In commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Topeka Board of Education decision, South Puget Sound Community College’s Artist and Lecture Series presents“Celebrating Brown” on May 23, 2014.
Prior to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown, much of American public education operated under a system of legalized apartheid, separating white from black. In its 1954 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that “… in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place.”
“Brown v. Board of Education is a landmark decision in our nation’s history,” said local attorney Rick Hughes. “The U.S. Supreme Court held that separate facilities are inherently unequal, nearly 60 years after the Court held that the races could be legally separated. Brown paved the way for sweeping legislation in the form of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, which affected almost every aspect of how we live in America.”
Hughes is a member of the community planning committee, which includes retired Chief Justice Gerry Alexander, Lacey City Council Member Virgil Clarkson and SPSCC President Tim Stokes.
Celebrating Brown activities include:
At 3 p.m., members of the Washington Supreme Court will participate in a reenactment of the oral arguments that were made to the U.S. Supreme Court in Brown on the Main Stage of the Kenneth J. Minnaert Center for the Arts, followed by an audience discussion. The event is free and open to the public.
At 6 p.m., the college will host a dinner in the Student Union Building with keynote speaker Cheryl Brown Henderson, whose parents filed the famous suit. The event is $30 a plate. Tickets are available online at www.spscc.edu/browntix or by calling the College Foundation Office at (360) 596-5430. For more information about the Artist and Lecture Series at South Puget Sound Community College, visit www.spscc.edu/ALSeries.
