Assembly Concurrent Resolution
No. 140
CHAPTER 76
Relative to Brown v. Board of Education and Equality in Education Day.
[
Filed with
Secretary of State
May 28, 2004.
]
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
ACR 140, Wesson.
Brown v. Board of Education and Equality in Education Day.
This measure would commemorate the Brown v. Board of Education (1954) 347 U.S. 483 decision and would observe May 17, 2004, as “Brown v. Board of Education and Equality in Education Day.” This measure would also urge the State Department of Education to provide model instructional materials to schools that encourages schools to observe the Brown v. Board of Education decision with appropriate educational activities that help pupils understand the importance of tolerance, humanity, and equality of opportunity.
Digest Key
WHEREAS, In 1896 the United States Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) 163 U.S. 537 that the segregation of the races is legal as long as facilities are “separate but equal”; and
WHEREAS, This decision legitimized segregated schools; and
WHEREAS, Education is the passport of opportunity which must be equally available for all; and
WHEREAS, The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the oldest civil rights organization in the country, undertook the awesome challenge of dismantling a system that had been practiced since the first slaves were brought to the country and legally sanctioned for almost 60 years; and
WHEREAS, In 1952 and 1953 the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments on consolidated cases on appeal from U.S. District Courts of Kansas, Delaware, Virginia, and South Carolina under the name Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) 347 U.S. 483 alleging that “separate but equal” schools were, in fact, never equal and therefore in violation of the right to equal protection, guaranteed by the 14th amendment to the United States Constitution; and
WHEREAS, The arguments were presented on behalf of the NAACP by its Chief Counsel, Thurgood Marshall, who eventually became the first African-American U.S. Supreme Court Justice; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Marshall argued that segregated schools, many of which were substandard, were psychologically damaging to black children, causing low self-esteem and low self-worth, inherently depriving them of equal protection under the law provided by the 14th amendment to the United States Constitution, and under that amendment states had no valid reason to segregate and “use race as a factor in affording educational opportunities to its citizens”; and
WHEREAS, In 1953, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Fred Vinson, who had earlier declined to overturn the Plessy v. Ferguson decision, died and he was replaced by California Governor Earl Warren; and
WHEREAS, Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote that “education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments,” and he persuaded each of the eight other justices that even if schools were theoretically equal, the effects of segregation on black students “generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely to be ever undone”; and
WHEREAS, On May 17, 1954, the United States Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education unanimously overturned the “separate but equal” doctrine of law; and
WHEREAS, This highly controversial decision became the legal impetus to school desegregation throughout the United States and one of the most profound social revolutions in the United States; and
WHEREAS, The reaction to the Brown v. Board of Education decision fueled emotions from both sides of the segregation argument, leading to the Little Rock Nine and prosegregationists blocking the entrances of public learning institutions to black students; and
WHEREAS, The activism generated to implement the Brown v. Board of Education decision was a catalyst to the Civil Rights Movement for equality that gained momentum in the 1960s which led to further desegregation of public facilities and which continues today; and
WHEREAS, The fight for equality in education continues; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate thereof concurring, That the Legislature commemorates the historic Brown v. Board of Education decision which is considered one of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions of the 20th century; and be it further
Resolved, That May 17, 2004, be observed as “Brown v. Board of Education and Equality in Education Day” and that the day be appropriately observed; and be it further
Resolved, That the State Department of Education is urged to provide model instructional materials to schools that encourages schools to observe the Brown v. Board of Education decision with appropriate educational activities that help pupils understand the importance of tolerance, humanity, and equality of opportunity; and be it further
Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.