National Forum to Observe 50th Anniversary of Supreme Court School Desegregation Case
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – In 1954 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled public school segregation unconstitutional, and a national conference scheduled here March 25-26 by the University of Florida College of Law will focus on the impact and challenges of that landmark decision in observance of its 50th anniversary.
Leading educators, government officials and legal practitioners will participate in the “Beyond Brown: Children, Race and Education” forum co-sponsored by the law school’s Center on Children and Families (CCF) and the Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations (CSRRR) and based on the Brown v. Board of Education decision
Opening session will begin at 4 p.m. on the 25th, in Holland Hall auditorium, and will include a screening of the award-winning documentary film, “The Intolerable Burden,” about effects of the Brown decision on a Mississippi town. Plenaries and workshops on the 26th will be at the Hilton UF Conference Center, starting at 8:30 a.m.
According to conference organizers Professors Katheryn Russell-Brown, CSRRR director, and Barbara Bennett Woodhouse, CCF director, topics will include assessing the legacy and realizing the promise of Brown, children’s role in the struggle for justice, weighing the costs and benefits of integration, politics of education reform and perspectives on equality.
Professors Leland Ware of the University of Delaware and Edgar Epps of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee will give keynote addresses, respectively, at the opening and luncheon sessions on the 26th. Ware, former trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice civil division, is vice president of the national board of directors of the American Civil Liberties Union; Epps, former professor of urban education at the University of Chicago, has studied desegregation efforts and effects of vouchers, magnet and charter schools on urban education.
Among nationally known educators scheduled to speak and their affiliated universities are R. Richard Banks, Stanford; Robin D. Barnes, Connecticut; Tomiko Brown-Nagin, Washington -St. Louis; Peggy Cooper Davis, New York; David I. Levine, California-Hastings College of Law; Alfred D. Mathewson, New Mexico; and Vivian Gunn Morris, Memphis.
St. Petersburg Times columnist Bill Maxwell; accountability specialist Curtis L. Morris of Memphis, TN., city schools; Shirley, N.Y., elementary school principal Janet Windbish; and attorney Tim Shea, Orange County, FL., School Board, also will participate.
In addition to Russell-Brown and Bennett-Woodhouse, UF law school faculty taking part in the program include Nancy Dowd, Joan Flocks, Berta Hernandez-Truyol, Kenneth B. Nunn, Juan F. Perea, Sharon E. Rush, Sherrie Russell-Brown, Michelle Jacobs, Christopher Slobogin, Michael Wolf and Monique Haughton Worrell.
UF faculty participating from other colleges are Mark Fondacaro, psychology; and Regan Garner, Anane Olatunji and Sevan Terzian, education.
The Florida Bar has approved 10 hours of Continuing Legal Education credit for legal practitioners attending the forum.
Complete event details can be found at http://www.law.ufl.edu/childconference or by contacting conference coordinator Debbie Kelley, 352.392.9001, firstname.lastname@example.org, or Barbara DeVoe, law school director of conference planning, 352,392.8070, email@example.com.
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