Political Quotes

“I rise today to mark a bittersweet anniversary in our Nation's history. Fifty years ago today, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down the most important Court decision of the 20th century and perhaps of all time: Brown v. Board of Education. Fifty years ago today, on May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that ``in the field of public education the doctrine of `separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.'' The Brown decision struck down laws that permitted racially segregated schools in 17 states and the District of Columbia. The Supreme Court said that such laws violate the fourteenth amendment of the U.S. Constitution--the amendment that was passed after the Civil War to guarantee ``equal protection of the laws.'' The day after Brown was handed down, the Chicago Daily Tribune wrote that the idea of educational equality ``may appear dangerously novel to some citizens, but the Supreme Court didn't invent it. Indeed, they can be said to have borrowed it from a distinguished Virginian named Thomas Jefferson.'' A May 19, 1954 editorial in the New York Times stated: ``The Supreme Court's historic decision in the school desegregation cases brings the United States back into the mainstream of its own best traditions. Segregation is a hangover of slavery, and its ugliest manifestation has been in the schools.'' The Brown decision was a victory for equality and a victory for America.”