Quite often in our most famous decisions are ones that the court took that were unpopular. Lets go to a few cases that illustrate very dramatically and visually what it means to live in a society of 310 million different people who stick together because they believe in a rule of law. Good evening and welcome to landmark cases and 2 3 of the way of 12week series looking at Historic Supreme Court zigs. Brown v. Board of education and listen to linda brown on the roots of this case. My memory of brown began in the fall of 1950. In the quiet kansas town of topeka, where a mildmannered man took his 7yearold daughter by the hand and walked briskly to the allwhite school and tried without success to enroll his child. That parent in topeka child to enroll their children was long overdue. Many evenings my father would arrive home to find my mother upset because i had to take a walk like she did many years before and catch a school bus and debus two miles across town. I can remember that walk.
Every saturday American History tv documents americas stories, and on sundays booktv bngs you the latest and nonfiction books and authors. Funding for cspan2 come from these Television Companies and more including sparklight. The greatest town on earth is the place you call home. At sparklight its our home, too, and right now we are all facing the greatest challenge. Thats why sparklight is working around the clock to keep you connected. We are doing our part of switzerland easier to do yours. Sparklight, with his Television Companies, supports cspan2 as a Public Service. Host its a wonderful to be here talking with you today about your book. I wanted to per se what an extraordinary achievement. This book is the most authoritative history that i personally have read of the School Choice movement. It is so thoroughly researched. It is really, it really feels encyclopedic to me almost, lie his everything would ever need to know. I wanted to first ask, im obviously very thinly with your i
clapping and cheering Walter Isaacson, welcome. Thank you so much. Congratulations, another big success. Well, its great to be back with you, evan, thank you so much. And its a wonderful book, im moved to ask, although i think i know the answer, why him . You could write about anybody you could possibly imagine. And if you could write about anybody, why not leonardo . Id done books, starting with benjamin franklin, about really smart people, but i began to notice a pattern, which is, being smart doesnt count for much, you have to be creative and innovative. And first ben franklin, einstein, after doing that, i got to do steve jobs, and i realized that it was people who loved everything about the world, who loved art and science, beauty and engineering and technology. Those were the people who were the most creative, its like, here in austin, where you have a concentration of people who love both engineering and creativity and music, and the ultimate of that is leonardo, and i think the
So for me accountability isnt just numbers, its not just a transparency. Is not information. We cant label the problem. Problem. We have to do something about it. This is stepping in when children need something better. We need to be held accountable. That to me is what a true accountability is. The issue of adequate and equitable funding is a big issue for this overrides community, for the urban league. I the opportunity to serve on the commission that looked at the issue. Paint a picture of where we are when it comes to the lack of equitable funding. What does it really mean . Once the picture . What do you see from where you sit . Its devastating. We us of article as a nation, marc. Folks a note on the k12 side federal money is like eight to 12 , half the money comes from states and 40 at the local level. Look across the nation, i go back to my home in chicago, we got less than half the money each year than wealthier suburbs four or five miles north of us along lake michigan. Think
Hell to work. Thanks a lot. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] up, arne duncan on the federal role in the u. S. Education system. This is an hour and 20 minutes. Sharpton this is the 2015 National Urban league conference. It is my honor to be able to preside over the session. This is what i deem to be of great importance, to identify the core of the next generation of leaders. We always have to be prepared to pass the torch, but who in our , fortitude, ability intelligence, and commitment to move the platform and agendas most important to all of our communities to the next level . It is a conversation we are having . Do you agree . We will start this discussion at todays opening, but it wont in today. Leaders in the fight for justice, education and jobs, economic equality, political parity, they are not a dime a dozen. It takes a certain strength to lead. It takes integrity