Kerry: U.S. Schools Still Unequal

Fifty years after the Supreme Court ended racial segregation in the schools, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry says America still has "separate and unequal" schools.

Kerry joined a host of civil rights leaders at a ceremony Monday marking the 1954 Brown v. Topeka Board of Education case. The Massachusetts senator said schools remain underfunded and divided by income, the health care system has too many disparities by race, and one-third of black children live in poverty.

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

"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," he 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.

Kerry took indirect jabs at President Bush, who was arriving in Topeka later Monday for a similar ceremony.

"Brown began to tear down the walls of inequality," Kerry said. "The next great challenge is to put up a ladder of opportunity for all."

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.

Bush spokesman Steve Schmidt noted that the president was marking the day as well and faulted Kerry for "introducing partisan invective into this historic anniversary."

Kerry's campaign was far more direct in its criticism of the president, releasing background documents accusing him of appointing "radical right-wing judges" and charging that "the Justice Department's civil rights division has been effectively closed."

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."

Joining Kerry were 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.

Mr. Bush was the scheduled headliner at Monday's opening of a national historic site at the former Monroe Elementary School in Topeka, a centerpiece of the Supreme Court case that ended segregation.

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

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

Mr. Bush was hoping to make some inroads himself among black Americans skeptical of his commitment to equal opportunity in education. Mr. Bush, who opposes affirmative action programs for minorities, drew just 9 percent of the black vote in 2000.