Nation celebrates 50th anniversary of historic Brown v. Board of Education decision

Jet, June 7, 2004 by Kevin Chappell

It was a poignant sight for a poignant day. On a humid afternoon in the heart of Topeka, KS, in the shadow of the symbolic epicenter of the school desegregation movement, a slow hum purred across the sky as the sounds of the city's 16th Street Baptist Church choir filled the air.

Fifty years ago to the day--May 17, 1954--the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a historic decision in the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. Now, more than 5,000 people had gathered outside the two-story building that once housed Monroe Elementary School, one of the four formerly segregated elementary schools for Black children in Topeka, to celebrate what is perhaps the most significant piece of American jurisprudence of the 20th century.

They came to remember the decision that declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional. But, politics aside, they possibly may never forget the sight of Air Force One gliding over their gathering en route to a nearby airfield, seemingly paying homage to one of the world's greatest civil rights victories.

The President, after arriving by motorcade to Monroe Elementary, stood on the dais erected in front of the school building and told the group that racism continues to exist in America, but that there will never again be "codified cruelty" such as segregation which "dulled the conscience of people who knew better," he said. "It fed the violence of people with malice in their hearts. And however it was defended, segregation could never be squared with the ideals of America."

Bush spoke of NAACP lawyers Charles Hamilton Houston and a young Thurgood Marshall, and how the two traveled thousands of miles in a 1929 Ford, driving from courthouse to courthouse, typing legal briefs in the car. These two legal giants, perhaps more than anyone else, documented the poor conditions of Black schools with a strategy of bringing down segregation school by school. Marshall would later stand before the Supreme Court with his findings, convincing the court that separate schools could never be equal.

In 1992, federal legislation established Monroe Elementary School as a National Historic Site, converting the building into an interactive museum. The designation saved the school, closed because of the declining enrollment, from certain destruction. After more than a decade of renovations, which totaled $11 million and was overseen by the National Park Service and Brown Foundation for Education Equity, Excellence and Research, the site opened to much fanfare on the 50th anniversary of Brown.

Officials hope the Monroe School (now the Brown v Board of Education National Historic Site) will help raise awareness and increase America's commitment to equality.

Congressional Black Caucus Chair Elijah E. Cummings, who was among the dozen guest speakers at the Topeka event, said much work still needs to be done. "A growing number of states are being challenged in the courts because their public school funding is neither adequate nor equitable. The Government of the United States has broken its promises to adequately fund public education for children who are disabled and economically disadvantaged. As a result of these failures ... millions of American children--children of every race-continue to be denied full educational opportunity, here in Kansas and across the United States. I speak the truth when I declare that Black children are disproportionately denied an effective and empowering education in America today."

Other speakers included Education Secretary Rod Paige, Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer, the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth and Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton.

Senator John Kerry was also in Topeka to commemorate the Brown anniversary. Standing on the steps of the state Capitol, Kerry told the gathering, who included government officials and civil rights leaders, "As far as we've come, we still have not met the promise of Brown. We have not met the promise of Brown when one-third of all African-American children are living in poverty.... We have not met the promise of Brown when nearly 20 million Black and Hispanic Americans don't have basic health insurance."

Civil rights leaders today say that the advances made by Houston and Marshall have been slowly and systematically rolled back, in many cases, to pre-Brown days. Through local and state legislation, school districts across the country have voluntarily done away with busing, a key element to desegregation. Today, more Black students--38 percent--attend majority-Black schools than at any time in the last 30 years. Most times, these schools lack the resources and facilities of wealthier, majority-White schools. Even today the state of Kansas is under a county judge's order to increase school spending by about $1 billion annually in part to increase funding to districts with large numbers of low-income and minority students.

In a written statement, Marian Wright Edelman, president and founder of the Children's Defense Fund, called for a renewed push to ensure equal opportunity in America's public school systems. "The strong Black traditions of family and hunger for education have been undermined by White resistance to Brown and our nation's choices not to invest adequately in public schools for all children."