Event to Celebrate 70th Anniversary of Landmark Supreme Court Decision

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The NAACP Youngstown/Mahoning County will co-host a celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision from 3 to 7 p.m. May 17 at the YMCA of Youngstown, 17 N. Champion St.

The Keynote speaker will be civil rights activist Joanne Bland, former National Voting Rights Museum director in Selma, Ala.

Bland was an active participant in the civil rights movement from her earliest days and was the youngest person to be jailed during any civil rights demonstration. 

“During my lifetime, I have witnessed and participated in some of our nation’s most consequential civil rights battles,” Bland said. “In the early ’60s, I began my activism with the [Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee], organized for myself and other children and teens in my neighborhood and area to participate in the civil rights movement.”

The Youngstown City School District is a co-sponsor of the event and is encouraging the community to pay tribute to the landmark Supreme Court decision that separating children in public schools on the basis of race was unconstitutional.

Pictured at top: Image provided by NAACP Youngstown/Mahoning County.

Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.