Latest news with #BrownvBoard
Wall Street Journal
01-07-2025
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
Dreamers Find Pam Bondi Standing in the Schoolhouse Door
After the Supreme Court declared school segregation unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), Southern states came up with new tactics to keep segregation alive. The federal government came to black students' defense and helped them go to school where they wanted. Today, another guiltless group of students are having schoolhouse doors slammed in their faces: Dreamers, undocumented students who grew up in this country after their parents brought them here illegally. These students' circumstances are out of their control.
Yahoo
24-06-2025
- Yahoo
230 places you can visit for free in Kansas this summer
TOPEKA (KSNT) – A summer program designed to connect students with attractions across Kansas is back for 2025; and its all free. The Sunflower Summer program is back for another year and runs from Saturday, July 12 to Sunday, Aug. 3. The tourism program helps students and their families get out of the house during the summer and explore new places in Kansas while also enjoying free admission. 'Castle on the Kaw' for sale at $888,000 in Topeka More than 230 attractions can be found in this year's Sunflower Summer program list. These sites are generally categorized as places with historic value, museums, art galleries, zoos, state parks and other interesting locations in the state. Examples of some places you can visit in northeast Kansas through Sunflower Summer are below: Topeka Great Overland Station. Kaw River State Park. Topeka Zoo & Conservation Center. Kansas Children's Discovery Center. Kansas State Capitol. The Historic Ritchie House. Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park. Museum of the Kansas National Guard. Combat Air Museum. Manhattan Midwest Dream Car Collection. Riley County Historical Museum. Sunset Zoo. A & H Farm/Pumpkin Patch. K-State Insect Zoo. Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art. Museum of Art + Light. Flint Hills Discovery Center. Emporia David Traylor Zoo. Red Rocks State Historic Site. Prophet Aquatic Research and Outreach Center. Schmidt Museum of Natural History. Johnston Geology Museum. Lawrence Clinton State Park – Reservoir and Wildlife Area. Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics. Haskell Cultural Center and Museum. KU Natural History Museum. Spencer Museum of Art. Watkins Museum of History. Lawrence Arts Center. Why are so many strange catfish coming out of this Kansas lake? Sunflower Summer is open to Kansas students who are enrolled in Pre-K through to 12th grade. One adult accompanying the students can also receive a free ticket voucher to the program. Participants get one free admission ticket per student for each attraction. To learn more about the program and to see a full list of participating locations, click here. You can download the app for Sunflower Summer for Apple and/or Android devices. For more local news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news in northeast Kansas by downloading our mobile app and by signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track Weather app by clicking here. Follow Matthew Self on X (Twitter): Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Fox News
07-06-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
How Justice Clarence Thomas led SCOTUS to kill DEI
Clarence Thomas has spent his professional life trying to return American law to the Declaration of Independence's founding promise that individuals should be judged as individuals rather than as members of racial, gender, or ethnic groups. It seems that his peers on the high court have been listening. Thomas' belief in individual rights precedes his time on the court. For example, in a 1985 law review article, Thomas discussed his daily responsibilities of enforcing the nation's civil rights laws as chairman of the EEOC. He wrote: "I intend to take EEO enforcement back to where it started by defending the rights of individuals who are hurt by discriminatory practices. … Those who insist on arguing that the principle of equal opportunity, the cornerstone of civil rights, means preferences for certain groups have relinquished their roles as moral and ethical leaders in this area." SUPREME COURT RULES UNANIMOUSLY IN FAVOR OF STRAIGHT OHIO WOMAN WHO CLAIMED DISCRIMINATIONJustice Thomas has reiterated that American law protects individual rather than groups rights throughout his three-and-a-half decades on the nation's highest court. In 1995's Missouri v. Jenkins, for instance, Thomas became the first Supreme Court justice to directly criticize Brown v. Board of Education (1954). Although he called state-mandated segregation "despicable," he said that the Court was wrong in 1954 to rely on disputable social science evidence to declare segregation unconstitutional rather than invoking the "constitutional principle" that "the government must treat citizens as individuals, and not as members of racial, ethnic or religious groups." Justice Thomas has made similar pronouncements in many other judicial opinions. His concurring opinion in 2007's Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 is perhaps the strongest articulation of his conception of equality: "The dissent attempts to marginalize the notion of a colorblind Constitution by consigning it to me and Members of today's plurality. … But I am quite comfortable in the company I keep. My view of the Constitution is Justice Harlan's view in Plessy: 'Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.'" More recently, Justice Thomas wrote in a concurring opinion in the Supreme Court's 2023 decisions holding that colleges and universities cannot consider race in admissions decisions that "While I am painfully aware of the social and economic ravages which have befallen my race and all who suffer discrimination, I hold out enduring hope that this country will live up to its principles so clearly enunciated in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States: that all men are created equal, are equal citizens, and must be treated equally before the law." Last week's Supreme Court decision in Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services signals that proponents of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs should stop pretending that they are complying with the law. After all, one of the most liberal members of the Court, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, wrote in an opinion for a unanimous Court that the "background circumstances" rule imposed by several lower courts of appeal requiring members of a majority group to satisfy a heightened evidentiary standard to prevail on a Title VII discrimination claim is inconsistent with the text of Title VII and the Supreme Court's anti-discrimination precedents. CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINIONJustice Jackson's opinion for the Court reversing the lower courts might as well have been penned by Justice Thomas himself. Justice Jackson quoted the text of Title VII that makes it illegal to take an adverse employment action against "any individual." She further quoted a 2020 Supreme Court decision, Bostock v. Clayton County, that held that the "law's focus on individuals rather than groups [is] anything but academic." She added: "By establishing the same protections for every 'individual'—without regard to that individual's membership in a minority or majority group—Congress left no room for courts to impose special requirements on majority-group plaintiffs alone."Justice Thomas joined Justice Jackson's opinion for the Court "in full." But he also issued a concurring opinion in which he suggested that the "background circumstances" rule is not only inconsistent with the statutory text of Title VII but is "plainly at odds with the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection." Most important for present purposes, Thomas made clear that if proponents of DEI are hoping that the Ames decision has nothing to do with their DEI programs, they are sorely mistaken. "American employers have long been 'obsessed' with 'diversity, equity, and inclusion' initiatives and affirmative action plans," he wrote. "Initiatives of this kind have often led to overt discrimination against those perceived to be in the majority." CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPWhen Justice Antonin Scalia died in 2016, Court watchers openly speculated about who would replace him as the intellectual leader of the conservative legal movement. Clarence Thomas has unquestionably filled that role. After all, in Ames even Justice Thomas's liberal colleagues on the nation's highest court conceded that American law protects individual rather than group rights.
Yahoo
31-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Emotional farewell in Baltimore for Norfolk 17 member
PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — Betty Jean Reed Kea died May 13 at the age of 81. That was four days before the 71st anniversary of the historic Brown v. Board Supreme Court decision that ruled separate is inherently unequal. Five years after that court decision, on Feb. 2, 1959, after Virginia launched a series of illegal steps to avoid integration, Betty Jean Reed walked alone on a long path toward equality. An iconic photo, taken of children on the steps of First Baptist Church on Bute Street, captured Betty Jean and 16 others who bravely integrated Norfolk Public Schools. Most of the Black children traveled with fellow students as they dodged the rocks, spit balls, and n-words that were hurled by a mob of white parents. But that wasn't the case for Betty Jean, who lived in the Titustown section of the city. Hidden History: The Norfolk 17 'I guess they sent groups to other schools,' said Reed's son, Kevin Kea. 'But my mother was the only one to walk by herself. So she had police at school with her every day.' (Note: also walked alone as the only Black student to enter Northside Jr. High School in 1959, according to her daughter, Michelle Curry. At the time, Talley-Hobby was 12 years old and entering seventh grade.) Robert Gaines, who attended Norview High School, recently wrote about what happened to the late Andrew Heidelberg at Norview High School when Blacks desegregated the school. Witness to history concerned about new form of Massive Resistance 'Kids were like, right in the face,' Gaines said. 'He [Heidelberg] did not get hit, but he thought he might get killed,' Gaines said. Other stories were shared with Reed Kea's son decades after Norfolk Public Schools were desegregated. 'We did have some of the [former] White students that did reach out to us,' Kea said. 'One of them was her friend, and she felt guilty that she didn't really interact with my mother as much as she could have or should have while she was at school because she was afraid of the negative treatment she would get just by befriending.' The stories of the Norfolk 17 are hidden no more. Reed Kea earned a masters degree and served as department chair for social studies in Baltimore public schools. 'So she was a good mentor,' said Reed Kea's daughter-in-law, Angela Kea. 'And she's a trailblazer because she's a part of history. She's a part of what made it possible for all schools to be desegregated. And I want to also say that one of her greatest accomplishments was instilling the values of justice, integrity and curiosity that defined her life. And I also wanted to say, because of her legacy, it is felt in classrooms across the United States because of her trailblazing legacy with the Norfolk 17.' Betty Jean Reed Kea paved the way for others. Retired Army Colonel Angelo Riddick and WAVY-TV's Regina Willey Mobley were the first Blacks inducted into the Granby High School Hall of Fame. Dr. Kenneth Cooper Alexander, Norfolk's first Black mayor, sent the Kea family a message of condolence that underscored Kea's role as a civil rights icon. 'Betty Jean Reed Kea played a crucial role in the city's history while paving the way for a more inclusive future,' Alexander said. According to the New Journal and Guide, there are seven living members of the Norfolk 17. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
