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Bush Speaks at Brown v. Board of Education Commemoration

Aired May 17, 2004 - 13:59   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Celebrating a landmark desegregation ruling. Live pictures now from Topeka, Kansas, where President Bush will speak soon about the decision that changed American education forever.
Baghdad blast. A head of the Governing Council killed. Nagging questions about security and self-government in Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He put the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) right on my neck. I had a hood over my head so I didn't know who was interrogating me. After that, they untied my hands and asked me to take my clothes off.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: An Iraqi held in Abu Ghraib Prison talks about his alleged mistreatment and seeks justice in America.

From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Kyra Phillips, Miles is off, this hour of CNN's LIVE FROM... starts right now.

No longer separate, but not always equal, either. It has been 50 years since the Supreme Court of the United States tore down racial barriers in education and beyond. The legacy of that landmark ruling is fraught with conflict and unfinished business, moments from now President Bush will address all of this in the city where the court case originated, Topeka, Kansas. We get a preview now and a look back from Dan Lothian.

Hi, Dan.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN BOSTON BUREAU CHIEF: Hello, well, indeed we are waiting for President Bush, who will be the keynote speaker here at this event. A few thousand people have been gathered here for the past couple of hours listening to a variety of local dignitaries and some members with the NAACP who have been speaking here.

This, of course, remembering the seventeenth, 1954 when the Supreme Court ruled that public schools should be integrated. Earlier today, and my understanding now that the president is just arriving -- earlier today one of the speakers was the sister of Linda Brown, the young girl who was at the center of this landmark case. And she talked about the importance of this day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let us not be seduced by the media myths that Brown was only about one family that stood alone. Let us not be seduced by any sense that the work has been done. Brown remains unfinished business.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LOTHIAN: Now the museum which is in the old Monroe Elementary School was one of four segregated black schools back in the early 1950s. The museum focuses on more than just that one case. It focuses on the civil rights battle before that and after that.

Museum officials telling us the reason they're doing this is because they believe that this case is bigger than just one person. This school, of course, is where the young Linda Brown attended. She was -- lived much closer to an all-white school where she was not allowed to attend. Her father tried to enroll her there and that got the ball rolling on the case that ended up in the Supreme Court -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, Dan, I just have to salute you, I saw your piece last night, the "CNN PRESIENTS" talking about Brown v. Board of Education and the impact that it has had. I'm just curious. And I want to ask you, while working on that, did you discover anything that surprised you?

LOTHIAN: I think one of the things that really shocked me was when I was talking to those young students at Shaker Heights school just outside Cleveland, Ohio, and I was surprised by the fact that some of the students, African-American students, felt that they were already behind in the race, in the achievement race, just because of the color of their skin.

That was shocking for me. I mean, they were kids who said, listen, when we look at white students and we look at black students, we believe that white students are just smarter. So that kind of thinking goes into the whole issue that we had in that special, which was the gap, the gap between white students and black students. And you can see why that gap continues when already there's that thinking, not among all, but among some black students that white students are much smarter than they are.

PHILLIPS: What about the parents? Did you feel that as you talked with these students, specifically the black students, do you think parents are involved enough, that they're involved in the school, involved in their kids' lives?

LOTHIAN: Well, the kids we spoke with, their parents were very involved in their schooling, very involved in their lives and really encouraged them to take the much more difficult classes as opposed to just settling back and getting easy grades.

But certainly as we talk to our experts, that is the biggest problem. They're pointing to the achievement gap, and saying one of the reasons that we have that gap is because they believe black parents are not spending as much time from an earlier age providing an environment of learning in the home.

They point out that white students may have more access to books, they're taken to museums, they're introduced to classical music, other things. And once again, it's not a blanket statement black parents aren't doing that, but some of the researchers believe that black parents are not turning their homes into school at an earlier age, something that white parents are doing.

PHILLIPS: Well, Dan, your one-hour special was fantastic. I'm glad you're there bringing us these live shots. Thank you, Dan Lothian.

LOTHIAN: Thank you very much.

PHILLIPS: Well, President Bush's speech to mark this historic occasion is to begin momentarily. We'll bring you his remarks in their entirety as soon as he steps up to the podium.

And earlier today in Topeka, it was the turn of the president's challenger, John Kerry. Speaking outside the Kansas state capitol, Kerry declared that 50 years later the fight for equal education is far from over.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: In a broadside aimed at the president's education agenda, Kerry says that you cannot promise No Child Left Behind and then pursue policies that leave millions of people behind daily. As we said, we'll hear from President Bush in just a moment.

Now as President Bush prepares to speak, there's more troubling news from Iraq. The president of the Governing Council has been killed by a suicide bomber in Baghdad.

Details now from Ben Wedeman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CAIRO BUREAU CHIEF: The blast that killed Governing Council Rotating President Izzedine Salim went off at 9:55 in the morning, near a checkpoint leading to the Green Zone where the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority is located.

In that blast, seven people were killed, five civilians wounded, and two U.S. soldiers wounded as well. And the blast created a huge crater, throwing cars across the Street. Now, according to Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, the back of the car that hit the vehicle in which Salim was sitting was packed with artillery shells. Now according to the coalition spokesman, they believe that this attack bears all the hallmarks of Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian national who has been linked to a series of attacks in Iraq, most recently, of course, the beheading of U.S. citizen Nicholas Berg.

Now immediately after this blast, the Iraqi Governing Council picked a new rotating president, that was be Ghazi Ajil, he is from the northern town of Mosul, a Sunni engineer. He was originally designated to take the post on the first of June. Now he's taking it over today and will hold that post until the thirtieth of June when the scheduled handover from the coalition to the -- some sort of Iraqi entity or government will take place.

One other significant development today, according to Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, coalition forces on Saturday found an artillery shell near the airport in the form of a road-side bomb. That artillery shell apparently contained sarin nerve gas.

Now, apparently that -- it's not clear whether those who planted the IED with the artillery shell were aware that sarin nerve gas was in the shell. Apparently it is not effective unless actually used as an artillery shell. But it is the first instance in which such a shell with sarin nerve agent has been found here in Iraq.

I'm Ben Wedeman, CNN, reporting from Baghdad.

PHILLIPS: Now live to Topeka, Kansas, where the president of the United States is speaking to those commemorating the anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ... to mark a day and a decision that changed America for the better and forever.

(INSERT BUSH SPEECH)

Thank you for having me. May God bless America.

PHILLIPS: The president of the United States, live in Topeka, Kansas. Side-by-side there actually was Cheryl Brown Henderson. She's the sister of Linda Brown, that youngster whose father actually filed the case, the brown family, as you know, which turned into Brown v. Board of Education; shaking hands there with a lot of dignitaries, talking about the Brown v. Board of Education, how it changed America forever. That the humiliation of an entire race was completely unforgiving. A day of justice when the Supreme Court finally made the decision to integrate the schools.

Well, on this 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling that declared segregated public schools unconstitutional, Aaron Brown hosts as special edition of "NEWSNIGHT," 50 years after the Brown ruling, "Brown on Brown" at 10 Eastern right here on CNN. We're going to take a quick break, we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: News across America now. Free from jail, former South Dakota Governor and Congressman Bill Janklow is out of a county lockup after 100 days. Janklow was convicted of manslaughter and reckless driving in a fatal crash when he hit a motorcycle. He faces nearly three more years of probation.

At Mt. Rainier National Park in Washington State, two climbers still stranded at 12,000 feet. A helicopter attempting to reach them was forced to turn around today due to clouds. Rangers are expected to reach the scene later today. One of the climbers has a head injury from an earlier fall.

And severe storms spawned this in Nebraska's Tornado Alley. Forecasters say at least five counties had tornado or funnel cloud sightings. Twisters hit three city, but there were no reports of injuries.

(MARKET REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, on this 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, people across America are reflecting on the historic Supreme Court ruling that turned separate but equal into separate but illegal. Today it extends far beyond black and white. Its beneficiaries make up a rainbow of American society.

Here's Maria Hinojosa.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Their bouncing around like grasshoppers on this sunny spring morning at the Noah's Ark Preschool where every child gets a chance to learn. Meet the modern day recipients of America's landmark desegregation movement, who are almost as likely to be Latino or Korean as they are black or white.

GWEN GRANT, NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J., SCHOOLS: In a way, it's very exciting. Our children who speak English are now learning Spanish. We were in a classroom earlier where they're singing in English and Spanish. It's a very natural part of what the children do in New Brunswick because we've built it into our world languages program. Brown is ever evolving.

HINOJOSA: Brown is Brown v. Board of Education, the legal reason schools try to racially integrate their kids. But in New Brunswick, New Jersey, most schools are no longer black and white. They're nearly 70 percent Latino, making equality illusive.

GABRIELLA MORRIS, THE PRUDENTIAL FOUNDATION: New immigrant populations have come in, where African-Americans have lived historically and have been receiving disproportionately bad educational service delivery. They are suffering from the same conditions, and that is exacerbated, as you know, by language barriers.

HINOJOSA: Educational Law Center successfully sued New Jersey where schools are among the nation's most segregated to try to force them to make Brown's promises concrete.

STEVEN BLOCK, EDUCATIONAL LAW CENTER: The court requires the state to fund, to start funding these urban schools, a parity with the per pupil amount that's provided on average in the 120 wealthiest communities in the state. Next year that will be about $11,300.

HINOJOSA: The Prudential Foundation, a major funder of the center, followed up with programs geared toward making sure that money is well spent; for example, on language skills, especially for young children, and on parenting skills.

MORRIS: Without innovation, we will lose, continue to lose generations of children from their own promise and from our own benefit of what they can contribute. It will happen for different reasons. This is not 1954, the country is a lot more diverse, and these children may fail I think principally because of language.

HINOJOSA: That's why at Noah's Ark intervention has already begun.

Maria Hinojosa, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com


Aired May 17, 2004 - 13:59   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Celebrating a landmark desegregation ruling. Live pictures now from Topeka, Kansas, where President Bush will speak soon about the decision that changed American education forever.
Baghdad blast. A head of the Governing Council killed. Nagging questions about security and self-government in Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He put the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) right on my neck. I had a hood over my head so I didn't know who was interrogating me. After that, they untied my hands and asked me to take my clothes off.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: An Iraqi held in Abu Ghraib Prison talks about his alleged mistreatment and seeks justice in America.

From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Kyra Phillips, Miles is off, this hour of CNN's LIVE FROM... starts right now.

No longer separate, but not always equal, either. It has been 50 years since the Supreme Court of the United States tore down racial barriers in education and beyond. The legacy of that landmark ruling is fraught with conflict and unfinished business, moments from now President Bush will address all of this in the city where the court case originated, Topeka, Kansas. We get a preview now and a look back from Dan Lothian.

Hi, Dan.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN BOSTON BUREAU CHIEF: Hello, well, indeed we are waiting for President Bush, who will be the keynote speaker here at this event. A few thousand people have been gathered here for the past couple of hours listening to a variety of local dignitaries and some members with the NAACP who have been speaking here.

This, of course, remembering the seventeenth, 1954 when the Supreme Court ruled that public schools should be integrated. Earlier today, and my understanding now that the president is just arriving -- earlier today one of the speakers was the sister of Linda Brown, the young girl who was at the center of this landmark case. And she talked about the importance of this day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let us not be seduced by the media myths that Brown was only about one family that stood alone. Let us not be seduced by any sense that the work has been done. Brown remains unfinished business.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LOTHIAN: Now the museum which is in the old Monroe Elementary School was one of four segregated black schools back in the early 1950s. The museum focuses on more than just that one case. It focuses on the civil rights battle before that and after that.

Museum officials telling us the reason they're doing this is because they believe that this case is bigger than just one person. This school, of course, is where the young Linda Brown attended. She was -- lived much closer to an all-white school where she was not allowed to attend. Her father tried to enroll her there and that got the ball rolling on the case that ended up in the Supreme Court -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, Dan, I just have to salute you, I saw your piece last night, the "CNN PRESIENTS" talking about Brown v. Board of Education and the impact that it has had. I'm just curious. And I want to ask you, while working on that, did you discover anything that surprised you?

LOTHIAN: I think one of the things that really shocked me was when I was talking to those young students at Shaker Heights school just outside Cleveland, Ohio, and I was surprised by the fact that some of the students, African-American students, felt that they were already behind in the race, in the achievement race, just because of the color of their skin.

That was shocking for me. I mean, they were kids who said, listen, when we look at white students and we look at black students, we believe that white students are just smarter. So that kind of thinking goes into the whole issue that we had in that special, which was the gap, the gap between white students and black students. And you can see why that gap continues when already there's that thinking, not among all, but among some black students that white students are much smarter than they are.

PHILLIPS: What about the parents? Did you feel that as you talked with these students, specifically the black students, do you think parents are involved enough, that they're involved in the school, involved in their kids' lives?

LOTHIAN: Well, the kids we spoke with, their parents were very involved in their schooling, very involved in their lives and really encouraged them to take the much more difficult classes as opposed to just settling back and getting easy grades.

But certainly as we talk to our experts, that is the biggest problem. They're pointing to the achievement gap, and saying one of the reasons that we have that gap is because they believe black parents are not spending as much time from an earlier age providing an environment of learning in the home.

They point out that white students may have more access to books, they're taken to museums, they're introduced to classical music, other things. And once again, it's not a blanket statement black parents aren't doing that, but some of the researchers believe that black parents are not turning their homes into school at an earlier age, something that white parents are doing.

PHILLIPS: Well, Dan, your one-hour special was fantastic. I'm glad you're there bringing us these live shots. Thank you, Dan Lothian.

LOTHIAN: Thank you very much.

PHILLIPS: Well, President Bush's speech to mark this historic occasion is to begin momentarily. We'll bring you his remarks in their entirety as soon as he steps up to the podium.

And earlier today in Topeka, it was the turn of the president's challenger, John Kerry. Speaking outside the Kansas state capitol, Kerry declared that 50 years later the fight for equal education is far from over.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: In a broadside aimed at the president's education agenda, Kerry says that you cannot promise No Child Left Behind and then pursue policies that leave millions of people behind daily. As we said, we'll hear from President Bush in just a moment.

Now as President Bush prepares to speak, there's more troubling news from Iraq. The president of the Governing Council has been killed by a suicide bomber in Baghdad.

Details now from Ben Wedeman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CAIRO BUREAU CHIEF: The blast that killed Governing Council Rotating President Izzedine Salim went off at 9:55 in the morning, near a checkpoint leading to the Green Zone where the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority is located.

In that blast, seven people were killed, five civilians wounded, and two U.S. soldiers wounded as well. And the blast created a huge crater, throwing cars across the Street. Now, according to Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, the back of the car that hit the vehicle in which Salim was sitting was packed with artillery shells. Now according to the coalition spokesman, they believe that this attack bears all the hallmarks of Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian national who has been linked to a series of attacks in Iraq, most recently, of course, the beheading of U.S. citizen Nicholas Berg.

Now immediately after this blast, the Iraqi Governing Council picked a new rotating president, that was be Ghazi Ajil, he is from the northern town of Mosul, a Sunni engineer. He was originally designated to take the post on the first of June. Now he's taking it over today and will hold that post until the thirtieth of June when the scheduled handover from the coalition to the -- some sort of Iraqi entity or government will take place.

One other significant development today, according to Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, coalition forces on Saturday found an artillery shell near the airport in the form of a road-side bomb. That artillery shell apparently contained sarin nerve gas.

Now, apparently that -- it's not clear whether those who planted the IED with the artillery shell were aware that sarin nerve gas was in the shell. Apparently it is not effective unless actually used as an artillery shell. But it is the first instance in which such a shell with sarin nerve agent has been found here in Iraq.

I'm Ben Wedeman, CNN, reporting from Baghdad.

PHILLIPS: Now live to Topeka, Kansas, where the president of the United States is speaking to those commemorating the anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ... to mark a day and a decision that changed America for the better and forever.

(INSERT BUSH SPEECH)

Thank you for having me. May God bless America.

PHILLIPS: The president of the United States, live in Topeka, Kansas. Side-by-side there actually was Cheryl Brown Henderson. She's the sister of Linda Brown, that youngster whose father actually filed the case, the brown family, as you know, which turned into Brown v. Board of Education; shaking hands there with a lot of dignitaries, talking about the Brown v. Board of Education, how it changed America forever. That the humiliation of an entire race was completely unforgiving. A day of justice when the Supreme Court finally made the decision to integrate the schools.

Well, on this 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling that declared segregated public schools unconstitutional, Aaron Brown hosts as special edition of "NEWSNIGHT," 50 years after the Brown ruling, "Brown on Brown" at 10 Eastern right here on CNN. We're going to take a quick break, we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: News across America now. Free from jail, former South Dakota Governor and Congressman Bill Janklow is out of a county lockup after 100 days. Janklow was convicted of manslaughter and reckless driving in a fatal crash when he hit a motorcycle. He faces nearly three more years of probation.

At Mt. Rainier National Park in Washington State, two climbers still stranded at 12,000 feet. A helicopter attempting to reach them was forced to turn around today due to clouds. Rangers are expected to reach the scene later today. One of the climbers has a head injury from an earlier fall.

And severe storms spawned this in Nebraska's Tornado Alley. Forecasters say at least five counties had tornado or funnel cloud sightings. Twisters hit three city, but there were no reports of injuries.

(MARKET REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, on this 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, people across America are reflecting on the historic Supreme Court ruling that turned separate but equal into separate but illegal. Today it extends far beyond black and white. Its beneficiaries make up a rainbow of American society.

Here's Maria Hinojosa.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Their bouncing around like grasshoppers on this sunny spring morning at the Noah's Ark Preschool where every child gets a chance to learn. Meet the modern day recipients of America's landmark desegregation movement, who are almost as likely to be Latino or Korean as they are black or white.

GWEN GRANT, NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J., SCHOOLS: In a way, it's very exciting. Our children who speak English are now learning Spanish. We were in a classroom earlier where they're singing in English and Spanish. It's a very natural part of what the children do in New Brunswick because we've built it into our world languages program. Brown is ever evolving.

HINOJOSA: Brown is Brown v. Board of Education, the legal reason schools try to racially integrate their kids. But in New Brunswick, New Jersey, most schools are no longer black and white. They're nearly 70 percent Latino, making equality illusive.

GABRIELLA MORRIS, THE PRUDENTIAL FOUNDATION: New immigrant populations have come in, where African-Americans have lived historically and have been receiving disproportionately bad educational service delivery. They are suffering from the same conditions, and that is exacerbated, as you know, by language barriers.

HINOJOSA: Educational Law Center successfully sued New Jersey where schools are among the nation's most segregated to try to force them to make Brown's promises concrete.

STEVEN BLOCK, EDUCATIONAL LAW CENTER: The court requires the state to fund, to start funding these urban schools, a parity with the per pupil amount that's provided on average in the 120 wealthiest communities in the state. Next year that will be about $11,300.

HINOJOSA: The Prudential Foundation, a major funder of the center, followed up with programs geared toward making sure that money is well spent; for example, on language skills, especially for young children, and on parenting skills.

MORRIS: Without innovation, we will lose, continue to lose generations of children from their own promise and from our own benefit of what they can contribute. It will happen for different reasons. This is not 1954, the country is a lot more diverse, and these children may fail I think principally because of language.

HINOJOSA: That's why at Noah's Ark intervention has already begun.

Maria Hinojosa, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com