[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 69 (Monday, May 17, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H3057]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I want to take a few moments to 
remember the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. 
Board of Education. May 17, 1954, became a history-making day.
  I was 14 years old, in the ninth grade, when the Brown decision was 
issued. I rode to school on a broken-down school bus. I was taught in a 
dilapidated schoolhouse. I had hand-me-down books and sat in an 
overcrowded classroom. When the word of the Brown decision reached me 
outside of Troy, Alabama, I thought the very next school year I would 
be able to attend an integrated school. But it did not happen for me. 
It did not happen for many African American children for many years to 
come.
  Mr. Speaker, as you know, laws set the standard in America, but that 
is only one important part of the so-called contract in a democracy. 
Courts can hand down the law, but the people must be willing to abide 
by the law before it has power. So it took some time before school 
integration came to many parts of the American South. But the Brown 
decision was the first powerful step in the modern-day civil rights 
movement. It set the tone and laid the groundwork for what was to come. 
It said once and for all that segregation was dead. It said separate 
could never ever be equal.
  So it was only a matter of time before the whole system of American 
apartheid would come to an end. But perhaps most important, Mr. 
Speaker, the Brown decision was an inspiration. It gave hope to so many 
throughout the South. It was the first time we had ever had an 
indication that anyone in the Federal Government knew about the 
injustice we suffered, and it was the first time we had ever heard any 
government agent agree that it was wrong.
  The Brown decision strengthened the resolve of people already 
involved in the struggle for civil rights, and it encouraged hundreds 
and thousands of young people like me to believe a new day could come 
in America. And that is why the Brown decision is so important to 
remember.
  Many people never dreamed that they would ever see the end of 
segregation, but the Brown decision helped them to see that a 
persistent call for justice in America can bring change. That is why we 
cannot give in, we cannot give up, and we cannot give out, Mr. Speaker, 
until the promise of the Brown decision is fully realized in America.
  We have come a long way in 50 years, but we still have a great 
distance to go before we lay down the burden of race in America. But 
our struggle is more than one decision, more than one vote, one 
congressional term, or Presidential election. Ours is a struggle of a 
lifetime, and that is why we must not get lost in a sea of despair, Mr. 
Speaker. We must not lose faith in a dream of an integrated society 
promised by the Brown decision.
  Here, in the United States Congress, we must hold fast to the 
struggle for peace, the struggle for equality, and the struggle for 
justice for all, until the dream of a truly interracial democracy is 
fully realized in America, until we see the dawn of the beloved 
community, a Nation at peace with itself.
  We cannot be satisfied, we cannot rest until that day comes, until 
the true meaning of Brown is a living reality for all Americans.

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