[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 9]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 12614]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



        BROWN v. BOARD OF EDUCATION 50TH ANNIVERSARY COMMISSION

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 27, 2001

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise to praise my colleagues on both sides 
of the aisle for yesterday's overwhelming passage of H.R. 2133. This 
legislation would establish a commission to encourage and provide for 
commemorating the 50th anniversary in the year of 2004 of the Supreme 
Court's unanimous and landmark 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of 
Education of Topeka Kansas--the most momentous in the 20th Century.
  While the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution 
outlawed slavery, guaranteed rights of citizenship to naturalized 
citizens and due process, equal protection and voting rights, nearly a 
century would pass before the last vestiges of ``legalized'' 
discrimination and inequality would be effectively revoked. The right 
of equal protection under the law for African-Americans was dealt a 
heavy blow with the Supreme Court's 1875 decision to uphold a lower 
court in Plessy v. Ferguson. The Plessy decision created the infamous 
``separate but equal'' doctrine that made segregation 
``constitutional'' for almost 80 years.
  It was not until the 1950's, when the NAACP defense team led by the 
Honorable Thurgood Marshall as general counsel, launched a national 
campaign to challenge segregation at the elementary school level that 
effective and lasting change was achieved. In five individually unique 
cases filed in four states and the District of Columbia, the NAACP 
defense team not only claimed that segregated schools told Black 
children they were inferior to White children, but that the ``separate 
but equal'' ruling in Plessy violated equal protection. Although all 
five lost in the lower courts, the U.S. Supreme Court accepted each 
case in turn, hearing them collectively in what became Brown v. Board 
of Education. The Brown decision brought a decisive end to segregation 
and discrimination in our public school systems, and gradually our 
national, cultural and social consciousness as well.
  The fight, however, did not end there. We may have overcome 
segregation and racism, but now the fight is economic, one in which 
some of our schools are inferior to others because of inadequate 
funding, overcrowded classrooms, dilapidated school buildings and a 
nationwide lack of teachers. We only have to look at the high levels of 
crime, drug use, juvenile delinquency, teen pregnancy and unemployment 
to know the value of a good education. If Brown taught us anything, it 
is that without the proper educational tools, young people lose hope 
for the future.
  No one challenges the concept of investing in human capital, but it 
is a well-known fact that we spend ten times as much to incarcerate 
than we do to educate. If we can find the resources to fund a tax cut 
and for a U.S. prison system with nearly 2 million inmates, we can give 
our public schools the repairs and facilities they desperately need, we 
can reduce class sizes and provide adequate pay to attract the best and 
brightest into the teaching profession.
  Again, while I applaud yesterday's passage of H.R. 2133, I urge my 
colleagues to remember the lessons of Brown v. Board of Education when 
we consider our national priorities by committing ourselves to 
addressing the unfulfilled promises of equality and opportunity 
contained in the Brown decision.

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