[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 15 (Monday, February 9, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S715-S716]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               CELEBRATING AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY MONTH

  Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, I am pleased to join in commemorating 
African-American History Month and in

[[Page S716]]

recognizing a crucial part of our diversity: the vast history and 
legacy that African Americans have contributed to the founding and 
building of our Nation.
  In 1915, Dr. Carter Godwin Woodson founded the Association for the 
Study of Negro Life and History, which shortly after its creation, 
began a campaign to establish Negro History Week. In 1926, the second 
week of February was chosen to recognize the contributions of African 
Americans to American society. In 1976, this week of observance was 
expanded to a month and became African-American History Month.
  Each year, the Association, now known as the Association for the 
Study of African American Life and History, designates a theme for the 
Black History Month observance. This year's theme, ``Before Brown, 
Beyond Boundaries, Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of Brown v. Board 
of Education of Topeka'' marks one of the most seminal moments in the 
fight for equal rights in this country--the Supreme Court's May 15, 
1954 ruling that ``[i]n the field of public education, the doctrine of 
`separate but equal' has no place.''
  It was a ruling that was met with violent resistance and created 
enormous upheaval. A number of States adopted policies of ``massive 
resistance'' seeking to avert compliance with the Court's decision. 
Many went so far as to adopt resolutions calling for the State 
Government to interpose itself, parens patriae, between its citizens 
and the Federal government's efforts to impose desegregation.
  But in the years that followed Brown, inspired by the framework for 
progress that the Court had provided, our civil rights leaders and the 
movement they created never backed down. They instead redoubled their 
heroic efforts often in the face of great risk of personal harm.
  From the refusal by Rosa Parks to move to the back of a public bus, 
which ignited the Montgomery bus boycott, to efforts of the Rev. Martin 
Luther King, Jr. and many others to secure civil rights and desegregate 
public facilities, to efforts of the NAACP to clarify and expand the 
First amendment's protections related to free association, Brown's 
effects were felt across the Nation and beyond the sphere of public 
education.
  And, of course, Thurgood Marshall--who I should note was born in 
Baltimore and attended Frederick Douglass High School--was at the 
center of these efforts. After graduating at the top of his class at 
Howard Law School, Marshall came back to Baltimore and, after working 
with NAACP to accomplish the landmark result in Brown led the legal 
fight thereafter to extend its precedent throughout the civil rights 
arena. After leaving the NAACP, Marshall put his convictions, 
determination, and legal prowess to work as a Federal judge, then 
Solicitor General, and ultimately the first African-American Justice on 
the Supreme Court. There, he was, as Justice William Brennan remembered 
him, the ``voice of authority . . . the voice of reason . . . [a]nd a 
voice with an unwavering message: that the Constitution's protections 
must not be denied to anyone and that the Court must give its 
constitutional doctrine the scope and sensitivity needed to assure that 
result.''
  At the beginning of the last century, our Nation was a vastly 
different place than it is today. The country was divided along racial 
lines and racism was accepted and institutionalized. African Americans 
were not allowed to vote, and the opportunities available to African 
Americans were few.
  Today, thanks to the visions of a few and the sacrifices of many--and 
in significant part thanks to the lasting effects of Brown--that 
situation has changed. After much hardship, African Americans have made 
great strides in many areas and now participate in every sector of our 
society. Throughout the past 100 years, African Americans have made 
remarkable contributions to the Nation and the world as mathematicians, 
scientists, novelists, poets, politicians, and members of the armed 
services.
  Through the lessons and struggles of the last century and the trying 
first few years of this century, Americans have shown the world how 
people of all races, colors, religions and nationalities create the 
fabric of our Nation, a fabric that is richer because of our 
differences. This month, we honor the special contribution African 
Americans have made to that fabric.
  But there is much work left to be done. When in 1981 the City of 
Baltimore unveiled a statue to Marshall, the Justice told the gathered 
crowd ``I just want to be sure that when you see this statue, you won't 
think that's the end of it. I won't have it that way. There's too much 
to be done.'' So we take the occasion of African-American History Month 
to celebrate the steps that we have taken toward equality, but also to 
remind ourselves of how far we have to go.

                          ____________________