Biden commemorates Brown v. Board of Education anniversary with White House meeting
Source: Reuters
May 16, 2024 2:25 PM EDT Updated an hour ago
WASHINGTON, May 16 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday met with family members of the plaintiffs in the 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education, which outlawed racial segregation in American public schools. Biden, a Democrat who is running for re-election in November, commemorated 70 years since the ruling took place at a meeting with a key player and relatives of the plaintiffs in the White House Oval Office.
Despite the ruling, racial segregation effectively continues across the country, and the U.S. Government Accountability Office says educational inequities still impact children of color. Schools "remain divided along racial, ethnic, and economic lines," with around 18.5 million children attending schools where 75 percent or more of students were "of a single race or ethnicity," a 2022 report by the GAO said.
The White House said Biden met with Cheryl Brown Henderson, whose father, Oliver Brown, was the lead plaintiff in Brown v. Board, and Adrienne Jennings Bennett, a plaintiff in Boiling v. Sharpe, which was argued at the same time and outlawed segregation of schools in the District of Columbia.
Henderson said after the meeting that there was more work to do. "We're still fighting the battle over whose children do we invest in. Any time we can talk about failing underfunded public schools, there is a problem," she said.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-commemorates-brown-v-board-education-anniversary-with-white-house-meeting-2024-05-16/
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