Burgess Owens: “today is May 17, 2005. On May 17, 1954, the United States Supreme Court issued a decision in the Brown v. Board of…”

“today is May 17, 2005. On May 17, 1954, the United States Supreme Court issued a decision in the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas case. Last year we celebrated the 50th anniversary of this landmark case. I expect to be joined by some colleagues of mine from the Congressional Black Caucus tonight to again take advantage of this anniversary, the 51st anniversary, to highlight problems related to education. Not only education as related to the African-American community, to minority communities or to poor communities but education in general needs more attention in America. Whatever activities there are that allow us to focus attention on education, they are very noble and worthwhile activities with a very useful purpose. {time} 2030 We need to spend more time focusing on the role that education plays in our society, and this is just one more occasion where we can do that. I want to congratulate the people who participated last year in the 50th anniversary celebration. We had a marvelous array of people who joined in highlighting that landmark case's 50th anniversary: corporations, foundations, all kinds of groups participated in highlighting that landmark decision. I want to particularly congratulate the Library of Congress, which had an exhibit which ran from May 13 to November 13 last year, 2004, which was entitled, ``With an Even Hand: Brown v.…”