Title
To Commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Brown v. The Board of Education.
Body
WHEREAS, the educational system in the United States historically mandated separate schools for children based solely on race; and
WHEREAS, numerous school integration cases were filed in United States courts, by African Americans who challenged the legality of separate facilities for African Americans, as early as 1849, in the case of Roberts v. City of Boston; and
WHEREAS, in 1896, in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, the United State Supreme Court declared separate accommodations based on race constitutional and the Supreme Court's decision created the foundation for the "separate but equal" facilities doctrine that maintained segregated schools in the United States until 1954; and
WHEREAS, African American community leaders, The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and other organizations became involved in a nationwide effort to establish equal educational opportunity to obtain full constitutional rights for African Americans; and
WHEREAS, five public school desegregation cases from Delaware, the District of Columbia, Kansas, South Carolina and Virginia were combined and became known as Oliver L. Brown, et al. vs. The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, et al.; and
WHEREAS, on May 17, 1954, the United States Supreme Court rendered a unanimous landmark decision in the case of Brown v. Board of Education, deciding that the doctrine of "separate but equal" had no place in the field of public education and separate educational facilities were inherently unequal and laws requiring or permitting racial segregation of schools violated equal protection; and
WHEREAS, the Brown v. Board of Education case initiated educational and social reform, shaped human rights policies, expanded civil rights and reaffirmed that all United States citizens were entitled to the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Declaration of Independence...
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