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
w P pmK
, , 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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C O N S T R U C T IO N
COM PANY
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Page 14 Portland Observer February 25, 1982