•HCON 411 IH 
equal and discriminatory treatment experienced by Afri-
can-Americans throughout the country; 
Whereas Oliver L. Brown became part of the NAACP strat-
egy led first by Charles Houston and later by Thurgood 
Marshall, to file suit against various school boards on be-
half of such parents and their children; 
Whereas Oliver L. Brown was a member of a distinguished 
group of plaintiffs in cases from Kansas (Brown v. Board 
of Education), Delaware (Gebhart v. Belton), South 
Carolina (Briggs v. Elliot), and Virginia (Davis v. County 
School Board of Prince Edward County) that were com-
bined by the United States Supreme Court in Brown v. 
Board of Education, and in Washington, D.C. (Bolling v. 
Sharpe), considered separately by the Supreme Court 
with respect to the District of Columbia; 
Whereas with respect to cases filed in the State of Kansas— 
(1) there were 11 school integration cases dating 
from 1881 to 1949, prior to Brown v. Board of Edu-
cation in 1954; 
(2) in many instances, the schools for African-Amer-
ican children were substandard facilities with out-of-date 
textbooks and often no basic school supplies; 
(3) in the fall of 1950, members of the Topeka, 
Kansas chapter of the NAACP agreed to again challenge 
the ‘‘separate but equal’’ doctrine governing public edu-
cation; 
(4) on February 28, 1951, the NAACP filed their 
case as Oliver L. Brown et al. v. The Board of Education 
of Topeka Kansas (which represented a group of 13 par-
ents and 20 children);
•HCON 411 IH 
(5) the district court ruled in favor of the school 
board and the case was appealed to the United States 
Supreme Court; 
(6) at the Supreme Court level, the case was com-
bined with other NAACP cases from Delaware, South 
Carolina, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. (which was 
later heard separately); and 
(7) the combined cases became known as Oliver L. 
Brown et al. v. The Board of Education of Topeka, et 
al.;
Whereas with respect to the Virginia case of Davis et al. v. 
Prince Edward County Board of Supervisors— 
(1) one of the few public high schools available to 
African-Americans in the State of Virginia was Robert 
Moton High School in Prince Edward County; 
(2) built in 1943, it was never large enough to ac-
commodate its student population; 
(3) the gross inadequacies of these classrooms 
sparked a student strike in 1951; 
(4) the NAACP soon joined their struggles and chal-
lenged the inferior quality of their school facilities in 
court; and 
(5) although the United States District Court or-
dered that the plaintiffs be provided with equal school fa-
cilities, they were denied access to the schools for white 
students in their area;
Whereas with respect to the South Carolina case of Briggs 
v. R.W. Elliott— 
(1) in Clarendon County, South Carolina, the State 
NAACP first attempted, unsuccessfully and with a single 
plaintiff, to take legal action in 1947 against the inferior
•HCON 411 IH 
conditions that African-American students experienced 
under South Carolina’s racially segregated school system; 
(2) by 1951, community activists convinced African-
American parents to join the NAACP efforts to file a 
class action suit in United States District Court; 
(3) the court found that the schools designated for 
African-Americans were grossly inadequate in terms of 
buildings, transportation, and teacher salaries when com-
pared to the schools provided for white students; and 
(4) an order to equalize the facilities was virtually 
ignored by school officials, and the schools were never 
made equal;
Whereas with respect to the Delaware cases of Belton v. 
Gebhart and Bulah v. Gebhart— 
(1) first petitioned in 1951, these cases challenged 
the inferior conditions of 2 African-American schools; 
(2) in the suburb of Claymont, Delaware, African-
American children were prohibited from attending the 
area’s local high school, and in the rural community of 
Hockessin, Delaware, African-American students were 
forced to attend a dilapidated 1-room schoolhouse, and 
were not provided transportation to the school, while 
white children in the area were provided transportation 
and a better school facility; 
(3) both plaintiffs were represented by local NAACP 
attorneys; and 
(4) though the State Supreme Court ruled in favor 
of the plaintiffs, the decision did not apply to all schools 
in Delaware;
Whereas with respect to the District of Columbia case of 
Bolling, et al. v. C. Melvin Sharpe, et al.—
•HCON 411 IH 
(1) 11 African-American junior high school students 
were taken on a field trip to Washington, D.C.’s new 
John Philip Sousa School for white students only; 
(2) the African-American students were denied ad-
mittance to the school and ordered to return to their in-
adequate school; and 
(3) in 1951, a suit was filed on behalf of the stu-
dents, and after review with the Brown case in 1954, the 
United States Supreme Court ruled that segregation in 
the Nation’s capital was unconstitutional;
Whereas on May 17, 1954, at 12:52 p.m., the United States 
Supreme Court ruled that the discriminatory nature of 
racial segregation ‘‘violates the 14th Amendment to the 
Constitution, which guarantees all citizens equal protec-
tion of the laws’’; 
Whereas the decision in Brown v. Board of Education set the 
stage for dismantling racial segregation throughout the 
country; 
Whereas the quiet courage of Oliver L. Brown and his fellow 
plaintiffs asserted the right of African-American people 
to have equal access to social, political, and communal 
structures; 
Whereas our country is indebted to the work of the NAACP 
Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., Howard Uni-
versity Law School, the NAACP, and the individual 
plaintiffs in the cases considered by the Supreme Court; 
Whereas Reverend Oliver L. Brown died in 1961, and be-
cause the landmark United States Supreme Court deci-
sion bears his name, he is remembered as an icon for jus-
tice, freedom, and equal rights; and
•HCON 411 IH 
Whereas the national importance of the Brown v. Board of 
Education decision had a profound impact on American 
culture, affecting families, communities, and governments 
by outlawing racial segregation in public education, re-
sulting in the abolition of legal discrimination on any 
basis: Now therefore be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
concurring), That—
(1) the Congress recognizes and honors the 
50th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in 
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka; 
(2) the Congress encourages all people of the 
United States to recognize the importance of the Su-
preme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Edu-
cation of Topeka; and 
(3) by celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, the Nation 
will be able to refresh and renew the importance of 
equality in society.
Æ