May 17th

Should be an interesting day, what with the historical observances and weddings in Massachusetts and all.

From that first link:

Brown 50 Years & Beyond: Promise & Progress

By the 1950s little had changed, and many blacks, believing that the best hope for racial equality lay in education, looked to the NAACP to mount a concerted legal attack on school segregation. A modest beginning had already been made with the organization's victory in a 1938 case in which the Supreme Court ruled that the University of Missouri's grant of an out-of-state scholarship to keep a black student out of its law school denied the student equal protection under the law. After World War II, the NAACP's Legal Defense and Education Fund, under the leadership of future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, set its sights on winning a case that would overturn the 1896 Plessy ruling. In 1951 the NAACP coordinated the filing of lawsuits challenging segregated schooling in South Carolina, Virginia, Delaware, the District of Columbia, and Kansas.

On December 9, 1952, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on all five of the cases on the Brown docket but postponed its ruling and requested a rehearing, which took place the following year. In the interim, Chief Justice Fred Vinson died and the newly elected President Dwight Eisenhower appointed Earl Warren in his place. Even after a second hearing, the court debated the case for months as Warren negotiated for a unanimous decision which he felt was crucial to ensure southern compliance with what was sure to be an unpopular ruling. Eventually the two dissenting justices were won over but a major compromise was required--agreement that the ruling would be implemented gradually rather than at once, as the NAACP had requested.

The historic ruling was announced at 12:52 p.m. on May 17, 1954, by Chief Justice Warren. Stressing the fact that public education was "a right which must be made available to all on equal terms," Warren voiced the court's opinion that separating black children "from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone." The crucial reversal of Plessy came in the most famous part of the ruling: "We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of `separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.

Not the end of the story, of course. There's a piece in today's Chicago Tribune on how well that's been working for us:

Fifty years after a landmark court decision brought the promise of better schooling for black students, most of Illinois' black children are still relegated to segregated and inferior schools, a Tribune study has found.

A black child is about 40 times more likely than a white child to attend one of Illinois' worst-of-the-worst "academic watch" schools. A child at a majority black school is about six times more likely to be taught by teachers without full certification than at a white school.

And majority black grade schools have larger class sizes and larger enrollments on average, though research has shown the benefits of small and nurturing learning environments, particularly for disadvantaged children.

The inequities stretch from Chicago to the suburbs to communities across the state, creating conditions for black children that many white parents couldn't imagine.

Maybe closer to the day itself I'll have a look at how things are in the south.

Closer to the day and after several good, stiff drinks.

As for the second link, that's

GLAD: How to Get Married in Massachusetts

The process for getting married in Massachusetts basically requires an eligible couple to submit an application for a license, along with the results of a blood test and a fee, to any city or town clerk in Massachusetts. After a three-day waiting period (unless it has been waived by a court), the couple will receive the license from the clerk, and must then have the marriage solemnized (i.e., have a ceremony) within 60 days of filing the application. Once the ceremony has been performed, the person who performed it will state the time and place of the wedding on the license, sign it, and send it back to the city or town where the couple received it. The clerk will then register the marriage and the couple can receive an official certificate of their marriage.

Bit more complicated than that, of course -- there's a reason for that linking thing, other than the pretty colors -- but I'm guessing anyone thinking of heading out that way in the near future has a better grasp on the whole "planning" deal than I do, and will already know this stuff.

I expect there'll also be people managing to simultaneously condemn desegregation, push for the same-sex marriage amendment (or a local equivalent, even if one is already on the books) and declare that they're neither racist nor homophobic.

And then, if there's any justice at all in the Universe, their heads will promptly explode.

Needless to say, I'm not counting on the 'splody.