The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture will recognize the 70th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision by the Supreme Court next month with a daylong public event.
The May 17 event, held in collaboration with the NAACP, will include several panel discussions, with one featuring participants of the Little Rock Nine, the first Black students to enter Little Rock Arkansas’ Central High School in 1957.
The event will take place at the museum’s Oprah Winfrey Theater from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Registration is required.
On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered its unanimous 9-0 decision overturning the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling as it applied to public education, stating that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”
In a watershed moment for equality and democracy, racial segregation laws were declared in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, paving the way for integration, and winning a major victory for the burgeoning civil rights movement.
“The National Museum of African American History and Culture was founded to ensure that this story and other important chapters in the African American experience are never forgotten,” said Kevin Young, the museum’s Andrew W. Mellon director. “The road to desegregation in the United States was long and arduous. This anniversary stands as a testament to the tenacity and moral clarity of African American trailblazers who insisted on the power of education and refused to settle for the inherent injustice of ‘separate but equal.’”
For more information, go to nmaahc.si.edu, follow @NMAAHC on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram or call Smithsonian information at 202-633-1000.