Portland observer., February 25, 1982, Page 14, Image 14

Democracy cannot be legislated;
It must be burned in the hearts of man
7 K
U ^ L ,a" ° n ,or ,,,e Advancernenl o f Colored People battery o f lawyers who ar­
gued the school desegregation case, Brown vs. Board o f Education, which resulted in the
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, , i eCJ SiOnL° f M ay ,7 ’ ,954: H ° * ard Jtnkin* ’ James M Nabht. Spot.s-
' Fr^ i RCCV” ' jBCk Grcenber*- Thurgood Marshall. Louis Redding.
U. Simpson Tate. George E.C . Hayes. Robert Carter.
The 1954 Supreme C ourt Decision - Brown vs Board o f Education -
brought an end to the era o f "separate but equal".
The Decision was the culmination o f many years o f legal effort and was the
hope o f Black parents who believed that at last their children would receive
the quality o f education they needed to participate fully in the economic, ar­
tistic and political life o f the nation.
N A A C P Adm inistrator Roy W ilkins. Executive Secretary W alter W hite, Ebony writer
Wesley South, Special Counsel Thurgood Marshall. Assistant Counsel Robert L. Carter and
Ebony writer Allan Morrison are shown at a victory celebration at N A A C P headquarters on
night o f M ay 17, 1954, following Brown vs. Board o f Education decision. (Photo courtesy o f
Ebony Magazine.)
Across the south, schools were desegregated and colleges opened to Black
students. But resistance was great in both the north and the south and the
C o u rt’ s " a l l deliberate speed" had little meaning. Today school
desegregation is s till a burning issue in the halls o f Congress and in the
citadels o f education.
Blanche Kelso Bruce (1841-1898)
U.S. SENATOR FROM MISSISSIPPI. Born in
slavery in Framville, Va., he escaped to freedom
during the Civil War. He attended Oberlin College
and became a Mississippi planter after the Civil
War. He then followed a political career, becoming
Sergeant-at-Arms to the Mississippi State Senate
in 1870, and assessor, sheriff and tax collector of
Bolivar County, Miss., until 1872. From 1875 to
1881 he was a U.S. Senator, and member of Sen­
ate Committees on Pensions, Education, Labor
Manufacturers, and Improvement of the Missis­
sippi River and its tributaries. He was trustee of
Howard University for many years, and was the fir­
st Black to be appointed Register of the Treasury
(in 1881).
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Page 14 Portland Observer February 25, 1982