[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 107 (Friday, July 25, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1525-E1526]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      HONORING PROF. JOHN BRITTAIN

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BARBARA B. KENNELLY

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, July 25, 1997

  Mrs. KENNELLY of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor one 
of Connecticut's most outstanding citizens, a brilliant lawyer and a 
warrior for justice, John Brittain. Professor Brittain has been a 
member of the faculty of the University of Connecticut law schools 
since 1977. For those two decades, he has been a constant presence in 
my State, a voice of conscience that is heard whenever the rights of 
individuals are at stake.
  John Brittain knows that the Nation's promise of equality under the 
law must never be allowed to become mere words. That promise is the 
central tenet of American life, and it must be kept for the sake of all 
our future generations. So John Brittain has made it his cause to see 
that the promise is kept--even when it is difficult and even when it is 
uncomfortable.
  In 1989, Professor Brittain, among others, filed Sheff versus 
O'Neill, the landmark case challenging the racial, economic, and 
educational segregation between Hartford and the

[[Page E1526]]

surrounding schools districts as a denial of a student's fundamental 
right to an equal education under the Connecticut Constitution. After 7 
years of litigation, the Connecticut Supreme Court issued a precedent-
setting ruling, finding, in July 1996, that Hartford students were 
being denied equal educational opportunity. Although the State has not 
yet determined how best to address this, it is certain that Professor 
Brittain's efforts will only result in improving education, not only in 
Hartford but throughout the State.
  Professor Brittain will soon join the faculty at Texas Southern 
University's Thurgood Marshall School of Law, writing what I am sure 
will be a fascinating book about his involvement in the Sheff case. I 
know I join with his Connecticut friends and colleagues in wishing him 
well in this latest chapter of his extraordinary life, and hoping that 
we will some day welcome him back to our State.

                          ____________________