California Legislature—2013–14 Regular Session

Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 140

Introduced by Assembly Member Weber

(Coauthors: Assembly Members Bradford, Brown, Hall, Holden, Jones-Sawyer, and Ridley-Thomas)

(Coauthor: Senator Mitchell)

April 23, 2014

Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 140—Relative to the 60th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

ACR 140, as introduced, Weber. 60th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education.

This measure would commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, and would urge the State Department of Education to provide model instructional materials to schools that encourage schools to observe the decision with appropriate educational activities that help pupils understand the importance of tolerance, humanity, and equality of opportunity.

Fiscal committee: yes.

WHEREAS, High-quality education is essential to an informed
citizenry, and is the foundation for democracy in the United States;
and

WHEREAS, Access to a high-quality education is the gateway
to opportunity, America’s promise to all; and

WHEREAS, A high-quality education for every citizen
regardless of race, religion, ethnic background, or economic
circumstance is a fundamental civil right under the American form
of government; and

WHEREAS, Education is the passport of opportunity that needs
to be equally available for all; and

WHEREAS, In 1896, the United States Supreme Court ruled
in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) 163 U.S. 537 that segregation of the
races at public facilities was legal so long as these facilities were
“separate but equal,” which legitimized segregated public schools;
and

WHEREAS, In 1952 and 1953, the United States Supreme Court
heard oral arguments on consolidated cases on appeal from United
States District Courts of Kansas, Delaware, Virginia, and South
Carolina under the name of Brown v. Board of Education of
Topeka (1954) 347 U.S. 483, alleging similar arguments to those
offered by famed National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP) legal counsel Charles H. Houston, who
played a role in nearly every civil rights desegregation case before
the United States Supreme Court between 1930 and Brown v.
Board of Education, that “separate but equal” schools were, in
fact, never equal and that these schools violated individual rights
to equal protection under the law guaranteed by the 14th
Amendment to the United States Constitution; and

WHEREAS, The arguments were presented on behalf of the
NAACP by its Chief Counsel, Thurgood Marshall, who eventually
became the first African American United States Supreme Court
Justice; and

WHEREAS, Thurgood Marshall argued that segregated schools,
many of which were substandard, were psychologically damaging
to black children, causing low self-esteem and low self-worth,
inherently depriving these children of equal protection under the
law guaranteed by the 14th Amendment to the United States
Constitution, and that under that amendment states had no legally
valid reason to segregate and “use race as a factor in affording
educational opportunities to its citizens”; and

WHEREAS, Chief Justice of the United States Earl Warren
wrote that “education is perhaps the most important function of
state and local governments,” and he persuaded each of the other
eight justices of the Supreme Court that, even if schools were
theoretically equal, the effect of segregation on black pupils
“generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the
community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely
ever to be undone”; and

WHEREAS, On May 17, 1954, the United States Supreme Court
in Brown v. Board of Education unanimously overturned the
“separate but equal” doctrine of law; and

WHEREAS, The United States Supreme Court’s decision
became the legal impetus to school desegregation throughout the
United States, and led to one of the most profound social
movements in the history of the United States; and

WHEREAS, The reaction to the Brown v. Board of Education
decision fueled emotions from both sides of the segregation
argument, leading to the “Little Rock Nine,” a group of nine black
high school students who were the first black students to attend
the all white Little Rock High School in Arkansas. One of those
students was Melba Pattillo Beals, who finished her high school
education at the public Montgomery High School in Santa Rosa,
California, and later received her bachelor’s degree from San
Francisco State University; and

WHEREAS, The activism generated to enforce the Brown v.
Board of Education decision was a catalyst to the Civil Rights
Movement for equality that gained momentum in the 1960s and
led to further desegregation of public facilities; and

WHEREAS, The struggle for equal access to high-quality
education continues today; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate
thereof concurring, That the Legislature commemorates the 60th
Anniversary of the historic Brown v. Board of Education decision,
one of the landmark United States Supreme Court decisions of the
20th Century; and be it further

Resolved, That the State Department of Education is urged to
provide model instructional materials to schools that encourage
schools to observe the Brown v. Board of Education decision with
appropriate educational activities that help pupils understand the
importance of tolerance, humanity, and equality of opportunity;
and be it further

Resolved, That a copy of this resolution be transmitted to the
California School Boards Association, which is encouraged to
disseminate copies to local boards of education throughout
California; and be it further

Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies
of the resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.