. Let's get real.

I recommend this film, to schools, to activists, maybe especially to those who contend nothing has changed over the years. And remember, there ARE people who worked on civil rights of whom you've never heard. It's about time we pay our respects to them, those who are living and those who are not. (I wish I could list some of their names here, but I'm never that complete in taking notes on a film!)

Viewing "With All Deliberate Speed" is a very discomforting experience. For that reason, it is essential to ignore the inclination to avoid this glimpse of the historical BROWN V. THE BOARD OF EDUCATION decision. At the eve of 2008, hearts are still closed to the message that "homo sapiens" is a unitary genus. Exposure to this work can chip away at long-held erroneous misconceptions.

No history of the United States is complete without a mention of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling in 1954. With this unanimous decision, the U. S. Supreme Court struck down all the laws that kept segregation in place. The fundamental "separate but equal" concept was declared constitutional by the Supreme Court in the landmark Plessy v. Ferguson case in 1896. Therefore, not only was there over 50 years of "settled" law, but there was also a long tradition of social mores based on segregation.
When the Brown v. Board of Education case is covered in history classes, often the only mention of the educational facilities and background that the case was based on is the specific suit against the Topeka, Kansas public school district. Generally lost in these specifics are the courageous actions of other people geographically removed from Kansas. As seems to always be the case, one of the starting points of the action that led to the case were the actions of students at some small schools on the east coast. This video describes many of the actions of those very brave people that helped start a nationwide change.
It started because the students and their parents wanted buses so that the black children would not have to walk miles to school. The white children had buses, so this was a fundamental violation of the "equal" part of the supposed "separate but equal" concept stated in the Plessy case. Their actions were not without danger, some of the black parents lost their job, one black minister that was a leader was gunned down and threats of violent retaliation were frequent. One white judge that sided with the blacks in his dissent on a case that upheld the segregation was forced out of town.
There is no way that the significance of the Brown case can be understated, which is why there was so much opposition to the ruling. People suffered and some died so that overt de jure segregation would be eliminated, the video ends with students sitting in their classroom, a clear example of current de facto segregation.
This is a video that belongs in every high school U. S. history curriculum. This case was one of the most significant of the twentieth century and in order to understand it you need to understand much more than just what the Supreme Court ruled. A clear example of what was considered by many people to be judicial activism gone wrong, there is no question that the decision in Brown was the right thing for the country.

There is no mention of Linda Brown on the entire video. After watching this I really wished that the Supreme Court case were named Briggs v Elliot so that school kids would grow up learning this story. 5 cases were grouped together under the title Brown v Board. With All Deliberate Speed focuses on Davis v Prince Edward County and Briggs v Elliot. The story is very inspirational in that young and old African-Americans knew their constitutional and natural rights, fought for them, and through their actions ended de jure segregation at the federal level. This DVD does not go on to the state battles in places like Little Rock and Ole Miss. I wish Gilbert would do a second video on the battles it took to enforce the Brown v Board decision.

"With All Deliberate Speed" is a very good film for social history. All-in-all its accuracy is very high. The film does misquote the Supreme Court's decision, so watch out!

this is a great movie to explain the desegreation program it is a visual record of what happened back then

The video arrived quickly and in perfect condition. Thank-you for great Service! (I apologize this review is so late- for some reason the website wouldn't let me submit my feedback)