[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 73 (Friday, May 21, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6081-S6082]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
50TH ANNIVERSARY OF BROWN v. BOARD OF EDUCATION
Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, I rise to commemorate the 50th
anniversary of the landmark 1954 civil rights decision of Brown v.
Board of Education. In its decision, the Supreme Court held that the
Equal Protection Clause of the fourteenth amendment prohibits States
from maintaining racially segregated public schools.
In Brown, the Court upheld the principle that America is a land of
laws, not men.
In Brown, the Court affirmed that equality, fairness, and justice are
for all Americans, irrespective of race, ethnicity, color, or creed.
The Supreme Court found that the segregation of white and black
children in public schools denied black children the equal protection
of the laws guaranteed by the fourteenth amendment.
The Court reached this decision even if the physical facilities and
other ``tangible'' factors of white and black schools were equal.
Of course, we all know that the facilities and resources were far
from being equal.
It took courage on the part of the nine Justices of the U.S. Supreme
Court to reverse the so-called ``separate but equal'' precedent that
the Court had created in the 1896 case of Plessy v. Ferguson.
The Plessy decision concerned a 30-year-old shoemaker named Homer
Plessy who had been jailed for sitting in the ``White'' car of the East
Louisiana Railroad. Plessy was only one-eighth black and seven-eighth
white, but under Louisiana law, he was considered black and therefore
required to sit in the ``Colored'' car.
In Plessy, the Supreme Court found that laws requiring separate black
and white railroad cars did not conflict with the thirteenth amendment
which abolished slavery.
The Court held that ``a statute which implies merely a legal
distinction between the white and colored races has no tendency to
destroy the legal equality of the two races.'' Consequently, the
noxious notion of ``separate but equal'' took root in America.
The lone dissenter in the Plessy case, Justice John Harlan, wrote,
``Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates
classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are
equal before the law.'' Justice Harlan was a half-century ahead of his
time.
After years of arguing discrimination cases throughout the Nation, a
team of NAACP lawyers, led by Thurgood Marshall, brought five case from
Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, Delaware, and Washington DC to the
Supreme Court. Thurgood Marshall--one of the giants of American
history--stood before the Supreme Court determined to rid this Nation
of a ``failure of our constitutional system.''
In Brown, the Court ruled that in the United States and under the
U.S. Constitution, ``separate'' is inherently unequal.
These words were profound then and there are equally profound today
because when the Supreme Court struck down school legal segregation, it
advanced the cause of human rights in America and set an example for
all the world.
I just visited the ``Separate and Unequal'' exhibit at the
Smithsonian. I was struck by how one of the displays put it: the Brown
decision told Americans and the world that ``the American dream of
ethnic diversity and racial equality under the law is a dream of
justice for all.''
Although the Brown decision declared the system of legal segregation
unconstitutional, the Court ordered only that the States end
segregation with ``all deliberate speed.'' One dictionary definition of
``deliberate'' is ``leisurely or slow in manner or motion.''
This ambiguity over how to enforce the ruling gave segregationists an
opportunity to organize what came to be called ``massive resistance.''
Many State officials in the South responded to the Brown decision by
promising to use all legal means and resources under their command to
prevent integration.
In Prince Edward County, VA, for example--one of the cases decided in
the Brown decision--the school district's response was to close the
public schools in Farmville for 5 years, from 1959 to 1964. White
students enrolled in private schools while a generation of black
children was denied access to education.
Over the 50 years since Brown, this Nation has continued to wrestle
with issues of racial and ethnic equality.
As I stand here today to pay homage to the Brown decision and the
civil rights struggle, I feel compelled to ask, ``A half-century after
Brown, how far have we come? Where we are today, and where are we
headed?''
Fifty years after the Brown decision, the struggle for equality has
come to include not only racial and ethnic minorities, but also women,
the disabled, and gays and lesbians. That is a promising development.
We need only remember that it is only this week when the
Massachusetts Supreme Court's order recognizing gay marriages is given
the full effect of law.
Since the 1954 Brown decision, we have made progress in the sense
that Americans overwhelmingly repudiate discrimination and segregation.
But while we no longer see the blatant vestiges of the segregationist
era such as signs saying ``whites only'' or ``colored only,'' our
society is still plagued by inequality and injustice.
African Americans have yet to enjoy true racial equality in this
Nation. And in the absence of real equality, African Americans are
being denied the essence of what it means to be an American.
Statistics are the clearest barometer for measuring our progress and
far too many of them reveal that African Americans continue to lag
behind whites in important ways.
In April 2004, the Nation's unemployment rate was 4.9 percent for
whites; for blacks, it was 9.7 percent.
In 2002, the poverty rate was 12.1 percent nationwide; for blacks, it
was 22.7 percent.
In 1999, median income for white families was $51,244; for black
families, it was $31,778.
Today, black men make up 41 percent of all prisoners, but only 4
percent of all college and university students.
African Americans are 13 percent of the population in my home State
of New Jersey, but they constituted a staggering 63 percent of the
State's prison population in 2002.
The murder rate for whites is 3.3 per 100,000 people; for blacks,
it's six times as high, 20.5 per 100,000 people.
These statistics make it pretty clear that while we have come a long
way from the blatant racism of ``separate but equal'' and the decision
to close the Farmville public schools to prevent their integration, we
still have a long way to go in making the dream of justice and equality
for all Americans a living, breathing reality.
As we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Brown decision, we need
to rededicate ourselves to the civil rights struggle. As Teddy
Roosevelt said, ``This country will not be a really good place for any
of us to live in if it is not a really good place for all of us to live
in.''
Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr President, 50 years ago, our Nation set out to give
every child the chance for excellence and equality in education. In a
quote from the Brown decision in 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court said,
``Today education is perhaps the most important function of State and
local governments . . . It is a principal instrument in awakening the
child to cultural values, in preparing him for later professional
training, and in helping him to adjust normally to his environment. In
these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to
succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education. Such
an opportunity, where the State has undertaken to provide it, is a
right, which must be made available to all on equal terms.'' We have
made great progress in the past 50 years but we still have a long way
to go.
By fulfilling the promise of Brown, school systems have the ability
to lay a great foundation for our Nation. Providing children with a
high quality education, in a diverse classroom setting, gives our
children the educational
[[Page S6082]]
tools which they need to succeed. Additionally, it provides them with
an environment which will equip them with the necessary tools to become
true leaders. The goals of Brown were to provide to all children,
excellent schools which were as diverse as possible. The greatest gift
that we can give our children is to ensure that they receive nothing
less.
Fifty years after Brown, its full promise remains unrealized. Public
education in our country has become more and more separate. In
Washington, DC, public schools, nearly all students are attending
segregated, poor schools. For example, 2,455 students are attending
12th grade. Of those, 121 are white, about 1,900 are black and the rest
are primarily Latino and Asian/Pacific Islander. Of the white students,
116 attend just three schools with 88 of those at just one school. This
scenario is happening not only in our Nation's capital but across the
Nation. In my State of Louisiana, public schools in the City of Monroe
have 88 percent minority students, while the surrounding rural district
has 71 percent white students.
Not only are our schools more separate, but they are also more
unequal. Since 1988, the minority achievement gap in our country has
continued to grow. Nationally, African American and Latino 17-year-olds
demonstrate reading and math skills that are virtually
indistinguishable from white 13-year-olds. In my own State of
Louisiana, there is a 42.9 point gap between the performance of African
American students and their white peers. These statistics can be
explained by many different variables. Poor and minority students are
one-third more likely to be taught by an unqualified teacher than their
peers. Students of color and low-income students do not receive
curriculum and instruction that is as challenging or rigorous as other
students. According to the U.S. Department of Education, less than a
third of students from low-wealth families were enrolled in the college
prep track, while two-thirds of students from high-wealth families were
in college prep. What is worse, we have put educational funding on its
head. In a majority of States, the more students of color you have, the
less likely you are to receive State and local funds.
The founding principle of No Child Left Behind was that all children
can learn. There are hundreds of examples, many of which you will hear
in commemoration of the Brown decision, to demonstrate this fact to be
true. Centennial Place Elementary School in Atlanta, GA is 91 percent
African American and 79 percent low-income and is in the top 10 percent
of the entire State of Georgia in reading. Moreover, Centennial Place
Elementary outscored 88 percent of other Georgia schools on the State's
math test. In my home State of Louisiana, Claiborne Fundamental
Elementary School has an 80 percent minority student body, 60 percent
of which are in poverty. Yet they finished in the 94th percentile on
LEAP testing and finished in the top 10 percent in closing the
achievement gap. These are only a few examples of success in schools
which support the principles of No Child Left Behind. For the first
time, the Federal Government has rejected the bigotry of lower
expectations and has required States and local school districts to do
something about the growing gap of opportunity in our schools. If we
are to realize the promise of Brown we must ensure that each and every
child, regardless of race or income, has an opportunity to realize
their potential.
The links between all of these examples of success are
accountability, full and equal funding, and teacher quality. If we can
set clear, measurable goals for performance and continue to hold
schools accountable for results, we can truly measure success and
failure. Backlash against No Child Left Behind is in part because
people are being forced to face the reality that gaps do exist. Under
the old system, schools with huge gaps in the performance of their
students were labeled as being successful. Nationally, 4th grade
African Americans lag behind their white peers in reading, with 39
percent of white students considered proficient but only 12 percent of
black students. Things are similar in 8th grade mathematics, 36 percent
of white students are labeled proficient, but only 7 percent of black
students fall into the same category.
While we continue to make schools accountable, we must also ensure
that they are fully and equally funded. Over the past four years, Title
I of No Child Left Behind has been underfunded by the President's
Budget by $22.3 billion. In my State of Louisiana, that means that 135,
962 disadvantaged children, 6,029 English-learners, and 62,977
preschool children are left behind. We cannot continue to expect our
schools to perform, if we do not give them the tools they need. This
funding must also be equal. In 22 States, the highest poverty school
districts receive less per-student funding from State and local sources
than the lowest-poverty school districts. This is also true of the
Nation as a whole. The top 25 percent of school districts in terms of
child poverty nationwide receive less funding than the bottom 25
percent. Similarly, in 28 States the local districts with the highest
percentage of minority children receive less funding than districts
with the fewest minority children.
These increases in funding will go towards many different aspects of
our children's education but also towards recruiting the best and the
brightest teachers. The difference between an effective teacher and an
ineffective teacher can be a whole grade level in school. In a recent
study in Dallas, students who had the added value of a good teacher 3
years in a row were scoring in the 76th percentile; while students who
had a bad teacher 3 years in a row were performing in the 27th
percentile. We can help recruit and retain quality teachers by
increasing their opportunity for professional development, increasing
the pay for teachers who work in high challenge areas, merit pay and
bonuses for good teachers, and by increasing administrative and
professional support for teachers in schools.
The principles laid out in No Child Left Behind give our Nation the
opportunity to fully realize the promise of Brown v. Board of
Education. If we can continue to fund initiatives which encourage
accountability and excellence for all students we can continue to close
the achievement gap that plagues our Nation's schools. In 1960, four
black 6-year-old girls were the first to integrate two white schools in
my home town of New Orleans. These brave children set out as pioneers
to create a school system in this country which was equal for all
children regardless of race or religion. We must keep these children in
our hearts as we set forth to make their dream truly a reality. On this
50th commemoration of the Brown decision, I hope that my colleagues
will join with me in ensuring that every child receives access to the
same high quality education.
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