The Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park Expansion and Redesignation Act President Joe Biden signed into law last week will "more fully tell the story" of how legally segregated schools ended in the U.S.
The new law, passed by a bipartisan coalition in Congress, redesignates the historic site in Topeka, Kan., as a historical part and provides for its inclusion in the nation's National Park System, according to a May 12 Department of Interior news release.
"The expansion of Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park to recognize sites in South Carolina, Delaware, Virginia and Washington, D.C. helps us to more fully tell the story of the struggle to end school segregation," Haaland said in the news release. "The Supreme Court's finding that racially segregated schools were unconstitutional was unquestionably a pivotal event in our nation’s civil rights struggle and we are honored to serve as stewards to part of that history."
The new law adds two school sites in South Carolina to the historical park, according to the release. The two school sites being acquired are Summerton High School, a former all-white school at the center of Supreme Court Briggs v. Elliott case, and Scott's Branch High School, a former all-back school, both in Summerton, S.C.
The release reported newly authorized affiliated sites include the former all-black Robert Russa Moton School in Farmville, Va., where the student-led strike in 1951 took place; and Howard High School in Wilmington, Del.; Claymont High School in Claymont, Del.; and the former Hockessin Colored School 107 in Hockessin, Del.. The Delaware schools were points of focus in the Supreme Court case Belton v. Gebhart.
The new law, also called the Coons-Clyburn bill for its sponsors Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., and House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C.,, was passed by Congress in April, according to an April 7 release on Coons' website.
"The painful but significant impact the 'separate but equal' doctrine had on our nation must never be forgotten. With new National Park Service designations, we will better honor and remember those who worked to correct the injustice of school segregation in Delaware and states across the country," Coons said in his release. "I was raised just a few hundred yards away from the so-called Hockessin Colored School – one of the segregated schools that played a role in the Brown v. Board of Education case, but I did not learn until law school that two cases successfully challenging Delaware's segregated school system eventually made their way to the Supreme Court and became part of the Brown decision.
"We must ensure that future generations learn this history, and the best way to do that is by improving and expanding the community spaces that document and share these stories," Coons continued in his release.
"It is our solemn responsibility as caretakers of America's national treasures to tell the whole, and sometimes difficult, story of our nation's heritage for the benefit of present and future generations," National Park Service Director Charles F. Sams III said in the news release. "Including these important sites will broaden public understanding of the events that led to the 1954 landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown et. al v. Board of Education."
