LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION commemorating the 55th Anniversary of BROWN V.
BOARD OF EDUCATION

WHEREAS, In the course of history, certain events have exemplified the
power of the human spirit to overcome oppression; today we must remember
such events, and pay tribute to the people involved who fought for
justice; and
WHEREAS, Attendant to such concern, and in full accord with long-
standing traditions, this Legislative Body is justly proud to commem-
orate the 55th Anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision, BROWN
V. BOARD OF EDUCATION; and
WHEREAS, The genesis for this extraordinary event rests on a simple,
yet profound truth: in the field of public education, "separate but
equal" has no place; and
WHEREAS, Authored by Chief Justice Earl Warren, only 10 pages long,
and fraught with the weight of legal uncertainty and social unrest,
Brown set about the onerous task of overturning its more foreboding
predecessor, PLESSY V. FERGUSON, the 1896 Supreme Court decision uphold-
ing de jure segregation; and
WHEREAS, For the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund (LDF), Brown
capped a 20-year legal strategy to abolish the regime of Jim Crow by
showing the harm and humiliation of state-imposed racial segregation;
and
WHEREAS, In Brown, the intangible but genuine harms of racial segre-
gation were aptly argued by NAACP LDF counsel, Thurgood Marshall, and
innovatively buttressed by the groundbreaking research and scholarship
of the late Professor Kenneth Clark of the City University of New York;
and
WHEREAS, Armed less with doctrinal propriety than moral certainty,
eschewing precedent for social science data, and casting itself into one
of the most prolonged political hailstorms in its history, the Supreme
Court, in its unanimous Brown decision, ignited a substantive change in
the very fabric of America's social structure; and
WHEREAS, The time for change had come, but America resisted; and
WHEREAS, Embattled from the start, the Brown decision met with wide-
spread and organized resistance; its remedy of "all deliberate speed"
was promptly ignored; on its 10th anniversary, less than two percent of
African American children in the South attended desegregated schools;
and
WHEREAS, As history instructs, Brown not only marked the culmination
of a battle well fought, it would also stand for the beginning of a
struggle yet to come; and
WHEREAS, Brown was a catalyst for change, and for this we celebrate
its many successes: Brown's progeny ultimately secured Jim Crow's
demise, not only in education but in all public accommodations; and
WHEREAS, The Brown decision unquestionably laid the legal and poli-
tical framework for the Voting and Civil Rights Acts; and
WHEREAS, Perhaps most importantly, Brown inspired within a generation
the faith to vigorously pursue a democracy where all men and women are
created equal; and
WHEREAS, In this regard, Brown helped this great nation become even
greater; and
WHEREAS, Let New York join America on this 55th Anniversary of BROWN
V. BOARD OF EDUCATION in reflecting on its symbolism, and recommitting
ourselves to championing its ideal of equality and justice for all; now,
therefore, be it

RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to
commemorate the 55th Anniversary of the historic BROWN V. BOARD OF
EDUCATION United States Supreme Court decision.