Washington, DC – U.S. Congressman Al Green (TX-9), in collaboration with the Historically Black College & University Law Schools and the Earl Carl Institute for Legal & Social Policy, will host a Braintrust and panel discussion entitled, “Is There A Rebirth of Legal Racial Segregation?” The forum, which will take place on Friday, September 8th from 2-4 p.m. at the Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., will be one of the most exciting features of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s 2006 Annual Legislative Conference.

Participants will have an opportunity to hear and discuss important information about legal racial segregation, a policy that is gaining support legislatively, educationally and socially. The highlights of this event to be discussed are the consideration of the Nebraska State Law that authorizes racially segregated public school districts, the advantages and disadvantages of legal segregation and the separation of church and state.

On April 13, 2006, in a move decried by some as state-sponsored segregation, the Nebraska State Legislature voted to divide the 45,000-student Omaha school system into three districts -- one that is mostly black, one predominantly white, and one largely Hispanic. Supporters, including the bill's sponsor and the state Legislature's lone black senator (and Braintrust panelist), Sen. Ernie Chambers, said the plan would give minorities control over their own school board and ensure that their children are not shortchanged. The NAACP immediately filed a federal lawsuit declaring that the new law violates the constitutional principles embodied in the 1954 Supreme Court ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education, which stated separate but equal facilities have no place in public education.

“This Braintrust will provide us with the extra-ordinary opportunity to allow our very best educators, scholars, and legal experts to discuss the possible re-emergence of legal segregation and most importantly how our community and “the nation at large” will deal with the challenges and complexities of accomplishing full integration in America,” said Green.

“During my ALC Braintrust, I look forward to a thrilling and engaging discussion about one of the most exciting legal and social questions of the day: ‘Is There A Rebirth of Legal Racial Segregation?’”, stated Green.

Congressman Al Green’s Distinguished Panelists Include:

Charles J. Ogletree Jr., Harvard Law School
Professor Gary Orfield, Harvard Graduate School of Education
Ron Walters, Director, African-American Leadership Institute
Professor Kevin Brown, Indiana University School of Law—Bloomington
Nebraska State Senator, Senator Ernie Chambers
Barbara Arnwine, Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee
Dean McKen V. Carrington, Thurgood Marshall School of Law              
Chancellor Freddie Pitcher, Jr., Southern University Law Center
Professor Marcia Johnson, Earl Carl Institute
Katherine S. Broderick, Dean, University of D.C. - School of Law
James M. Douglas, Dean, Florida A&M University College of Law