Second World Premiere Of Separate
But Equal Commemorates Brown Anniversary
Photos by Jenna Bowles

More than 600 high school, college and law students were joined by several hundred teachers, parent, judges, lawyers, educators and civic leaders on April 22 for a commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education.

The event at the Crest Theatre was billed as the “second world premiere” of the movie Separate But Equal, a movie starring Sidney Poitier and Burt Lancaster that traced the dramatic events leading up to the decision. The event began with a welcome from Dana Howard of News 10, remarks from U.S. Department of Education General Counsel Brian Jones and Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Wan Kim, and an introduction by U.S. District Court Judge Morrison C. England, Jr. Clips of the film were presented by its director, George Stevens. The clips were followed by a roundtable discussion among Stevens, Ninth Circuit Judge Connie Callahan, Third District Court of Appeal Justice George Nicholson, Adam Clayton Powell, III of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy, and Sharon Robinson, vice president of Educational Programming for Major League Baseball and the daughter of the late Jackie Robinson. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy made a special video appearance at the event. Special guests at the event included retired Sacramento Superior Court Judge Earl Warren, Jr., the son of Chief Justice Earl Warren, the author of the Brown decision.

The event was produced by the Center for Youth Citizenship, in cooperation with the Sacramento County Bar Association, the Sacramento NAACP, the Greater Sacramento Urban League, 100 Black Men of Sacramento, The National Coalition of 100 Black Women, the Asian Bar Association of Sacramento, the Wiley Manuel Bar Association, the La Raza Lawyers, and the Sacramento County Office of Education.