FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

SEC. 102. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES. (a) Findings.— The Congress finds as follows: (1) The Supreme Court, in 1954, ruled that the earlier 1896 Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson that permitted segregation of races in elementary schools violated the fourteenth amendment to the United States Constitution, which guarantees all citizens equal protection under the law. (2) In the 1954 proceedings, Oliver Brown and twelve other plaintiffs successfully challenged an 1879 Kansas law that had been patterned after the law in question in Plessy v. Ferguson after the Topeka, Kansas, Board of Education refused to enroll Mr. Brown’s daughter, Linda. (3) Sumner Elementary, the all-white school that refused to enroll Linda Brown, and Monroe Elementary, the segregated school she was forced to attend, have subsequently been designated National Historic Landmarks in recognition of their national significance. (4) Sumner Elementary, an active school, is administered by the Topeka Board of Education; Monroe Elementary, closed in 1975 due to declining enrollment, is privately owned and stands vacant. (b) Purposes.— The purposes of this title are— (1) to preserve, protect, and interpret for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations, the places that contributed materially to the landmark United States Supreme Court decision that brought an end to segregation in public education; and (2) to interpret the integral role of the Brown v. Board of Education case in the civil rights movement. (3) to assist in the preservation and interpretation of related resources within the city of Topeka that further the understanding of the civil rights movement.