[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 63 (Thursday, May 19, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 19, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
        THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF BROWN VERSUS BOARD OF EDUCATION

  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, this week marks the 40th anniversary of the 
landmark Brown versus Board of Education decision. With this single 
ruling, the Supreme Court changed America for the better, forever 
altering our Nation's social landscape. No longer did separate mean 
equal. No longer did black American mean second-class citizen.
  The Brown decision soon led to other civil rights successes: The 
Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibiting job discrimination; the Voting 
Rights Act of 1965, a law that has made the right to vote something 
real for millions of Americans.
  Even the Americans With Disabilities Act owes much to the Brown 
legacy. Yes, separate is not inherently equal, and that's why the 
A.D.A. seeks to offer all of our Nation's citizens, including those 
with disabilities, the opportunity to enter the mainstream of American 
life.
  Since the Brown decision, there have been many individual success 
stories. Young black men and women graduate from our finest 
universities. Minorities continue to move ahead in corporate America--
though much more work needs to be done in this area. Thousands of black 
Americans have been elected to public office--in Congress, in State 
legislatures, as mayors of our Nation's largest cities, even as 
Governor of Virginia. And a black American from the Bronx, Colin 
Powell, has inspired us all, rising from the ranks of the ROTC to 
become our Nation's top military official, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs 
of Staff.
  Yet today, 40 years after Brown, America remains a deeply divided 
country. Race relations are shockingly poor. In too many communities, 
fear has replaced hope, distrust has replaced understanding.
  Forty years after Brown, it has become obvious that the so-called 
rights revolution started in 1954 has not, and cannot, do it all. It is 
self-deception, pure and simple, to believe that America's tattered 
social fabric can somehow be patched together simply by using an ever-
expanding list of rights as the stitches.
  No right can solve the daunting problem of illegitimacy. No right can 
end the violence in our inner cities. No right can raise educational 
standards and guarantee educational success.
  Three years ago, Congress' top legislative priority was the Civil 
Rights Act of 1991, which codified an area of employment law known as 
the law of disparate impact. Mainstream civil rights leaders where 
effusive in their praise of the bill, saying it was essential to 
restoring the principle of equal opportunity.
  Yet, today, if you were to walk into any public housing project and 
ask its residents about the Civil Rights Act of 1991, you are likely to 
be met by a wall of blank stares. Why? Because the law of disparate 
impact is irrelevant to the millions of black Americans who spend their 
lives wading through the dangerous shoals of the underclass.
  Mr. President, the times have changed--and these times demand a civil 
rights agenda that is not merely popular, but one that can also make a 
real difference, as the Brown decision did 40 years ago.
  This past weekend, University of Pennsylvania law professor Lani 
Guinier suggested that our country should engage in ``a national 
conversation on race,'' I agree.
  Indeed, having a frank discussion about race is difficult because the 
cost of plain talk can be so high: Whites who argue against racial 
preferences or who cite rising black crime rates are too often branded 
as ``racists.'' They may even try to lace their arguments with quotes 
from like-minded blacks, as if compelled by a need for political cover. 
Blacks who challenge the prevailing orthodoxy on, say, affirmative 
action, have suffered the indignity of being labeled an ``Uncle Tom.''

  And yes, those of us in positions of leadership have been slow to 
act, shying away from a frank and meaningful discussion about 
illegitimacy, single-parent families, violent crime, welfare 
dependency, the absence of moral values among our young--the forces of 
social decay, in other words, that are crashing against black America, 
as well as white America, and poisoning relations among the races.
  Mr. President, when Oliver Brown and his daughter, Linda Brown 
Thompson, succeeded 40 years ago in challenging Topeka's segregated 
school system, they taught us that individuals, acting out of 
conviction, can make a big, big difference in the lives of us all. 
That's why I sponsored the legislation establishing the Brown Historic 
Site at Topeka's Monroe School.
  But the Brown family also taught us another lesson. They taught us 
how important it is to have the courage to ask questions. Oliver Brown 
didn't simply accept that ``separate was equal,'' but questioned why 
that was so.
  And that's what we have to do today. We have to question: Why do we 
have a thriving black middle class, but a despairing black underclass? 
What social forces feed a Louis Farrakhan, whose message of racial 
separatism continues to tap a responsive chord? Why are the 
illegitimacy rates in some communities so high, and the carnage of 
crime so vast?
  I don't pretend to have all the answers. But we must start asking the 
questions * * * publicly, fearlessly, and with optimism. That's the 
most important legacy of Brown versus Board of Education.

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