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Linda Brown, the young girl at the center of the Brown V. Board of Education decision and later civil rights leader, died on Sunday.
For an era where civil rights were finally taking center stage, President Eisenhower was notably slow on the idea. As flawed as he was, Richard Nixon (and I'll get heat for this, I'm sure) acted as somewhat of a moral compass for the former General - counseling him to accept and promote the decision and even being the point-man to lobby Congress for the Civil Rights Act of 1957 (even though it ended up being watered down by Southern Democrats).
Personally, I was struck by the news of Linda Brown's death and couldn't help but see it framed by the recent March For Our Lives protests for gun reform. It reminded me that the arc of justice in this country has so often been led by the youth, that it seems crazy to see the cruel way that the Parkland students have been personally attacked. It's fine to disagree with them either by tactic or by principles, but another thing to question their motives and promote fringe conspiracy theories. Then again, it's all happened before.
