CWU Remembers Brown v. Board Of Education Ruling

May 6, 2004

Contact: Dr. Elizabeth Street (509-963-2111/fax 509-963-3206/e-mail: streetl@cwu.edu)

ELLENSBURG, Wash.-- May 17, 2004 will be the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education ruling, which struck down the "separate but equal" doctrine in public education and required the desegregation of schools across the country.

The decision marked "a clear turning point in this country's journey toward full inclusion of all its citizens," Central Washington University President Jerilyn S. McIntyre says. "Access to education has always been the clearest path to full participation in a democracy.

In commemoration of the landmark decision, CWU will host a presentation by Dr. Walter J. Leonard who will discuss "Brown v. Board of Education: Its Promises, Its Failures, and Its Successes."

His free, public presentation, which will include a question-and-answer session, is slated for Tuesday, May 11, at 7 p.m. in McConnell Auditorium.

Leonard is a former president of Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn., special assistant to the president of Harvard University and assistant dean of both the Howard University School of Law and the Harvard University Law School.

He was also the founding chairman of the W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard, was elected an Honorary Member of Wolfson College, University of Oxford, and, the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Natal, in Durban, South Africa, has created two fellowships in his honor.

In addition to Leonard's presentation, CWU has several other events planned in conjunction with the university's 50th anniversary remembrance of the Brown v. Board of Education decision.
They include:

• An exhibit in the Brooks Library on the Supreme Court decision and related civil rights events that will be displayed throughout May;
• A walking timeline exhibit in the Samuelson Union Building Chief Owhi room, on display from May 11 to 18;
• A free, public showing of the 1991 made-for-TV movie "Separate But Equal" in Science Building 147 on Sunday, May 16, at 7 p.m.; and,
• A panel discussion on "Brown v. Board of Education and Its Implication" will take place in Black 152 on Monday, May 17, at 4 p.m. The panel members with be Charles Reasons, CWU law and justice professor; Keith Champagne, chair of the CWU diversity council and associate vice president of student affairs; Scott Volyn, an attorney with the firm of Arch and Dodge; and, Daniel Fennerty, CWU special education professor.

For more information about any of these events, or for persons of disability to arrange for reasonable accommodation, call (509) 963-2111, or (for the hearing impaired) TDD (509) 963-2143.