If, as James Anderson stated, a nation committed to democracy and equality has every reason to be ashamed on "Brown v. Board of Education's" 50th anniversary, why the commemoration and celebration? By revising Anderson's challenge to examine the complex role of "Brown" in the nation's memory and history, this chapter investigates how the decision and the broader black freedom struggle are memorialized, why the story is told in a particular way, and the consequences of that portrayal in understanding the nature of American democracy and equality. The first section of the chapter examines two of the historiographical tales of "Brown" and the black freedom struggle in the scholarly literature. The second part of the chapter investigates the treatment of the black freedom struggle and the "Brown" decision in high school history textbooks.