[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1713 Engrossed in House (EH)]

H. Res. 1713

                In the House of Representatives, U. S.,

                                                     November 15, 2010.
Whereas, on May 17, 1954, the United States Supreme Court announced in Brown v. 
        Board of Education (347 U.S. 483) that, ``in the field of education, the 
        doctrine of `separate but equal' has no place'';
Whereas the Brown decision recognized as a matter of law that the segregation of 
        public schools deprived students of the equal protection of the laws 
        under the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States;
Whereas in 1960, six years after the landmark Brown v. Board of Education 
        decision, the promise of access and equality within the realm of 
        education remained unfilled in New Orleans, Louisiana, and throughout 
        much of the Nation;
Whereas in 1960, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People 
        (NAACP) contacted Ruby Bridges' family to solicit her participation in 
        the integration of New Orleans public schools;
Whereas six years after the Brown decision, on November 14, 1960, Ruby Bridges, 
        at the age of six, was the first African-American child to integrate the 
        previously all-White William Frantz Elementary School;
Whereas Ruby Bridges courageously took the first step into a desegregated future 
        made possible by the Supreme Court's historic ruling in the Brown 
        decision;
Whereas Ruby Bridges was the only student in her class for an entire year, 
        taught by the only remaining teacher, Mrs. Barbara Henry, after the 
        other teachers and students withdrew from the school in a gesture of 
        disapproval of desegregation;
Whereas Ruby Bridges was a pioneer in the movement for an integrated public 
        education system that afforded equal educational opportunities to all, 
        regardless of race;
Whereas in the face of verbal abuse and unveiled bigotry, Ruby Bridges exhibited 
        the courage and equanimity of a person many times her age;
Whereas Norman Rockwell's The Problem We All Live With offers a depiction of 
        Ruby Bridges' uncanny resolve and singularity of purpose in the face of 
        adversity as she attended her first day of school;
Whereas Ruby Bridges' story is symbolic of the victorious dismantling of school 
        segregation, as well as the full and equal participation in United 
        States society to which all citizens are entitled;
Whereas the significance of Ruby Bridges' actions have been acknowledged with 
        numerous awards and recognitions, including the Presidential Citizens 
        Medal awarded by President William Jefferson Clinton in 2001; and
Whereas Ruby Bridges was among the first in a line of civil rights pioneers that 
        paved the way for the eventual desegregation of all public schools in 
        the United States: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) recognizes the 50th anniversary of Ruby Bridges desegregating a 
        previously all-White public elementary school;
            (2) encourages people in the United States to recognize the 
        historical importance of the desegregation of elementary schools and 
        Ruby Bridges, who not only secured integration for William Frantz 
        Elementary School, but hundreds of thousands of schools across the 
        Nation; and
            (3) commits itself, in the wake of recent challenges, to continuing 
        the legacy of Brown v. Board of Education by protecting and advancing 
        equal educational opportunity for all.
            Attest:

                                                                          Clerk.