Senate Commemorates Supreme Court Decision Abolishing Racial Segregation in Public Schools

On May 6, the Senate approved, by unanimous consent, two resolutions honoring the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.

Sponsored by Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), S. Res. 349 explains that in the 1896 case of Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court “upheld the doctrine of ‘separate but equal,’ which allowed the continued segregation of common carriers, and, by extension, of public schools, in the United States based on race.” The resolution further notes that the May 17, 1945 decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka overturned the decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, and the Supreme Court found that “in the field of public education, the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place.” According to the resolution, “The decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka is of national importance and profoundly affected all people of the United States by outlawing racial segregation in education and providing a foundation on which to build greater equality.”

Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) sponsored a second resolution (S. Con. Res. 102) recognizing the importance of the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. The resolution contains a number of findings, including:

• On May 17, 1954, at 12:54 p.m., the United States Supreme Court ruled that the discriminatory nature of racial segregation “violates the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees all citizens equal protection of the laws”;
• The decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka set the stage for dismantling racial segregation throughout the country; and
• The quiet courage of Oliver L. Brown and his fellow plaintiffs asserted the right of African Americans to have equal access to social, political, and communal structures.

Sen. Brownback said that the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka “served as a stirring moral indictment of racial segregation, and an eloquent challenge to America to cast off its prejudices and extend its promises of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to all citizens, regardless of race or color.”