Former U.S. Attorney General says racial integration needs progress

A former U.S. Attorney General said racial integration after Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kan. has failed in the institution of education.

"Despite his southern heritage, [Madison] would be pleased to see this country overcoming the curse of slavery, surprised to see that a court decision led the way and pleased that the other two branches respectfully followed that decision in preserving a government he was so instrumental in creating," said Nicholas Katzenbach, yesterday’s keynote speaker at the James Madison Day address.

"On an occasion such as this, one can’t help but wonder what James Madison would think of what his handiwork in Philadelphia had become," said Katzenbach, opening the annual address.
Katzenbach was influential in the passage of civil rights legislation.

Student Body President Tom Culligan said Katzenbach’s speech was, "one of the best civil rights history lessons I’ve ever heard." Katzenbach led his audience through the 1950s and ’60s, turbulent times in a nation wrought with discrimination. Katzenbach said it was ironic 100 years after a racially driven Civil War and three related amendments later, six different court cases were held in the year of 1953, all involving the separate but equal education controversy.

The most infamous of all the court cases that assisted racial integration, he said, was Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kan., which overturned Plessy v. Ferguson and "opened not only school doors, but a more important one … that of direct political action."

Sophomore Rob Scheeler found Katzenbach’s one of the addresses’ best aspects. "It was interesting to get a perspective from someone so involved as opposed to textbooks and teachers," he said.

Katzenbach said that while racial integration still requires progress, in political terms it has allowed for consequent political litigation.