[On Thursday, June 19, 2014, from 4:30-6:00, the Historical Society for the District of Columbia Circuit will host the program“Sixty Years after Bolling v. Sharpe: Public Education and the D.C. Federal Courts,” in the ceremonial courtroom in the Prettyman US Courthouse. From the Society’s announcement:]
For over 100 years, the Courts of the D.C. Circuit have had a special engagement with the D.C. public schools. Until 1968, the District Court appointed the members of the D.C. Board of Education. Major cases such as Carr v. Corning in 1950, which endorsed “separate but equal” schools; Bolling v. Sharpe; Hobson v. Hansen in 1968, where Judge Skelly Wright enjoined “tracking” of students, ordered cross-town transfers, and required faculty integration; and Mills v. Board of Education in 1972, where the District Court held children in D.C. entitled to a free public education regardless of disabilities, have played a critical role in shaping public education in the District of Columbia. Associate Professor Eloise Pasachoff of the Georgetown University Law Center will open the program with stage-setting remarks highlighting the relevant history. This will be followed by a panel discussion moderated by Clinical Professor James Forman, Jr. of the Yale Law School, a former Public Defender in D.C., and co-founder in 1997 of the Maya Angelou Public Charter School. Participants in the panel will be:
Roderic V.O. Boggs, Executive Director, Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs and founder of Parents United for D.C. Public Education in 1980
Kaya Henderson, Chancellor, District of Columbia Public Schools
Brian W. Jones, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Strayer University; formerly Chair, D.C. Public Charter School Board, 2007-13, and General Counsel, U.S. Department of Education, 2001- 05
Judge David S. Tatel, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
Admission is free. A reception will follow the program. Reservations are not required.
