Bill Clinton: “I'm going to give you a chance to ask them questions, too. But I want all of them to talk first. One of the big issues…”

“I'm going to give you a chance to ask them questions, too. But I want all of them to talk first. One of the big issues that was inevitably a part of the Brown decision was, okay, the Supreme Court says you can't have any ``separate but equal'' school districts anymore. They're unconstitutional. Well, it's one thing for a court to issue an order and another thing for millions of people to change their lives, right? I mean, how are you going to integrate all these schools? And what happens to the teachers, and what happens to the principals? And how do the kids get to new schools? And do the white kids go to the black schools, or do the black kids go to the white schools? Do you have to build new schools? There are mind-bending details that had to be worked out, plus the fact that in many parts of the country, there were still millions of Americans who didn't agree with the decision who were determined to resist it at every turn. So the Supreme Court's in the news this week because I just appointed Judge Breyer from Boston to the Supreme Court. And he's a very distinguished judge. I think he'll do a wonderful job. And they'll have these hearings in a couple of months, and you'll be able to follow that. And I urge you to follow these hearings, see the questions they ask him and the answers he gives. Supreme Court's very important. But the Supreme Court is nine people. They don't have any enforcement authority. So, then the lower courts have to somehow figure out how to enforce an order and approve plans and do things to try to figure out how was this Brown decision going to be implemented. One of the States involved in the Brown decision in addition to Topeka, Kansas, was the State of South Carolina. Secretary Riley, the Secretary of Education, was the Governor of South Carolina before he became Secretary of Education. His father was the lawyer for one of the school districts involved in the desegregation effort in Brown 40 years ago. And he, as a Governor, made a national reputation for his commitment to improving the education of all the children of South Carolina, which is why I named him the Secretary of Education. So I'd like for him to talk a minute now about this Brown decision and what happened after it was decided and how it affected his life. Secretary Riley. [Secretary Riley described growing up in a segregated environment, his experience in integrating the schools of South Carolina, and his regret for the lack of social interaction with African-Americans during his youth.]”