President to host Brown v. Board families, lawyers [View all]

Proclamation hails ruling that shifted nation's 'moral compass'
By The Associated Press

... Obama also scheduled a meeting Friday with families of the plaintiffs as well as the lead attorneys and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Obama will host the group, including lawyers Jack Greenberg and William Coleman, in the White House East Room. Greenberg argued the case; Coleman was a leading legal strategist.

Topekan Cheryl Brown Henderson, daughter of plaintiff Oliver Brown, said two families with connections to the Topeka case — the Brown and Lawton families — also would attend.

In a statement, Obama said the decision, issued on May 17, 1954, was “the first major step in dismantling the ‘separate but equal’ doctrine that justified Jim Crow,” the racial segregation laws that were in place at the state and local level across the South.

“As we commemorate this historic anniversary, we recommit ourselves to the long struggle to stamp out bigotry and racism in all their forms,” Obama said. “We reaffirm our belief that all children deserve an education worthy of their promise. And we remember that change did not come overnight, that it took many years and a nationwide movement to fully realize the dream of civil rights for all of God’s children” ...

http://cjonline.com/news/2014-05-16/president-host-brown-v-board-families-lawyers