The framers of the Declaration of Independence proclaimed that "all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." These principles have bound this great nation since its creation more than two centuries ago.
After 100 years, our government extended these liberties to African-Americans with the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. With every legal victory, however, there have been setbacks to the advancement of equality. In Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the U.S. Supreme Court fostered the existence of separate and deplorable educational and living conditions for African-Americans. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stated:
It is precisely because education is the road to equality and citizenship, that it has been made more elusive for Negroes than many other rights. The walling off of Negroes from equal education is part of the historical design to submerge him in second class status.
