[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 9767-9768]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      BROWN v. BOARD OF EDUCATION

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, on leader time, I want to briefly comment 
on the fact that yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the monumental 
Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision.
  I had the wonderful opportunity of joining my colleagues from Kansas, 
Senators Roberts and Brownback, in Topeka, KS yesterday around noon. As 
we stood in front of that two-story Monroe Elementary School, which was 
one of the four segregated schools in Topeka in 1954 which Black 
children were forced into, you couldn't help but appreciate how far 
indeed we have come, but also reflect on how far we must continue to 
go.
  It was 50 years ago and 1 day, May 17, 1954, that the Supreme Court 
struck down the separate but equal doctrine that had been established 
around 60 years before by Plessy v. Ferguson. The Brown v. Board 
decision is considered by many to be one of the most, if not the most, 
important Supreme Court decisions of the last 100 years. It energized 
the civil rights movement and the victories that would follow, 
including the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It catalyzed a tectonic shift 
in our Nation's social consciousness.
  The Brown v. Board story begins a little over 50 years ago in the 
city of Topeka, KS where we were yesterday. It was a third grader named 
Linda Brown who was barred from attending the neighborhood school 
because she was black. At that time she was 7 years old. She had to 
walk six blocks through a rail yard to meet her bus, and then she would 
be transported an additional 2 miles across town to the all-Black 
elementary school. That trip every day took about an hour. It was her 
dad, Rev. Oliver Leon Brown, for whom the Supreme Court case is named, 
who decided his child deserved to go to a school closer to home. He 
joined 13 other families in filing suit to end segregation in America's 
public schools.
  Linda Brown recalls that, using her words:

       When the parents involved tried to enroll us in all white 
     schools and we were denied,

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     my mother explained that it was because of the color of our 
     skin. As a child I did not comprehend what difference that 
     could possibly make.

  Indeed, as a child Linda knew the truth so many adults refused to 
recognize, that the color of a person's skin should not make any 
difference at all.
  Despite the Supreme Court's ruling, many States were slow to 
integrate classrooms. When I look back to my State of Tennessee, 
initial compliance was mixed. While Nashville public schools, for 
example, began their first day of integration in 1957, the surrounding 
county didn't begin until 1960. And even 10 years after that in 1970, 
40 metro schools in Nashville were still segregated. But since that 
point in time, Tennessee, as the rest of the Nation, has made great 
progress. I think of the Chattanooga School for Arts and Sciences, 
which is hailed in the State as a model for diversity and academic 
success. Indeed, 99 percent of its students, who come from all racial 
backgrounds across the country, go on to college. In 2003, the 
elementary and middle schools scored above the national average in the 
Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program tests.
  That all leads me to the ultimate hope of the Brown v. Board 
decision: That not only will Black and White students learn together, 
but that they will succeed together. In this we have a long way to go. 
As we look ahead and as we celebrate that wonderful decision of 50 
years ago, as we were celebrating yesterday in Topeka, we have a long 
way to go.
  Most recently, the President's No Child Left Behind Act is one 
powerful tool we have in closing the educational gap that exists 
between White and Black students. It sets rigorous standards for 
learning and teacher qualifications. It does hold schools accountable 
for their academic success. No longer will students be passed from 
grade to grade without mastering those basic learning skills. No longer 
will schools be able to mask their results in broad averages. They will 
have to account for every group of students under that schoolhouse 
roof.
  Fifty years on, American has undergone a dramatic transformation. No 
longer is segregation an accepted, let alone celebrated, way of life. 
We recoil at the pictures of the Little Rock nine being jeered and 
threatened by angry White protesters. We hail the courage of those who 
led us forward. We tell their story that we will always aspire to 
America's true purpose, that true purpose which is so powerfully 
expressed in our founding, that all men are created equal, and that 
they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that 
among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
  I yield the floor.

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