Maryland
Bar Bulletin
Publications :
Bar Bulletin
Editor: W.
Patrick Tandy
May, 2004
| |
MSBA Pays Tribute
to Brown vs. Board of Education
~Devotes Law Day to 50th Anniversary~
|
| By Janet
Stidman Eveleth |
Throughout 2004, MSBA
has joined Maryland’s legal community, local community organizations
and the public in commemorating the 50th anniversary
of Brown vs. Board of Education with a host of celebratory events,
unique exhibits, school activities, educational programs and forums. As a
special tribute to Brown, MSBA dedicated Law Day 2004 to this landmark
Supreme Court decision and offered a special Brown vs. Board of Education Speakers’ Bureau
this year with over 50 attorneys volunteering to go out into the community
to discuss this historic milestone.
Center
Stage Commemoration
On the evening of May
3, 2004, MSBA presented its first celebratory Law Day commemorative event
at Center Stage, catering to a sellout crowd. Partnering with Center Stage
and other local community groups, MSBA unveiled an educational and entertaining Brown
vs. Board of Education community forum, free to all MSBA members and
the public. This presentation featured live readings from original Brown case
transcripts highlighting key oral arguments of the trial.
MSBA President Harry S.
Johnson welcomed the audience and opened the program, along with Center Stage
General Manager Michael Ross and Dramatur Gavin Witt. The Honorable Robert
M. Bell, Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals of Maryland, was one of the
readers, and MSBA “stars” for this performance included Jonathan
Claiborne, Whiteford, Taylor & Preston, Edward Smith, Jr., Arena Players,
and Elizabeth Hewlett, Chair of the Maryland National Capitol Park Planning
Commission.
The legal community was
also represented by the Honorable Andre M. Davis, U. S. District Court, District
of Maryland, Gilbert Holmes, Dean of the University of Baltimore School of
Law, Larry S. Gibson, University of Maryland School of Law professor, and
Philip M. Andrews, Kramon & Preston. As an added plus, local high school
students from Center Stage’s Encounter outreach program inspired the
audience with trial readings and moving, personal contemporary reflections.
The community forum
“performers” offered effective and dramatic recitations of the
actual Brown vs. Board of Education trial excerpts. Their readings,
along with those of other community leaders, were complemented by news clippings
and editorials from the era as well as recollections from several people who
were there. Collectively, this event told the story of Brown, proffering
insight into the heart of the momentous transformation wrought by this case.
At the conclusion of the
recitations, Witt, serving as moderator, engaged the audience in a lively,
interactive dialogue of issues the commemoration raised, especially in our
contemporary times. The audience probed the long-term impact of Brown,
explored how far we have come and how far we have to go, discussed its impact
on the Baltimore City School system today and examined Brown’s
legacy to future generations of Americans.
Center Stage and commissioned
playwright Jerome Hairston, aided by University of Maryland School of Law
professor Katherine Vaughns and several student volunteers, crafted Brown’s
trial transcripts into the compelling and insightful script presented on
May 3.
Center Stage presented
this program in association with the Maryland State Bar Association, the
Bar Association of Baltimore City, the University of Maryland School of Law
and the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African-American History and
Culture. The Baltimore Sun also sponsored the commemorative event,
with generous funding support from the Baltimore Community Foundation’s
collection of charitable funds benefiting the Greater Baltimore Region, the
Maryland Humanities Council, through support from the National Endowment
for the Humanities and the Aaron Straus & Lillie Straus Foundation.
Student/Teacher/Lawyer
Conference
On May 18, MSBA’s
Public Awareness Committee, in conjunction with the Citizenship Law-Related
Education Program, will sponsor the Association’s second Law Day event
at the Sheppard Pratt Conference Center in Towson, Maryland. This one-day
program will welcome over 150 students, teachers and lawyers who will be
engaged in an interactive day of educational sessions and workshops devoted
to Brown vs. Board of Education in celebration of its 50th anniversary.
In addition to scheduled
speakers Judge Robert M. Bell and MSBA President Harry S. Johnson, highlights
of the conference include a special Brown vs. Board of Education historical
perspective videotape and a reenactment of the May 3 Center Stage/MSBA community program,
with the students performing the scripted readings. Center Stage generously
donated the use of the script to MSBA for this special program. Other lively
sessions and an insightful dialogue about the ramifications of Brown are
also planned.
MSBA Brown Speakers’ Bureau
To celebrate the significance
of Brown vs. Board of Education, 50+ MSBA attorney volunteers signed
up for the Association’s special Brown Speakers’
Bureau in early 2004. These very enthusiastic attorneys have gone out into
their local communities to talk to the public about the importance of Brown
vs. Board of Education and its impact on civil rights. They have been discussing
the Brown vs. Board of Education decision, the issues it addresses in
a contemporary context and the strides our nation has made in the last 50 years.
The 2004 MSBA Brown
vs. Board of Education Speakers’ Bureau is a special addition
to MSBA’s regular Speakers’ Bureau, where attorneys visit community
groups, senior centers, schools, churches and other groups to talk about
the law. MSBA offers this popular, free service as a public education program.
