Brown V. Board of Education

BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION -- (House of Representatives - May 17, 2004)

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) is recognized for 5 minutes.

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I want to take a few moments to remember the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education. May 17, 1954, became a history-making day.

I was 14 years old, in the ninth grade, when the Brown decision was issued. I rode to school on a broken-down school bus. I was taught in a dilapidated schoolhouse. I had hand-me-down books and sat in an overcrowded classroom. When the word of the Brown decision reached me outside of Troy, Alabama, I thought the very next school year I would be able to attend an integrated school. But it did not happen for me. It did not happen for many African American children for many years to come.

Mr. Speaker, as you know, laws set the standard in America, but that is only one important part of the so-called contract in a democracy. Courts can hand down the law, but the people must be willing to abide by the law before it has power. So it took some time before school integration came to many parts of the American South. But the Brown decision was the first powerful step in the modern-day civil rights movement. It set the tone and laid the groundwork for what was to come. It said once and for all that segregation was dead. It said separate could never ever be equal.

So it was only a matter of time before the whole system of American apartheid would come to an end. But perhaps most important, Mr. Speaker, the Brown decision was an inspiration. It gave hope to so many throughout the South. It was the first time we had ever had an indication that anyone in the Federal Government knew about the injustice we suffered, and it was the first time we had ever heard any government agent agree that it was wrong.

The Brown decision strengthened the resolve of people already involved in the struggle for civil rights, and it encouraged hundreds and thousands of young people like me to believe a new day could come in America. And that is why the Brown decision is so important to remember.

Many people never dreamed that they would ever see the end of segregation, but the Brown decision helped them to see that a persistent call for justice in America can bring change. That is why we cannot give in, we cannot give up, and we cannot give out, Mr. Speaker, until the promise of the Brown decision is fully realized in America.

We have come a long way in 50 years, but we still have a great distance to go before we lay down the burden of race in America. But our struggle is more than one decision, more than one vote, one congressional term, or Presidential election. Ours is a struggle of a lifetime, and that is why we must not get lost in a sea of despair, Mr. Speaker. We must not lose faith in a dream of an integrated society promised by the Brown decision.

Here, in the United States Congress, we must hold fast to the struggle for peace, the struggle for equality, and the struggle for justice for all, until the dream of a truly interracial democracy is fully realized in America, until we see the dawn of the beloved community, a Nation at peace with itself.

We cannot be satisfied, we cannot rest until that day comes, until the true meaning of Brown is a living reality for all Americans.

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