My Two Cents is a weekly opinion column from Bethesda resident Joseph Hawkins. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of BethesdaNow.com.

May 17, 2014 is the 60th anniversary of Brown v. the Board of Education.

Brown is the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, a 1896 Supreme Court decsion that established racial segregation as legal. From Plessy emerged what were commonly referred to as Jim Crow laws and customs.

Several weeks ago, when returning home from a quick day-business trip, the taxi driver that dropped me at National Airport at the crack of dawn returned and chauffeured me back to Bethesda. It was the heart of rush hour when we pulled out of the airport, and I told the driver to head up the Cabin John Parkway, avoiding the George Washington Parkway. 

When we exited the Parkway, pulled onto MacArthur Boulevard and drove past Glen Echo Park, the driver looked to his left, saw the huge Glen Echo sign, caught my eye in the rearview mirror, and asked, “Isn’t this the park that was white people only in the past?”

I paused momentarily before answering because, honestly, I was surprised the driver knew this piece of Bethesda history.

As we drove up Cabin John, the driver, a young Latino guy probably in his early 30′s, told me that he had been raised in Louisiana. So, I was thinking, what does this guy know about Glen Echo?

I answered back, “Yes. This is the former Glen Echo Amusement Park, and when I was a young ‘colored’ kid, I was not allowed to walk through its gates. No black people were allowed.”  I also told the driver, who was noticeably brownish in complexion, that he also would have been stopped at the gates.

Glen Echo opened it doors to all people, regardless of skin color, in 1961, ending its whites only policy. I use the word ‘colored’ to describe myself because that is the word used to describe blacks during this time period. In 1961, I was 10- years-old.

I remember the Park’s whites only policy because my Catholic elementary school gave its white kids free Park passes, but gave its colored kids passes to the Tivoli Theatre (now the home of the Gala Hispanic Theatre in D.C.).

When we drove a little farther up MacArthur, I pointed out the Bannockburn community to the driver and told him that homeowners in this community partnered with black university students to protest Glen Echo’s whites only policy. And then the driver surprised me again, when he asked, “So, things changed, right?”

I said, “Yes, a lot changed for black people since 1960. Things are different, things are better.”

I’ve thought about this taxi ride conversation more than a few times, especially the question, “So, things changed, right?”

For me, Brown stands as one of those Supreme Court decisions that changed America forever, and it was not just our public schools that changed. Brown also changed how most of us felt about places like Glen Echo being open to whites only. Sure, Glen Echo remained whites only six years after the Brown decision, but eventually, change — and changed people — overturned our Jim Crow system of separating people by skin color.

As we approach the Brown anniversary in May, I guarantee you will hear Brown critics claim that not much has changed or that what changed wasn’t all that positive for a lot of colored people.

Some of what these critics say is worthy of debate. Some not. Personally, I’m firmly planted in the camp that believes significant societal good and change resulted from Brown. For me, the cup is way more than half full — more like three-quarters full.

Regardless, as a county, I’m not convinced that we reflect or debate enough about where we have been, where we are and where we are headed. Certainly, the Brown anniversary offers that moment of reflection. And frankly, Montgomery County has significant issues to reflect and debate.

Several weeks ago, our County government issued a report that concluded our public high schools were racially and economically isolated. Commenting on the report, a Washington Post editorial noted that our public high schools had become “a two-tier system of have and have-not schools.”

Have and have-not schools!

Should we be discussing this?

I’m looking forward to another taxi ride in which the driver this time rolls past Walt Whitman High School and says to me, “Isn’t that that affluent, mostly white Bethesda school that was in the news recently?”

Joseph Hawkins is a longtime Bethesda resident who remembers when there was no Capital Crescent Trail. He works full-time for an employee-owned social science research firm located Montgomery County. He is a D.C. native and for nearly 10 years, he wrote a regular column for the Montgomery Journal. He also has essays and editorials published in Education Week, the Washington Post, and Teaching Tolerance Magazine. He is a serious live music fan and is committed to checking out some live act at least once a month.

Photo via National Park Service