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Keynote Presentation Cheryl Brown Henderson It (50th anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education) gives us a chance to talk about race relations once again because Brown was really about race relations…we’re still in a situation where subordinate and dominance seem to be the rule of the day.

Ms. Brown Henderson spoke about the Brown vs. Board of Education case in light of its upcoming 50th anniversary. She encouraged people to use this anniversary to focus on what the case really meant and to talk about race relations. She suggested examining the following:

• Social systems, e.g., how communities and organizations are able to bring about change; the social construct of schooling; the role of government in responding to a social movement; how the Supreme Court interprets the Constitution; how court decisions are implemented; and the concepts of power and privilege

• White privilege and how subordinance and dominance are still the rule

• The importance of education, including education as a “down payment on opportunity"

She then described the following reasons why Brown vs. Board of Education is significant:

• It was the beginning of the end of racial segregation sanctioned by law.

• It overturned laws in 21 states that either permitted or required segregated school.

• It overturned the court decision of Plessy vs. Ferguson in 1896, which allowed the doctrine of separate but equal.

• When the court used the Fourteenth Amendment to make the decision, it defined the power of the people of the United States to not have their rights arbitrarily distributed by state and local governments.

• The U.S. needed that kind of racial/human rights victory at the time to show the world that it had a right to be a moral force, had recognized one of its human rights shortcomings, and had done something about it.

• It led to legal victories in the civil rights arena beyond the schools, including the 1964 Civil Rights Act and1965 Voting Rights Act.

Ms. Brown Henderson went on to emphasize the importance of learning the true story behind Brown vs. Board of Education rather than the myths perpetuated by the media. She explained that rather than being a single case about one girl who was denied entry to her neighborhood school, it was a group of 12 cases that were part of an organized movement over a long period of time to create change, and the 12th case (Brown) involved 13 families. She also clarified that the case was not about African American children sitting next to white children but rather about access to resources.

Some final points included:

• There was nothing in the U.S. with respect to segregation, discrimination, or bigotry that happened by accident. It was done intentionally to perpetuate the relationships of dominance and subordinance.

• The Brown case had unanticipated consequences, such as school closings, white flight to suburbs, school district gerrymandering, conflicts over forced bussing.

• We need to remain vigilant regarding those people who still try to show that African Americans are not capable of academic achievement and intellectual pursuit, including the authors of books like The Bell Curve.

BIOGRAPHY

One of the three daughters of the late Rev. Oliver L. Brown who in the fall of 1951 along with 12 other families, led by attorneys for the NAACP, filed suit in behalf of their children against the local Board of Education. Their case made its way all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and on May 17, 1954, became known as the landmark decision; Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. This case was named for Oliver Brown, i.e., Oliver L. Brown et. al. vs. The Board of Education of Topeka. Brown died in 1961 before knowing the impact this case would have on the country.

Cheryl is currently serving as President and CEO of the Brown Foundation for Educational Equity, Excellence and Research. She is owner of Brown & Brown Associates, an educational consulting firm. She has extensive background in education, business and civic leadership, having served on and chaired various local, state and national Boards. In addition she has nearly two decades of experience in political advocacy, public policy implementation and federal legislative development. She is also an associate with the Westerly Group a public advocacy firm in Washington, D.C.

In 1988 she founded the Brown Foundation. Since its establishment, this organization has provided scholarships to 40 minority students, presented awards to local, state and national leaders and sponsored programs on diversity and educational issues, for some 4000 people. In 1990, under her leadership the Foundation successfully worked with the U.S. Congress to establish the Brown vs. Board of Education National Park in Topeka, scheduled to open in late 2003. In 2001 under her leadership the Foundation successfully worked with the U.S. Congress to establish the Brown vs. Board of Education 50th Anniversary Presidential Commission, which will serve to provide a Federal presence in the 2004 anniversary of the Brown decision.