[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 75 (Monday, May 19, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H4462-H4469]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               60 YEARS AFTER BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2013, the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Horsford) is recognized 
for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. HORSFORD. Mr. Speaker, 60 years ago, America was a country 
entrenched in inequality. Whites and African Americans were treated as 
two separate classes. Our society's education system, perhaps our most 
influential and important institution for future success, kept White 
and Black children separate and wholly unequal.
  Then, in 1954, the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. The Board of 
Education, argued and won by the legendary Justice Thurgood Marshall, 
rewove the fabric of our divided Nation, and moved our country down the 
path towards the civil rights victories of the 1960s. The decision was, 
according to Sherrilyn Ifill, the current president of the NAACP Legal 
Defense and Education Fund:

       The beginning of the end of legal apartheid in the United 
     States.

  Laws of the Jim Crow that were intentionally designed to ensure that 
Blacks and Whites were not treated equally were finally questioned by 
our Nation's highest courts. The dream of a country where all men are 
created equal and treated equally under the law became a potential 
reality.
  But it would still take decades of tireless activism by multiple 
generations of civil rights leaders and organizers to get us where we 
are today. Brown v. The Board of Education, this decision was the first 
step toward a reality of equality and was a drastic change for a court 
that had previously been detrimental to past civil rights actions and 
cases.
  So we are here today as the Congressional Black Caucus to reflect on 
America's 60 years after the Brown v. The Board of Education decision. 
What impacts have we seen and what challenges still remain with 
achieving a society that truly lives up to the 14th Amendment's equal 
protection under the law clause? What steps must still be taken to 
achieve a society that lives up to the dream of the civil rights 
movement, where the color of one's skin does not determine their 
ability to succeed?
  Mr. Speaker, tonight, I am proud to be joined by colleagues who have 
been part of this effort, this ongoing effort towards realizing the 
full potential of what the Brown decision means for every single child 
in America.
  I would like to yield first to the gentleman from Virginia, 
Representative Bobby Scott, my good friend, who has been a champion for 
working families and who recently was part of a forum at George Mason 
University talking about the issue of the Brown decision and where we 
are today.
  Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Nevada 
for calling this special occasion to give us the opportunity to 
celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Supreme Court case of Brown v. 
The Board of Education.
  As a representative from Virginia, I take personal pride in 
celebrating this anniversary because Virginia played such a prominent 
role in that case. In fact, one of the four cases that were combined 
into the Brown decision was Davis v. School Board of Prince Edward 
County, in Virginia. Two of the Nation's premier constitutional lawyers 
were involved in the case: Oliver Hill and Spottswood Robinson, both 
from Virginia.
  In the Brown decision, the United States Supreme Court unanimously 
struck down the legal footing for racial segregation in public schools 
in this country. The decision overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, a 1996 
case that held that a State could maintain separate but equal public 
accommodations.
  In Brown, the court highlighted the importance of education and 
language that still rings true today. The court said:

       Today, education is perhaps the most important function of 
     State and local governments. Compulsory school attendance 
     laws and the great expenditures for education both 
     demonstrate our recognition of the importance of education to 
     our democratic society. It is required in the performance of 
     our most basic public responsibilities, even service in the 
     Armed Forces. It is a very foundation of good citizenship. 
     Today it is a principal instrument and a awakening your child 
     to cultural values in preparing him for later professional 
     training and 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 come then to the question presented: Does segregation of 
     children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even 
     though the physical facilities and other ``tangible'' factors 
     may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of 
     equal educational opportunities? We believe that it does.

  The court then concluded that:

       In the field of public education, the doctrine of 
     ``separate but equal'' has no place. Separate educational 
     facilities are inherently unequal.

  Unfortunately, although the decision was a victory for minority 
students, not everyone was eager to comply. Virginia led the resistance 
to the Brown decision. Ironically, Virginia used the language in the 
Brown decision as its legal grounds for what they called Massive 
Resistance, where it said such an opportunity, where a State has 
undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made to all on equal 
terms.
  Virginia reasoned that it could avoid integrating the schools by 
having no schools at all. So, in Prince Edward County, they closed the 
schools for several years. Schools were also closed in Norfolk and 
Front Royal and Charlottesville. We overcame Massive Resistance after 
several years and those schools eventually reopened.
  But now here we are six decades after Brown. Thankfully, we have made 
progress, but we still have work to do.

                              {time}  1930

  The promise of equal educational opportunities envisioned by Brown 
remains unfulfilled.
  For example, equal educational opportunity does not occur when one 
jurisdiction spends substantially more per student than an adjacent 
jurisdiction because of the relative differences in wealth between the 
two jurisdictions.
  Unequal funding results in unequal educational opportunities when you 
consider that studies have shown that one-half of low-income students 
who are qualified to attend college do not attend because they can't 
afford to. In fact, today, a high-income, low-achieving student is more 
likely to attend college than a high-achieving, low-income student.
  Another example of educational inequality is the current debate over 
publicly financed school vouchers, which can be used at private 
schools, which might provide educational opportunities to a privileged 
few, but which would definitely deprive the public schools of 
desperately needed resources.
  The supporters of vouchers frequently claim that this is a choice, 
when, actually, all it is is a chance. If you win the lottery, you have 
a chance to go to the private schools, but if you lose the lottery, 
then you are stuck in the public schools, with fewer resources, because 
all of the money is spent on vouchers.
  Obviously, we have a lot of work to do to complete the promise of the 
Brown decision. The 60th anniversary of the decision offers us an 
opportunity to rededicate ourselves to achieving these lofty ideals.
  Again, I want to thank the gentleman from Nevada for the opportunity 
to speak.
  Mr. HORSFORD. I thank the gentleman from Virginia.
  Thank you for your historical frame on this important subject on the 
60th anniversary of the Brown decision.
  Mr. Speaker, I would next like to yield to a true champion for 
working families in his district and for people all across this 
country, a fighter for average, everyday working people and for 
children who deserve a quality education. He is the gentleman from New 
York, Representative Charlie Rangel.
  Mr. RANGEL. Let me really thank the gentleman from Nevada for 
constantly reminding us of what a great country we live in and how it 
can be so improved.

[[Page H4463]]

  Mr. Speaker, in having fought in the war--screaming and yelling and 
complaining, but recognizing how great this Nation is--it was an 
opportunity to say thank you for the blessings that have been bestowed 
on this Nation and to think about those who drafted a constitution that 
didn't include slaves or women or people who didn't hold land.
  Yet they drafted a document that was flexible enough for us to be 
able to say that that great Statue of Liberty meant that we would bring 
talents from all over the world to come to make us the largest 
democracy and the strongest military and the greatest economic force in 
the world; and we have done that because we have always felt that, no 
matter what your background is, if you could get here, you could make 
it here.
  When we talk about the Brown decision, nobody ever thought that, in 
just sitting next to White folks or to Black folks, that we were going 
to get a better education.
  What we tried to overcome in our schools is that nobody of color who 
picked cotton or who fought in the battlefields--who had as high a 
patriotic record as any other group of people--would not be able to be 
denied the opportunity to participate in the economic growth of this 
country.
  If individuals succeed in this country, it means communities succeed 
in this country. When that happens, the Nation succeeds.
  When the flag is saying the United States of America, there is no 
color involved or language involved in basically what people think. 
They know that we have been able to bring together a gorgeous mosaic; 
but if because of color--if just because of color--you associate it 
with poverty and a lack of education and a lack of decent housing, then 
this is a cancer that we must not only talk about, but that really 
prevents America from being all that she can be.
  Recently, a person in the other body thought that the political 
opposition to President Obama was based on his color. Most of us know 
there is no question about it. Most of us know that there are still 
parts of this great Nation where people never believed that the Union 
Army prevailed and that President Lincoln was a true patriot. Some of 
those people hate our President with the same hatred with which they 
hated Abraham Lincoln.
  The truth of the matter is that more and more people of color are 
coming to this country. What will bind them--what will make us 
stronger--is that they be educated, that they be able to get into the 
middle class, that they be able to prosper.
  The Brown decision merely said that a person, an American, who is 
being denied an equal opportunity to get an education is being denied 
due process. It is like sending a person to the wars without a rifle, 
without the resources to negotiate saving his life and to destroy the 
enemy.
  We are not talking just about doing the right thing. You cannot love 
this country if you are not going to be prepared to educate everybody 
in this country. It is going to take more than a Court decision, 
especially this present Court.
  It is going to take this generation to stop teaching their kids to 
hate people because of their color, because if you leave it up to kids, 
if you really just put them together and see how much they laugh and 
joke, they will not be aware that somebody, somewhere, had some 
poison--venom--that said that variations in color meant that there were 
variations in respect and support.
  I think that the Congressional Black Caucus and especially you, the 
gentleman from Nevada, are the patriots that we have today with the 
willingness to tolerate the indifference and the lack of sensitivity to 
our need, but also with the willingness to work and to come together 
and make certain that color does not take away from our mutual respect 
and from our ability to gain the tools that would allow us to make the 
maximum contribution to this great country.

  I thank the gentleman for this opportunity, not only to salute those 
who drafted the Constitution, but who made it flexible enough for 
people they never thought to be able to participate and really make it 
work for all of us. Thank you so much.
  Mr. HORSFORD. I thank the gentleman from New York.
  Thank you for your wisdom and your sage advice and for challenging 
us, even today, to remember what the Brown decision is all about, and 
that is for people to truly be treated equally, not on the basis of 
race.
  We know, based on where we are today in America--though there are 
some who want to say we live in a postracial society--when you look at 
the outcomes of young people based on where they are from, clearly, we 
have not lived up to the full promise of what Brown has intended. So 
thank you for your advice and for participating in this Special Order 
hour.
  I would like to turn now to the chairman of the Progressive Caucus 
here in the House. He is a great man with great vision, Representative 
Keith Ellison from Minnesota.
  Mr. ELLISON. Thank you, Congressman Horsford, and thank you for 
leading this Special Order on Brown v. The Board of Education.
  Mr. Speaker, I think it can be safely argued that there is really no 
more important Supreme Court decision in the history of the United 
States. I believe it is the most important decision.
  The reason is that our country was founded on the idea that all men 
are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain 
unalienable rights, among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness; yet for so many years--243 years--men and women were held in 
bondage in this Nation that is dedicated to freedom.
  American slavery--racial discrimination--stands as an indictment and 
as evidence of the insincerity of that fundamental promise of America. 
Then for another 100 years after slavery ended, for Black people to 
exist in a state of Jim Crow's subordination is further evidence that 
those original words really were not intended and really were not 
sincere.
  Brown v. The Board of Education was a restoration. It was an attempt 
to say: Do you know what? We have had an ugly past in this country, and 
we have not lived up to our values.
  We have called on freedom, and we have declared freedom, yet we have 
given people the opposite of freedom, which is slavery; so with Brown 
v. The Board of Education, the United States has begun a process of 
pushing the old, ugly past to the back.
  I know very well we could stand up here--and we will stand up here--
and talk about the mission that we have to pursue to stand up for equal 
education opportunities for all, but if we take a minute just to look 
back at what we have achieved, Brown v. The Board of Education 
represents a seminal moment in American history when we rejected that 
ugly history that was in conflict and in sharp contradiction to the 
principles that this country stood for.
  I think it is also important, Mr. Horsford, to point out that Brown 
v. The Board of Education was not some gift that fell out of the sky. 
This case was fought and won by some seriously committed soldiers for 
justice.
  I know we will talk about Thurgood Marshall here tonight quite a bit, 
but before Thurgood Marshall, there was a man named Charles Hamilton 
Houston. Charles Hamilton Houston was a brilliant man. He was a 
Harvard-trained lawyer and was the assistant dean of Harvard Law 
School.
  At an early point in his career, he was offended and outraged by Jim 
Crow segregation, particularly in schools, so he got an old video 
camera, and he drove down south in his car.
  He couldn't stay in a hotel because Black people were not allowed to 
stay in White hotels during those days. You had to sleep in your car, 
or maybe somebody would take you in for the night; but he took that 
video camera--took film and footage--and showed exactly what African 
American students were living through--the harsh conditions, the fact 
that there were all grades of students in the same classroom, the fact 
that the buildings were inferior, the books were outdated, the 
facilities were in every way inferior--and that this promise of 
separate but equal was anything but equal and was inherently unequal.
  Charles Hamilton Houston trained up a cadre of lawyers who would take 
on and fight American segregation. Among those were Thurgood Marshall, 
but there were others as well--Spottswood Robinson. There were many 
other great lawyers.

[[Page H4464]]

  Back in the day, when it was even difficult for an African American 
lawyer to stand up and do anything, these lawyers stood up and made the 
case that, in America, the ideals upon which this country were founded 
demanded that segregation be struck down.

  These lawyers, first of all, didn't go straight to the elementary 
schools. First, they went to the graduate schools, and they 
desegregated the graduate schools. They fought against White primaries. 
Blacks, in some States, could vote in the general elections, but they 
couldn't participate in the primaries, so they had no choice in picking 
who was the Democrat and who was the Republican.
  They took on restrictive covenant cases. They took on all types of 
cases. They attacked these standing monuments to segregation and beat 
them down. Then they got to the famous Brown v. The Board of Education, 
but Charles Hamilton Houston, a man who died at the age of 54, was not 
able to see the great work that his student, Thurgood Marshall, had 
done as they led the team to beat down segregation in public schools, 
but his spirit was there.
  Today, as we commemorate this towering victory of defeating Jim Crow 
segregation in schools, we have to also commemorate the heroic figures 
of Charles Hamilton Houston, Thurgood Marshall, Spottswood Robinson, 
and of many, many more who fought these battles, these Black lawyers 
who fought these battles and who would not accept the status quo.
  I want to commend you, Mr. Horsford, for leading this today; and I 
certainly hope that Americans all across this country, Black, White, 
Native American, Hispanic, Asian--of all colors and all backgrounds--
will take a moment and thank those lawyers who fought to defeat 
segregation in America because what they literally did--and they did 
this for every single American of every color--is they allowed 
Americans to stand up and say: we do, in fact, live in the land of the 
free and the home of the brave.
  Whereas, if we had not defeated segregation, we would have to say: we 
live in the land of the White free and the White brave and of the 
enslaved and segregated everybody else.
  That is nothing to crow about. In fact, that stands as a shame on our 
Nation's history, but the achievement of these brave lawyers restored 
our Nation's honor.

                              {time}  1945

  This is why I think Brown v. The Board of Education is the most 
important case in history. I thank you for taking a moment to focus our 
attention on it.
  Mr. HORSFORD. I thank the gentleman for reminding us of the great 
legal minds who contributed and helped build the case which resulted in 
the Brown decision and the fact that it took a strategic team of 
formidable legal minds to come up with the right strategy that 
ultimately resulted in this great decision. I thank the gentleman, 
Representative Ellison, for reminding us of their distinct 
contribution.
  I would like to now turn to the gentlelady from California, 
Representative Barbara Lee, who comes to this Caucus and this body with 
tremendous experience, working first in the community as a caseworker 
on behalf of people, and always keeping the focus of people in the 
front of the policies that we are pursuing to advance in this great 
institution.
  I now yield to the gentlelady from California, Representative Barbara 
Lee.
  Ms. LEE of California. Thank you very much.
  Let me thank you, Congressman Horsford, for that very gracious 
introduction and also for your continued leadership on so many fronts, 
especially in organizing the Congressional Black Caucus' Special Order, 
along with Congressman Hakeem Jeffries. I really want to thank you for 
making sure that the theme this evening of this Special Order, the 60th 
anniversary of Brown v. The Board of Education, did not go unremarked. 
You are both really doing a fantastic job representing and working hard 
on behalf of your constituents.
  I also have to say that Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, our fearless 
Congressional Black Caucus chair, really serves as an excellent steward 
of the conscience of the Congress.
  Let me just say I was just a child, Congressman Horsford, in El Paso, 
Texas, when the Supreme Court issued its landmark decision in Brown v. 
The Board of Education on May 17, 1954. Schools were segregated when I 
started school. So that was in the not-so-distant past. I remember it 
very well.
  My good friend, Congressman Beto O'Rourke, so ably represents El Paso 
today. I have to tell you that the results and the impact of the 
Supreme Court's decision striking down the separate but equal doctrine 
is visible throughout the city.
  I am proud to say also that in 1955, El Paso became the first city in 
the State of Texas to integrate its public schools. My mother, Mildred 
Parish Massey, was one of the seven African American students to boldly 
integrate the University of Texas at El Paso.
  In 1957, El Paso elected Raymond Telles the first Mexican American 
mayor of a major United States city. On June 7, 1962, the El Paso city 
council, under the leadership of Alderman Bert Williams, passed the 
first city ordinance of any major city in the former Confederacy 
outlawing segregation in hotels, motels, restaurants, and theaters. 
These were public places that were previously barred to African 
Americans and, in some cases in El Paso earlier, to Mexican Americans.
  This history has been recounted by Congressman O'Rourke during Black 
History Month. I thank him for that because I just have to say I lived 
this, my family lived this, my friends lived this, just as so many 
millions of people throughout our country lived this shameful time in 
our history.
  This is just a bit of my personal background. We know that, despite 
the landmark decision, it would take decades in many cities and States 
for that first mandate of the Supreme Court to be carried out. But 
because of Brown, we have the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting 
Rights Act of 1965, and the Civil Rights Act of 1986.
  Of course, we have come a long way since the 1950s and 1960s, but the 
fact remains that the fight to end inequality in public education 
continues. The end of the legal doctrine, argued then by the brilliant, 
great Thurgood Marshall, who was the attorney and later Supreme Court 
Justice, and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, did not necessarily mean the 
end of racial segregation by neighborhood and community, resulting in 
schools that continued to see stark segregation by race and income. In 
fact, many schools have reversed the desegregation gains of the 1970s 
and 1980s, while many other schools remain as segregated as they ever 
were.
  As a new UCLA report mentioned last week, which I have to cite, 
Congressman Horsford, called, ``Brown at 60: Great Progress, a Long 
Retreat and an Uncertain Future,'' Black and Latino students tend to be 
in schools with a substantial majority of poor children, while White 
and Asian students typically attend middle class schools. My home State 
of California, along with New York and Illinois, is among the top three 
worst States for isolating Black students. Latino students are the most 
segregated in California.
  And now, with the attacks on affirmative action in States, including 
my own State, unfortunately, including Proposition 209 many years ago, 
in the State of California many minority students are being 
systematically shut out of public higher education.
  But let's be clear: even in schools that are well integrated, 
minority students often are treated differently.
  As the results from the Civil Rights Data Collection survey showed, 
which was recently released by the Department of Education and 
supported by the CBC, despite making up only 18 percent of enrollees, 
African American students represented 42 percent of preschool students 
suspended once.
  Can you believe that? Forty-two percent of preschool students 
suspended once. These are 4- and 5-year-olds. And nearly half of the 
students suspended more than once.
  African American girls were suspended at rates 12 percent higher than 
girls of any other race or ethnicity. Black boys were suspended at 
higher rates--20 percent--than girls or boys of any other race or 
ethnicity.
  These are kids who are 4 and 5 years old. This is simply 
unacceptable.

[[Page H4465]]

  As chair of the CBC's Taskforce on Poverty and the Economy, and the 
Democratic whip's Task Force on Poverty, Income Inequality, and 
Opportunity, we as task force members recognize that equal access to a 
quality public school education is key to lifting children out of 
poverty. And true equality could not be achieved if systematic 
institutional barriers to opportunity are allowed to persist.
  It was the Thurgood Marshalls of the world, the Medgar Everses, the 
Rosa Parkses, the Fannie Lou Hamers, the Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, the 
Malcolm X's, and all those unsung heroes and sheroes in our communities 
at the local level that ensured that this Nation would live up to its 
own promise and the guarantee that was laid out in Brown.
  And so on the 60th anniversary of this tremendous Supreme Court 
victory, I hope that Members of this body recognize that while legal 
segregation is ended--yes, the laws of the land will not allow it--de 
facto segregation and institutional and structural racism is alive and 
well. Our public policy agenda must take that fact into account.
  We must complete the unfinished business of Brown v. The Board of 
Education by supporting legislation, public policies, and funding 
priorities that bring true equality and equity in education to all 
children.
  Thank you again, Congressman Horsford, for allowing us to talk this 
evening on this historic and momentous 60-year anniversary of Brown v. 
The Board of Education.
  Mr. HORSFORD. Thank you, Representative Lee, for explaining so well 
the link between poverty and race, and that they both contribute to the 
cause of segregation that we continue to see even today.
  There are those who want to suggest that race has nothing to do with 
it, but yet it is the de facto policies which contribute greatly to why 
we see the resegregation, if you will.
  Despite the advances in some communities, there are places still in 
America where the dream of Brown has not been truly realized and where 
communities which were advancing are now taking steps back.
  I commend you for raising those points.
  Ms. LEE of California. I want to reemphasize this very recent 
statistic on this 60th anniversary.
  Despite making up only 18 percent of enrollees, African American 
students represented 42 percent of preschool students who are 
suspended. These are 4- and 5-year-olds.
  Just remember that as we debate public policy in this body.
  Mr. HORSFORD. I thank the gentlelady from California.
  It is now my privilege to yield to the gentlelady from New York, 
Representative Clarke, who continues to make her mark here in Congress. 
I am so honored to serve with her in this body. I continue to be in awe 
of how she engages her constituents, how she advocates on important 
legislation, and how she is advancing bold ideas to move our country 
forward. It has truly been an honor to learn from her as a freshman.
  I yield to the gentlelady from New York, Representative Yvette 
Clarke.
  Ms. CLARKE of New York. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from 
Nevada (Mr. Horsford) for his leadership and for being willing to be 
one of our distinguished anchors of the Congressional Black Caucus' 
Special Order, along with Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, who hails from 
Brooklyn, New York, like myself.
  I want to also knowledge the chairwoman of the Congressional Black 
Caucus, Ms. Fudge, for her leadership, speaking truth to power at all 
times.
  Mr. Speaker, I stand here today with my colleagues from the 
Congressional Black Caucus to commemorate, as a beneficiary, a historic 
decision--a decision that changed this Nation forever, Brown v. The 
Board of Education, in which the Supreme Court held that racial 
segregation, the doctrine of separate but equal, violated the guarantee 
of equal protection in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
  The unanimous decision in Brown v. The Board of Education called upon 
the conscience of this Nation and the principles upon which it had been 
founded that each of us are created equal and that we are entitled to 
the full protections of the laws of our land.
  Before Brown, the full participation of African Americans and other 
people of color in our public education system, which was a primary 
component of our civil society, were prevented and denied almost 
everywhere in the United States.
  The promises of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution 
that we are created equal and entitled to equal protection of the law 
were, until the decision in Brown, only words without substance for 
millions of people, whose exclusion from our society had persisted in 
the century after the Civil War.
  Millions of African Americans and other people of color could not eat 
in a restaurant, stay in a hotel, obtain a mortgage, or register to 
vote, even though they were American citizens who paid their taxes, 
fought for our country, and obeyed the law.
  Such racial discrimination was not limited to the States of the 
former Confederacy. In 1936, after sprinter Jesse Owen returned to the 
United States for a ticker tape parade in Manhattan, he was forced to 
enter the Waldorf Astoria on a freight elevator to attend a reception 
there because the hotel maintained a policy of segregation.
  Mr. Speaker, today we have a responsibility not only to commemorate 
the historic landmark decision of Brown v. The Board of Education, but 
also to understand its relevance at this moment in our history--a 
moment when our schools, particularly in New York City, have become 
more segregated by race than at any other time in the past half 
century, when enormous disparities in income and wealth threaten to 
divide this Nation and, indeed, when many of the same tactics used to 
disenfranchise our parents and grandparents are again being used to 
disenfranchise African Americans in this generation.
  Today, we have a responsibility, an obligation, if you will, to build 
on the legacy of the Brown decision and to eliminate in our schools, 
communities, and other institutions the practice of racial segregation, 
whether intended or unintended, that continues to divide this Nation, 
and to protect for every American the civil rights to which we are 
entitled by the Constitution.

                              {time}  2000

  It falls on our shoulders to keep up that fight for equality and, 
quite frankly, to make sure that, as a diverse Nation, we have an 
appreciation of the diversity of culture, religious, and ethnic 
backgrounds.
  Mr. Speaker, I recall the words of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood 
Marshall, who wrote that:

       Unless our children begin to learn together, there is 
     little hope that our people will ever learn to live together.

  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Nevada.
  Mr. HORSFORD. I thank the gentlelady from New York. Thank you, again, 
for challenging us to take on the responsibility to end racial 
segregation. Your words were so eloquent, and it really is a 
responsibility that each and every one of us must take hold on and take 
heed to in order to accomplish this. It is not going to be done unless 
we do it ourselves. Thank you.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Beatty), who 
I am honored to serve with in the freshman class. I am so inspired by 
her leadership, and she is such a dynamic spokesperson on so many 
important issues before this body. She truly is a committed public 
servant.
  Mrs. BEATTY. Mr. Speaker, thank you to my colleague. Thank you so 
much, Mr. Horsford from Nevada, for leading us in this Congressional 
Black Caucus Special Order hour, and also to my colleague from New York 
(Mr. Jeffries), thank you for your leadership.
  It is an honor for me to be here, not only as a Member of Congress, 
but someone who lived through our topic tonight.
  If we pause for a moment and could go back in history, that unanimous 
opinion written by Chief Justice Early Warren held that ``separate 
educational facilities are inherently unequal'' and that segregation of 
schools violates the 14th and Fifth Amendments of the United States 
Constitution.
  This decision, Mr. Speaker, signaled an end to the State-sanctioned 
segregation of public schools in the United

[[Page H4466]]

States, making it unlawful to deny access to public facilities on the 
basis of race.
  Striking down segregation in our Nation's public schools provided a 
major catalyst for the civil rights movement and made advances in 
desegregating housing, public accommodations, and institutions of 
higher education possible.
  On the anniversary of this landmark decision, we acknowledge and 
applaud those who endured and lived through those days of crises so all 
Americans could enjoy the right to vote, the right to equal protection 
of law.
  It is the Brown story, but it could have been, as we heard from 
Congresswoman Barbara Lee, the Barbara Lee story.
  It could be the Congresswoman Joyce Beatty story because I grew up 
during this same era of time as a young child who, thank goodness, had 
a mother and father who understood the link of discriminating against 
African Americans, who understood the link between redlining in 
housing, to education; so they made a brave step and moved to an all-
White neighborhood, so I could go to an integrated school.
  It reminds me of how Oliver Brown probably felt on that day when his 
young daughter, Linda, had to walk some 21 blocks, through all kinds of 
elements and traffic and danger zones, to get to the segregated school, 
when just six blocks away from where they lived was an all-White 
school.
  So you see, he took on this challenge because of his young daughter 
and, at that time, having another daughter that would follow and not 
knowing that there would even be a third daughter to follow.
  At the age of 32, at the time of the suit against the school system, 
he--a Baptist minister, a welder, a person who was active in his 
community--decided that he would let his name be put on the lawsuit.
  He testified that, many times, his daughter had to wait in the cold, 
to wait for a bus to take her to Monroe, even though, as I mentioned, 
seven blocks away from an all-White elementary school. That is the 
Oliver story.
  So when we think of the Oliver Brown story and we think of Mr. Brown, 
who opened up the schoolhouse doors to Americans, regardless of race or 
color, it created an opportunity for millions of Americans.
  Sadly, the promise of the Brown decision remains unfulfilled in many 
ways today. Millions of American families face trials and tribulations 
related to their color, creed, or religion.
  Even today, 60 years after legally-sanctioned educational segregation 
ended, the legacy of this discrimination can still be found in our 
schools, if you look at graduation rates, in the university, and yes, 
in the workplace.
  Today and every day, we must rededicate ourselves to raise a new 
generation that may seize their opportunities. It is incumbent upon us, 
as lawmakers, that we make sure that Americans are able to have a 
quality education, that they are able to exceed and succeed in all that 
they endeavor.
  While we pause in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Brown 
decision, we should not rest on our laurels until equality for all is a 
reality in our great Nation.
  Just this morning, a Columbus school board member reminded me, as 
Shawna Gibbs wrote me this note, she said, Mr. Speaker:

       No longer separate, but still fighting for equality.

  So as I close, I ask us to look at this visual and know that Oliver 
Brown's fight was for all of us, 60 years ago and today.
  Mr. HORSFORD. I thank the gentlelady from Ohio for her very personal 
remarks and reminding us that the decision of Brown has very real 
impact on the lives of individuals and, for some in this body who lived 
during the time of segregation, to be reminded of how important the 
Brown decision was to changing that and to also remind us that we have 
a commitment to the current and future generations to ensure that we 
never go back to those days.
  I thank the gentlelady very much for giving us that personal 
reflection on what the Brown decision means to her.
  Now, as a Member of the House of Representatives, just think how far 
you have come and how far so many children in America deserve to go. 
That is what the Brown decision is really all about.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to invite the coanchor for this hour to the 
podium. Each time the Congressional Black Caucus takes time to the 
floor for this Special Order hour, it is intended to bring up 
provocative issues, discuss important policies that deserve time, and 
also to challenge this august body to focus, for at least a while, 
about issues that don't always dominate the mainstream agenda.
  There is no one who does this more effectively than the coanchor that 
I have the honor of sharing this hour with. I have learned so much from 
him. He brings personal passion, experience, and education to the 
issues that we try to bring forward under the leadership of our chair, 
Marcia Fudge.
  It is his words that I know this evening will be so poignant as we 
reflect on the 60th anniversary of the Brown v. The Board of Education 
decision.
  I yield to the coanchor of this Special Order hour, my good friend, 
Representative Hakeem Jeffries from New York.
  Mr. JEFFRIES. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentleman from 
Nevada, my good friend, Representative Horsford, for his eloquence and 
for his leadership, for anchoring today's extremely important CBC 
Special Order commemorating the 60th anniversary of this historic 
Supreme Court decision.
  I look forward to our continued partnership as we move forward 
dealing with issues of significance, not just to the districts that we 
represent in Nevada and in Brooklyn, New York, and parts of Queens, 
respectively, but all across the country.
  We really appreciate the opportunity that we have, each and every 
week, as part of the Congressional Black Caucus' Special Order, this 
hour of power, to come before the people of this great country and 
speak directly to them for 60 minutes about an issue of great 
importance.
  We have heard a lot about the seminal nature of the Supreme Court's 
decision in 1954, Brown v. The Board of Education, an important 
decision, striking down this principle of separate but equal, exposing 
it for the fraud that it was, recognizing that, inherently, this 
doctrine was just designed to hold up the notion of segregation in this 
country, under a false premise that you can have institutions of 
learning that were separate but equal. Inherently, these institutions 
were unequal, as the Supreme Court found.
  This reversed decades of Supreme Court jurisprudence that had been 
designed to uphold segregation and Jim Crow laws and racial hatred in 
America, first codified by the Supreme Court, we know, in 1857, in the 
infamous Dred Scott decision, where the Supreme Court and its Chief 
Justice held that Blacks had no rights, whether they were free or 
whether they were slaves, that the White man was bound to respect. In 
this country, that is what the Supreme Court concluded in 1857.
  A war was fought as it relates to the conflict between the North and 
the South. Lives were lost, a lot of blood was spilled, and coming out 
of that conflict, of course, you had the 13th, the 14th, and the 15th 
Amendments.
  There was still a lot of people in America that didn't want to accept 
the notion of all men being created equally, as had been written in 
that glorious document, that Declaration of Independence; so we got the 
Black codes, and we got lynchings in the South, and we got Jim Crow 
segregation.
  Then again, in 1896, the Supreme Court felt the need, in Plessy v. 
Ferguson, to step in and raise segregation up to the constitutional 
level and conclude in this Supreme Court decision, Plessy v. Ferguson, 
that separate but equal--segregation--was constitutional in the United 
States of America.
  So the NAACP was subsequently formed in 1909, and some brilliant 
legal minds, over time, came together to help bring to life the 
democratic principles and ideals contained in the Constitution of the 
United States of America, but not actually practiced in this great 
country.
  Some of the names have already been called. Of course, Thurgood 
Marshall was the chief legal architect of the strategy that led to the 
dismantling of racial segregation in this country, but there were 
brilliant legal minds that he went out and recruited: Jack Greenberg; 
Constance Baker Motley, who

[[Page H4467]]

went on to become a Federal judge; and Robert Carter, who went on to 
become a Federal judge; and Spottswood Robinson, who, I believe, went 
on to become a Federal judge--brilliant legal minds that came together.

                              {time}  2015

  And in 1954, the Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, thankfully 
struck down this constitutionally upheld principle from Plessy v. 
Ferguson and decided that separate but equal was constitutionally 
suspect and shut it down.
  But then there were a lot of folks in America who still had to try to 
bring this principle to life. You had the desegregation struggles that 
took place all across the Deep South; James Meredith and the University 
of Mississippi in the early 1960s; and you had the Little Rock Nine, 
who attended the segregated Little Rock Central High School. These are 
brave individuals, young people confronted by angry mobs, bloodthirsty 
hounds, firehoses, and all sorts of intolerable things here in America 
simply to get an education. And we know that education pays.
  So we still have a long way to go. We have made a lot of progress.
  I represent a congressional district in New York State, and I am 
disturbed by the fact that New York is a State that has some of the 
most racially segregated schools in terms of its racial composition in 
the country. California is at the top of the list. Illinois is at the 
top of the list. Maryland is at the top of the list. And so we have got 
to deal with the continuation of this legacy, not because it is legally 
sanctioned at this point, but we still have far too many children 
educated in schools all across this country who are not being exposed 
to the diversity of this gorgeous mosaic that we have in America. And 
perhaps as a result of being isolated into schools with a high 
concentration of poverty, a high concentration of racial minorities, 
those schools don't necessarily have the same level of resources as we 
might find in other more affluent parts of America. So we still have 
some barriers that we have to strike down.
  The road to equality in America is still under construction, but I 
think we, as members of the Congressional Black Caucus, are hopeful 
because we understand that if you trace the progress that has been 
made, we have come a long way over a pretty short period of time. Yet 
we know we still have a long, long way to go.
  With that, I believe we still have another distinguished member of 
the CBC who has joined with us this evening.
  Mr. HORSFORD. The gentleman from New York (Mr. Jeffries) just 
mentioned the fact that New York, California, and Texas lead this 
issue. And, again, while we have made tremendous progress, as the UCLA 
study referenced by Representative Lee earlier this evening stated, 
students of color are much more likely to be grouped with their 
specific demographic. And now, with the changing demographics, we are 
seeing a real increase and a striking finding among the segregation of 
Latino students. In New York, California, and Texas, more than half of 
all Latino students go to schools that are 90 percent minority or more.
  So to speak about that or other topics, I will yield to the 
gentlewoman from the great State of Texas, Representative Sheila 
Jackson Lee.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. I thank the gentleman very much for his leadership 
on this very important night and for this very important opportunity to 
discuss equality in America. And we are joined by our colleagues, Mr. 
Jeffries of New York and, of course, our chair, Chairwoman Fudge. The 
CBC has led on issues--topical issues but painful issues, issues that 
are important not only to the people of color but certainly to people 
around the Nation and, I might say, as they look upon the United States 
as a beacon of light, to people around the world. Often when I travel 
internationally, I will hear people speak of the work that we do on the 
floor of the House.
  So I, too, come to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Brown v. The 
Board of Education and remind my colleagues that some 60 years ago, the 
Supreme Court unlocked the schoolhouse doors, broke down yet another 
barrier to equality, and beat the long arc of moral history toward 
justice.
  But we come now 60 years later. And I just want to speak to a few 
points, for many of my colleagues have already been on the floor of the 
House. I wanted to express some of the consternations that really 
unwind, if you will, the goodness of the Warren Court and its efforts 
to make a difference in the lives of so many Americans.
  Let me just read these words that were in Newsweek 60 years ago about 
this decision:

       It was the most momentous court decision in the whole 
     history of the Negro's struggle to achieve equal rights in 
     the United States, and the result will be nothing short of 
     social upheaval. The challenges: Personal prejudice against 
     the Negro will, of course, linger on, for although a court 
     decision can restrain the actions of man, it cannot change 
     overnight the way he thinks. Prejudice, however, no longer 
     will become institutionalized; ``Jim Crow'' will become an 
     outlaw.

  In the backdrop of Cliven Bundy, Donald Sterling, and the recent 
affirmative action decision by the Supreme Court, one would wonder how 
we are moving forward and how this Supreme Court decision Brown v. 
Topeka cannot be undermined.
  Quickly, I want to say that the Court got it wrong in the affirmative 
action decision; and Brown lays the framework for equality and 
opportunity and exposure; and the affirmative action decision took away 
the polio vaccination, if you will, for this ongoing divide between 
people of color.
  And as you can see in higher education at the University of Michigan 
and Michigan State, you will see the numbers going down of people of 
color, African Americans. At Berkeley, in California, the numbers are 
going down. So affirmative action was not a handout. It was a partner 
to Brown v. Topeka. It was, in fact, the opportunity to carry out the 
dream that Dr. Martin Luther King had.
  So all of us have to come together and experience each other's 
experiences. We have to stand in the shoes of young people who want 
opportunity, whether they are Hispanic or African American or Asian or 
whether they are, in fact, Anglo.
  In the State of Texas, there is a sizable segregation of Hispanic 
children, and it is because of their regional location. But what I 
would argue is that excellence has to go beyond that. As we stand here 
looking for integration, we must stand here demanding excellence in 
education for our children, and we need to ask the Supreme Court for 
its reconsideration in the affirmative action decision which undermines 
Brown v. Topeka.
  Let me celebrate this great decision, Brown v. Topeka, and commit 
ourselves to working continuously to make a difference in children's 
lives.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise with my CBC colleagues and others in 
commemoration of the Brown v. Board of Education decision.
  As you are well aware the case that came to be known as Brown v. 
Board of Education was actually the name given to five separate cases 
that were hear by the U.S. Supreme Court concerning the issue of 
segregation in public schools.
  These cases were Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Briggs v. 
Elliot, Davis v. Board of Education of Prince Edward County (VA.), 
Boiling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel.
  These cases came about because unfortunately, as a result of the 
Plessy decision, in the early twentieth century, the Supreme Court 
continued to uphold the legality of Jim Crow laws and other forms of 
racial discrimination.
  It was a very perilous time for Black Americans in this country.
  It is one thing to allow legalized separation on a de facto basis; 
but the Plessy decision all but codified segregation.
  This deprived Black Americans and others of the ability to pull 
themselves up by their bootstraps--because they could not even go into 
the store to buy some boots.
  Or receive an education.
  You may recall the case of Cumming v. Richmond (Ga.) County Board of 
Education (1899), for instance, where the Court refused to issue an 
injunction preventing a school board from spending tax money on a white 
high school when the same school board voted to close down a black high 
school for financial reasons.
  The facts of each case were different, but the same principle holds: 
it was time that the Court revisited this issue.
  The main issue in each was the constitutionality of state-sponsored 
segregation in public schools. Once again, Thurgood Marshall and the 
NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund handled these cases.
  The three-judge panel had already ruled in favor of the school boards 
prior to the cases going up to the Supreme Court.

[[Page H4468]]

  When the cases came before the Supreme Court in 1952, the Court 
consolidated all five cases under the name of Brown v. Board of 
Education.
  Thurgood Marshall personally argued the case before the Court.
  A number of legal issues were raised on appeal but the most common 
one was that separate school systems for blacks and whites were 
inherently unequal, and thus were in violation of the ``equal 
protection clause'' of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. 
Constitution.
  Furthermore, relying on sociological tests, such as the one performed 
by social scientist Kenneth Clark, and other data, he also argued that 
segregated school systems had a tendency to make black children feel 
inferior to white children, and thus such a system should not be 
legally permissible.
  Because of the difficulty in reaching a decision the cases were held 
over until the next term.
  On May 14, 1954, he delivered the opinion of the Court, stating that 
``We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of 
`separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are 
inherently unequal . . .''
  Although it took many years for the Court's plan of desegration with 
``all deliberate speed,'' Brown paved the way and the struggle 
continues in the Houston Independent Schools District and elsewhere 
around this great nation.
  I urge my colleagues to take a moment to reflect on the importance of 
this great yet troubled period in our great nation.

                     [From Newsweek, May 14, 2014]

Newsweek Rewind: 60 Years Since Brown v. Board of Ed Desegregated U.S. 
                                Schools

                            (By Rob Verger)

       Sixty years ago this Saturday, the Supreme Court, by 
     unanimous vote, ruled in Brown v. Board of Ed that separate 
     schools for black and white Americans were not equal. The 
     decision reversed the 1896 ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson, 
     which had said that ``separate but equal'' was OK--and was, 
     to say the least, a major setback for civil rights in the 
     United States. While Newsweek reflected in 1954 that Brown v. 
     Board of Ed would ``ultimately . . . mean the end of 
     segregation in all public places, everywhere in the United 
     States,'' it would take another decade for the federal 
     government, with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, to make 
     segregation in places like restaurants illegal.
       Here, in a series of excerpts, is how Newsweek responded in 
     an unbylined article in the May 24, 1954, issue of the 
     magazine. The writing style clearly reflects the attitudes 
     and norms of the times; the use of the term Negro, for 
     example, feels jarring and insensitive today.
       Its initial reaction to the verdict:
       ``It was the most momentous court decision in the whole 
     history of the Negro's struggle to achieve equal rights in 
     the United States, and the result will be nothing short of 
     social upheaval.''
       The challenges ahead:
       ``Personal prejudice against the Negro will, of course, 
     linger on, for, although a court decision can restrain the 
     actions of man, it cannot change overnight the way he thinks. 
     Prejudice, however, no longer will become institutionalized; 
     `Jim Crow' will become an outlaw.''
       The reaction in the South:
       ``The court's decision was greeted calmly by some 
     Southerners, and with dismay by others. At least three 
     Southern states--Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina--
     had been talking of circumventing a ban on segregation by 
     eliminating public schools altogether.''
       Then there's the fact that the South is a diverse place:
       ``For there is not one South, but many. [Georgia, 
     Mississippi, and South Carolina] represent the plantation 
     South, where, in some places, Negroes outnumber whites by 10 
     to 1. In such places, the mold of segregation will prove 
     almost unbreakable.''

  Mr. HORSFORD. Mr. Speaker, I will just close by saying that if we 
want the next generation of students to live the American Dream and 
achieve the success that they are capable of, then we must challenge 
the growing trend of inequality in our schools throughout America. That 
was the eventual dream that emerged from the Brown decision. And so 
far, we have fallen short of a fair and equal school system that gives 
each student their best chance to succeed.
  I thank the Chair for recognizing this Special Order hour on this, 
the 60th anniversary of the Brown decision, and I yield back the 
balance of my time.
  Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to 
discuss the impacts of Brown v. Board of Education and desegregation of 
schools in the United States. This landmark case outlawed segregation 
in America, and defied one of the ugliest longstanding manifestations 
of racism in America: the legal, physical separation of children in 
schools. It has been over 60 years since the Supreme Court's decision 
in Brown v. Board of Education desegregated our schools, yet an 
achievement and opportunity gap remains among our minority and low-
income students.
  As Members of Congress who represent communities of color, the 
purpose of today's special order is to highlight this landmark court 
case. However, I must also highlight that there is still not economic 
and social parity in many of our Nation's schools. There is a crisis 
which still exists today that America must address. We must focus our 
efforts on closing the achievement gap in the STEM disciplines.
  As the first female and first African American Ranking Member of the 
House Science, Space and Technology Committee, this is an issue that is 
very serious to me. As a United States Congresswoman for over 20 years, 
I have fought to provide increased opportunities for minorities to 
pursue careers in STEM. This is much more than a question of equality. 
We have a vast, untapped pool of talent in America, and this pool is 
continuing to grow. It is estimated that by 2050, 52 percent of the 
U.S. population will be from underrepresented minority groups.
  Our ``Nation's Report Card,'' by the National Assessments of 
Educational Progress, demonstrates that students from underrepresented 
minorities are falling behind in math and science as early as 4th 
grade. At the Post Secondary level, even though students from 
underrepresented minorities made up about 33 percent of the college age 
population in 2009, they only made up 19 percent of students who 
received an undergraduate STEM degree; less than 9 percent of students 
enrolled in science and engineering graduate programs; and barely 8 
percent of students who received PhDs in STEM fields. Frankly, all of 
these numbers are much too low.
  I also must underscore the important role that community colleges 
play in providing STEM degrees for minority students. 50 percent of 
African Americans, 55 percent of Hispanics, and 64 percent of Native 
Americans who hold bachelor's or master's degrees in science or 
engineering attended a community college at some point. We cannot 
afford to ignore the role of community colleges when looking to close 
the achievement gap in the 2lst century.
  In the same spirit in which Thurgood Marshall fought to end 
segregation in our schools, we must now work to achieve parity for all 
racial groups in the sciences. We have to drastically increase the 
number of African American students receiving degrees in STEM 
disciplines, or we will undoubtedly relinquish our global leadership in 
innovation and job creation.
  Ms. FUDGE. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Congressman Jeffries and 
Congressman Horsford for organizing this Special Order Hour to 
commemorate the 60th anniversary of the historic Brown v. Board of 
Education ruling.
  The Brown v. Board of Education decision declared that education 
``must be made available to all on equal terms.''
  When ruling on the case, former Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl 
Warren stated, ``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 that must be made available on 
equal terms.''
  While this Nation may no longer legally deny children access to a 
quality education because of their race, the equal opportunity to have 
a quality education is still being denied to millions of students who 
live in poverty, most of them children of color.
  According to a report released by the Civil Rights Project at UCLA, 
communities are experiencing more school segregation now than they have 
in decades. In fact, in New York, Illinois, Maryland and Michigan, more 
than half of African American students in these states attend schools 
where 90 percent or more of the student body is comprised of 
minorities.
  According to the U.S. Department of Education, African American 
students are six times more likely than white students to attend a 
high-poverty elementary school. These students often have inexperienced 
teachers, inadequate resources and dilapidated facilities.
  Today, millions of students are learning within the environment the 
Brown v. Board decision was meant to help them escape. Sixty years 
later there is still much work left to be done.
  Every student in this country must have equal access to a quality 
education regardless of the color of their skin or the poverty rate in 
their community. Furthermore, for this Nation to prepare our future 
generations for success, we must ensure adequate and equitable funding 
for all schools; no longer can only schools in the most affluent 
neighborhoods be adequately funded.
  Race, socio-economic status or zip code should have no bearing on the 
quality of the education a child receives. From access to advanced 
classes, to participation in extracurricular activities, we must 
continue striving to ensure equal educational opportunities for all of 
our children.

[[Page H4469]]

  As we commemorate and reflect on the 60th anniversary of Brown v. 
Board of Education, let us be mindful of the progress we have made and 
acknowledge that there is still much work to be done. The future of our 
Nation and our children depends on us.
  Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I rise with my colleagues to honor the 60th 
Anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education, a decision which was a 
major step toward education equality in the United States, and launched 
a Civil Rights movement that was a turning point for our country. I am 
reminded of heroes like Justice Thurgood Marshall, James Meredith, the 
Little Rock Nine, the lawyers who fought in the courtroom, and the many 
civil rights activists who risked their lives to fight for equality. 
But while the decision changed the law of the land, it didn't 
immediately change the reality of education inequality in America.
  Chief Justice Earl Warren gave the opinion of the Court, stating ``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.'' Thus, we 
see the Court firmly establishing the critical role education has on a 
child's success.
  Even during the time directly following the court decision, all 
states and localities did not follow the precedent set by the ruling. 
This played out in national news across the country and was clearly 
seen at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas when a group of 
black students, known as the Little Rock Nine, was blocked by the 
National Guard from entering the school, under orders from then 
Governor Orval Faubus. Additionally, in the second Brown case, commonly 
referred to as Brown II, Chief Justice Earl Warren urged school 
districts to implement the principles promptly and with ``all 
deliberate speed.''
  Over the years, various federal and state laws and initiatives have 
been introduced in an effort to improve education, yet today, there is 
still more work that can be done to ensure that every child has equal 
access to a world-class education. Sixty years later, we are still 
fighting for access to affordable early childhood education and higher 
education, and also for the reduction of dropout rates. Additionally, 
the school-to-prison pipeline is not merely a theory, but is a reality 
for many of our students across the country and is hindering them from 
access to educational opportunities. We must take a multi-faceted 
approach to remedying education as we prepare our students to enter the 
workforce in our global economy.
  Even those who are educated and are entering the workforce have a 
tough road ahead of them. The gender pay gap is a harsh reality of the 
day in which we live. This is not reflective of equity, thus we must do 
all we can to ensure our students have the tools needed to enter the 
workforce as qualified individuals and be able to fully seize 
opportunities.
  On this important anniversary, let us remember the words of Justice 
Thurgood Marshall, who argued this case as a NAACP chief counsel, 
``None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our 
bootstraps. We got here because somebody . . . bent down and helped us 
pick up our boots.'' Today, let us never forget the message of Brown as 
we work to ensure equal access to education, a strong workforce, and an 
open door to opportunity for all.
  Ms. SEWELL of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, this week, as we honor the 
living, breathing legacy of Brown vs. Board of Education, we must 
acknowledge our role in combatting the resurgence of segregation in our 
nation's public schools. I know my personal journey was paved in the 
shadow of this landmark decision. As of a proud product of Selma High 
School and its first black valedictorian, I know firsthand what is 
possible when provided a quality education. I graduated from Princeton, 
Harvard, and Oxford on the backs of so many trailblazers who went 
before me. I stand on the shoulders of so many who were denied access 
to great public schools in the name of institutionalized segregation.
  So it is incredibly discouraging to know that our nation's schools 
today are more segregated than they were in 1968 or any time since. I 
am appalled that there are children growing up today in the 7th 
Congressional District and across this country who are less likely to 
be afforded a quality education than I was. As old battles become new 
again, we must recommit to knocking down every barrier that stands in 
the way of school integration.
  To tackle this growing trend in our schools, we must attack 
residential racial segregation, as it is harder to integrate our 
schools while communities where children live are equally as 
segregated. Black and white, poor and non-poor children are more 
isolated from each other than any other group in the U.S. population. 
Housing and school policy are inextricably intertwined.
  Nowhere is this resurgence more evident than in the 7th Congressional 
District of Alabama at Central High School in Tuscaloosa. Just a decade 
ago, Central High School was one of the South's signature integration 
success stories with a dropout rate less than half of Alabama's 
average. In 2000, a desegregation mandate was lifted from Tuscaloosa 
City Schools. And after a series of zoning changes, Central High School 
is now 99 percent black with a 66 percent graduation rate. And just 
blocks away, more affluent students are zoned for Northridge High 
School with an 81 percent graduation rate, higher test scores and more 
funding.
  Today, nearly one in three black students in Tuscaloosa attends a 
school that looks as if our schools had never been integrated. And 
black children in the South attend majority-black schools at levels 
unseen in forty years.
  In addition, students across the 7th District are disproportionately 
injured by racially discriminatory property tax restrictions that 
impede the ability to raise state and local revenues adequately to fund 
public education. This separation of our children across school 
districts, municipal boundaries and property tax lines is immoral and 
is a threat to the ideals of equality that underscore our democracy.
  The trends are clear, as judges across the south have lifted federal 
desegregation court orders, school districts have retracted the 
progress made by Brown v. Board of Education, moving back towards the 
debilitating state of segregation: Less than a third of schools serving 
high concentrations of minority students offer calculus, black students 
who spend 5 years in desegregated schools earn 25 percent more than 
those who don't. African American and latino students are taught by a 
teacher with 3 years of experience or less almost twice as often as 
their peers and the odds that any given teacher will have significant 
experience, full licensure or a master's degree all declines as a 
school's black population increases.
  We cannot ignore the residential isolation of our nation's most 
disadvantaged children and the opportunity gaps they endure as a 
result. Integrated schools and communities enable low-income students 
to enjoy the same AP courses as their middle-class peers, and better 
access to quality teachers and adequate resources.
  And to achieve school integration, we will need to make more 
concerted efforts to integrate our neighborhoods by prioritizing 
affordable housing in communities with good schools. How we address 
zoning policies and demographic changes will determine our future.
  Today, we cannot honestly expect our low-income, minority children to 
succeed in life when they are zoned for schools that are sub-standard, 
under-resourced and underfunded. These educational and housing 
inequities have a devastating impact on our students and our 
communities, and ultimately, our nation's ability to compete globally.
  As we enjoy the benefits of Brown vs. Board of Education, we must 
work together to ensure that no one growing up in America is denied a 
quality education because of the school they are zoned to attend, the 
color of their skin or the amount of money they have. It is our job to 
do no less!
  So sixty years after Brown v. Board of Education, we must honor the 
legacies of Vivian Moore, James Hood, Ruby Bridges and James Meredith 
by launching an assault on modern-day constructions of segregation in 
our schools and communities.

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