IV
106TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. RES. 176
Recognizing the historical significance of the Supreme Court’s unanimous
decision in Brown v. Board of Education, repudiating segregation, and
reaffirming the fundamental belief that we are all ‘‘one Nation under
God, indivisible.’’
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MAY 18, 1999
Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi (for himself, Mr. CLYBURN, Mr. HASTINGS of
Florida, Mr. JEFFERSON, Mr. CUMMINGS, Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ, Mr. CON-
YERS, Mr. SCOTT, Mr. RUSH, Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas, Mr. PAYNE,
Mr. JACKSON of Illinois, Mrs. CHRISTENSEN, Ms. NORTON, Mr. DAVIS
of Illinois, Mr. OWENS, Ms. BROWN of Florida, Mrs. MEEK of Florida,
Mr. FATTAH, Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD, Mr. FORD, Mrs. JONES of
Ohio, Mr. TOWNS, Ms. MCKINNEY, Mrs. CLAYTON, Mr. MEEKS of New
York, Ms. LEE, Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas, Mr. FROST,
Ms. CARSON, Ms. KILPATRICK, Ms. WATERS, Mr. WYNN, Mr. RANGEL,
Mr. BISHOP, Mr. HILLIARD, Mr. LEWIS of Georgia, and Mr. WATT of
North Carolina) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to
the Committee on the Judiciary
RESOLUTION
Recognizing the historical significance of the Supreme
Court’s unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Edu-
cation, repudiating segregation, and reaffirming the fun-
damental belief that we are all ‘‘one Nation under God,
indivisible.’’
Whereas in 1951 Linda Brown was a third-grader and an Af-
rican-American who was forced to endure hardships such
•HRES 176 IH
as walking a mile through a railroad switchyard to get
to her black elementary school, even though a white ele-
mentary school was only 7 blocks away;
Whereas the Reverend Oliver Brown, Linda Brown’s father,
was turned away when he tried to register his daughter
at the nearby white school, simply because the little girl
was black;
Whereas Thurgood Marshall, special counsel for the NAACP
Legal Defense Fund and a protege of Howard University
Law Professor Charles Houston, successfully argued that
the ‘‘separate but equal’’ doctrine, established by the Su-
preme Court in its Plessy v. Ferguson decision in 1896,
was unconstitutional;
Whereas Chief Justice Earl Warren read aloud, from the
Court’s unanimous decision: ‘‘We come then to the ques-
tion presented: Does segregation of children in public
schools solely on the basis of race, even though the phys-
ical facilities and other ‘tangible’ factors may be equal,
deprive the children of the minority group of equal edu-
cational opportunities? We believe that it does. . . . We
conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine
of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational
facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore, we hold that
the plaintiffs and others similarly situated for whom the
actions have been brought are, by reason of the segrega-
tion complained of, deprived of the equal protection of
the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment’’;
Whereas the Brown v. Board of Education decision struck a
pivotal blow against Jim Crow laws, as well as the dark
forces of racism and segregation; and
•HRES 176 IH
Whereas the interaction of students of all races promotes bet-
ter understanding and the acceptance of racial dif-
ferences: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives—
(1) recognizes the historical significance of the
Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in Brown v.
Board of Education;
(2) heralds this watershed in our shared history
as a significant advancement of the most basic
American principles of freedom, justice, and equality
under the law; and
(3) repudiates racial segregation as antithetical
to the noble ideals upon which this great Nation was
founded, and reaffirms the fundamental belief that
we are all ‘‘one Nation under God, indivisible’’.
Æ