Maria and soledad were digging in the backyard. they found pieces of flat rock deep in the hole they had dug. some of the rocks had imprints of fish, like one you see here. they showed the rocks to their parents. "what do think this back yard once looked like? " asked their father?

What is most likely the speaker’s reason to open with this? in approaching this problem, we cannot turn the clock back to 1868, when the [fourteenth] amendment was adopted, or even to 1896, when plessy v. ferguson was written. we must consider public education in the light of its full development and its present place in american life throughout the nation. only in this way can it be determined if segregation in public schools deprives these plaintiffs of the equal protection of the laws.