Kerry, Bush Mark Brown Anniversary

President Bush and Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry both traveled to Topeka, Kan., on Monday to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision ending racial segregation in the nation's schools.

Kerry said that half a century after the 1954 Brown v. Topeka Board of Education case, America still has "separate and unequal" school systems.

"Today, more than ever, we need to renew our commitment to one America," Kerry said in a ceremony on the steps of the Kansas Statehouse with hundreds of schoolchildren as a backdrop.

The Massachusetts senator was joined by Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius; Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus; civil rights leader Jesse Jackson; and Wade Henderson, head of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.

"We should not delude ourselves into thinking for an instant that because Brown represents the law we have achieved our goal, that the work of Brown is done when there are those who still seek, in different ways, to see it undone — to roll back affirmative action, to restrict equal rights, to undermine the promise of our Constitution," Kerry said.

Black Topeka parents who wanted to send their children to nearby whites-only schools launched the case. At the time the Supreme Court handed down the decision, fewer than 4 percent of black Americans had college degrees, a number that has risen to 20 percent. The number of black lawyers and judges has jumped from 2,800 to more than 50,000, Kerry said.

"We have to defend the progress that has been made, but we also have to move the cause forward," he said.

President Bush also marked the occasion, appearing at the symbolic home of the school integration movement, saying "it changed America for the better, and forever."

"Fifty years ago today, nine judges announced that they had looked at the Constitution and saw no justification for the segregation and humiliation of an entire race," Mr. Bush said at the opening of a national historic site at Monroe Elementary, a former all-black school in the heartland of the school desegregation effort.

It was Mr. Bush's father who, as president in 1992, signed the law that turned Monroe Elementary into a national landmark.

"Here on the corner of 15th and Monroe, and in schools like it across America, that was a day of justice, and it was a long time coming," the president said.

But Mr. Bush said America still faces challenges.

"The habits of racism in America have not all been broken," he said. "The habits of respect must be taught to every generation." He said laws against discrimination should be vigorously enforced.

"While our schools are no longer segregated by law, they are still not equal in opportunity and excellence," Mr. Bush said. "Justice requires more than a place in a school. Justice requires that every school teach every child in America."

Kerry routinely charges on the stump that Mr. Bush has drained money for schools, leaving those in blighted areas struggling. While racial segregation may be ended, he said, millions of children get a second-class education because they are poor.

"We have certainly not met the promise of Brown when, in too many parts of our country, our school systems are not separate but equal, but separate and unequal," Kerry said Monday.

Kerry scoffed at the president's signature No Child Left Behind law, arguing that this year alone Mr. Bush's budget is $9.4 billion short of financing the measure.

"You cannot promise no child left behind and then pursue policies that leave millions of children behind," he said. "Because that promise is a promissory note to all of America's families that must be paid in full."

The Bush administration describes the No Child Left Behind Act as an extension of the Brown case because the education law seeks to end what Mr. Bush calls a bigotry of low expectations for minorities.

Mr. Bush was hoping to make some inroads among black Americans skeptical of his commitment to equal opportunity in education. He drew just 9 percent of the black vote in 2000.

The president was accompanied to Topeka by Education Secretary Rod Paige, his appointee and the first black person to hold the Cabinet post.

Kerry and the president have been running close nationally on the question of who would do a better job on education. Mr. Bush is widely credited for helping the Republican Party claim ground in public education, with a focus on getting top teachers in all core classes and holding schools accountable for record increases in federal spending.