[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 10390-10391]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




      50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BROWN v. BOARD OF EDUCATION DECISION

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary 
Committee be discharged from further consideration of H. Con. Res. 414 
and that the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The clerk 
will report the concurrent resolution by title.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 414) expressing the 
     sense of the Congress that, as Congress recognizes the 50th 
     anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, all 
     Americans are encouraged to observe this anniversary with a 
     commitment to continuing and building on the legacy of Brown.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
concurrent resolution.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the concurrent 
resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to 
reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating to 
the concurrent resolution be printed in the Record.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 414) was agreed to.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I rise today to mark a bittersweet 
anniversary in our Nation's history. Fifty years ago today, the U.S. 
Supreme Court handed down the most important Court decision of the 20th 
century and perhaps of all time: Brown v. Board of Education.
  Fifty years ago today, on May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court unanimously 
ruled that ``in the field of public education the doctrine of `separate 
but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently 
unequal.''
  The Brown decision struck down laws that permitted racially 
segregated schools in 17 states and the District of Columbia. The 
Supreme Court said that such laws violate the fourteenth amendment of 
the U.S. Constitution--the amendment that was passed after the Civil 
War to guarantee ``equal protection of the laws.''
  The day after Brown was handed down, the Chicago Daily Tribune wrote 
that the idea of educational equality ``may appear dangerously novel to 
some citizens, but the Supreme Court didn't invent it. Indeed, they can 
be said to have borrowed it from a distinguished Virginian named Thomas 
Jefferson.''
  A May 19, 1954 editorial in the New York Times stated: ``The Supreme 
Court's historic decision in the school desegregation cases brings the 
United States back into the mainstream of its own best traditions. 
Segregation is a hangover of slavery, and its ugliest manifestation has 
been in the schools.''
  The Brown decision was a victory for equality and a victory for 
America. But many African Americans had a muted reaction to the 
decision because it was so long overdue. As Richard Kluger wrote in the 
classic book Simple Justice:

       Too many proclamations of white America's good intentions 
     had reached African Americans' ears in the past to permit 
     premature celebration now. There was added hesitation, no 
     doubt in expressing open glee lest it be taken as a sign of 
     gratitude and thereby provide whites the emotional 
     satisfaction over a deed well done. For, upon analysis, all 
     the Supreme Court had truly and at long last granted to the 
     black man was simple justice.

  The impact of the Brown decision occurred mainly in the South, but 
the Chicago Daily Sun-Times offered a prescient observation. In a May 
19, 1954 editorial the Sun-Times wrote: ``We of the North would do well 
to apply ourselves with equal diligence and sincerity to our own 
unsolved problems of racial discrimination and prejudice.''
  Indeed, there were segregated schools in my home State of Illinois in 
1954--the Land of Lincoln. My State had a law that banned racial 
segregation in our public schools, but there was inadequate 
enforcement.
  Although we have made great strides over the past century in Illinois 
and in our Nation, we continue to have severe racial disparities in our 
public school systems--50 years after Brown v. Board of Education.
  For that reason, the 50th anniversary is bittersweet. In 2004, we see 
that the racism has not been alleviated. Equal opportunity has not been 
assured.
  Our schools are not fully integrated. In Illinois, 92 percent of 
white children attend majority white schools, and 68 percent of Black 
children attend majority Black schools. School segregation for our 
rapidly growing Latino population is on the rise.
  And our schools are not equal. In Illinois a Black child is about 40 
times more likely to attend a school that has failed to meet State 
standards for 4

[[Page 10391]]

consecutive years, a so-called ``academic watch list'' school. A Latino 
student is 20 times more likely. But less than 1 percent of the White 
children in Illinois are enrolled at a school on the academic watch 
list.
  The Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education stated that equal 
access to education is a civil right of every citizen. And what a 
promise that was. We believed racial disparities in education would 
eventually be erased.
  In 2001, we realized that this promise had not been realized. We 
enacted No Child Left Behind to try and tackle the enduring problem of 
racial inequality in our public schools. No Child Left Behind requires 
schools to break out test scores by racial and economic categories to 
show that each segment of a school's population is succeeding.
  Many of us worked in concert with the more conservative champions of 
the effort because we believed the law would provide more resources and 
more opportunities for minority children in public schools.
  Today schools are struggling to implement the law without the 
promised resources. We have not lived up to the promise of No Child 
Left Behind. And we have not lived up to the promise of Brown v. Board 
of Education.
  Many of our schools today are separate and unequal. This 
commemoration is bittersweet, but we have the means to make it less 
bitter and more sweet.
  We can live up to the promise of the Brown decision by investing in 
our public schools rather than giving up on them. Giving vouchers to a 
handful of lucky families only leaves the have-nots in an increasingly 
hopeless situation.
  We can live up to the promise of Brown by adopting the Student's Bill 
of Rights--requiring an equitable apportionment of funds and qualified 
teachers and small class sizes.
  We can live up to the promise of Brown by fully funding the 
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, ensuring that students 
with disabilities can exercise their right to a public education.
  We can live up to the promise of Brown by funding No Child Left 
Behind as promised, making it possible for struggling schools to 
improve the quality of education for all its students.
  Let us honor the legacy of the Supreme Court's historic decision in 
Brown v. Board of Education by making the appropriate investments in 
public education and working to ensure equality of opportunity.

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