---NAACP, Howard University and the Legal Defense Fund join to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education--- On the evening of the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision, May 17, 2004, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Howard University, and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) will honor civil rights pioneers and leaders who participated in the Brown decision, along with contemporary luminaries who have advanced the promise of Brown. The event will be held at Constitution Hall, 311 18th Street, N.W. in Washington D.C., a VIP reception begins at 6 p.m. and the program at 8 p.m. The NAACP, Howard and LDF are the historical triumvirate that joined forces more than 50 years ago to train the lawyers, develop the legal strategies, gather the plaintiffs, raise the capital, and guide the five cases that became known as Brown through the courts to the Supreme Court victory. "While we pause to celebrate or commemorate this historic decision, we are more challenged than ever to serve notice that the unmet promises of the Brown decision must become a national imperative," said NAACP President and CEO Kweisi Fume. "The gradual resegregation of our public school system and the unequal nature of public funding requires that we still do more." The event will also include tributes to the nine Supreme Court Justices who delivered the unanimous Brown decision and recognize four living U.S. Presidents. "Brown was one of the most important judicial decisions of the twentieth century," said LDF's President and Director-Counsel Theodore M. Shaw. "It showed the power of using the courts to push America to live up to its democratic ideals. It improved the lives of people of color, and it improved the country. Still, at the same time that we commemorate Brown, we acknowledge that there is much work to be done. "The evening of tributes and entertainment hosted by actors Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee will include educator, actor/comedian Bill Cosby, and artists Martin Sheen, Phylicia Rashad, Yolanda Adams, Savion Glover, Steve Harris, Jeff Majors, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Dennis Haysbert, and Cicely Tyson. IBM, UPS, Sodexho USA, Fannie Mae Foundation, Wachovia Corporation, and Time Warner are sponsoring the event.

---National Museum of American History Marks 50th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education---To mark the 50-year anniversary of the Supreme Court's groundbreaking decision that helped end legal segregation in the United States, the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History will open "Separate Is Not Equal: Brown v. Board of Education." The one-year exhibition opens May 15 and closes May 30, 2005. Brent D. Glass, director of the museum, said. "With this exhibition, the museum will lead its visitors to explore the question of what equal opportunity means in the diverse world of the 21st century." The exhibition's central theme is that the Brown decision - through the efforts of lawyers, scholars, parents, students and community activists - transformed America. Using objects, images and video presentations, the exhibition will portray the struggle for social justice leading up to and following the Court's ruling on the Brown case, while also examining the decision's impact on today's society in the U.S. and abroad. The exhibition will have six main sections, beginning with "Segregated America." Upon entering the gallery, visitors will be faced with images of segregated everyday life in the early 20th century. The second section, "The Battleground: Separate and Unequal" will tell the story of the role education played in the fight to end legal segregation in the U.S. Visitors will be able to sit in a divided classroom and view vintage footage of segregated schools. In "An Organized Legal Campaign" the exhibition will showcase the central roles that Howard University Law School and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund played in organizing the court fight against segregation, focusing on the two leading civil rights attorneys, Charles Hamilton Houston and Thurgood Marshall. The next area, "Five Communities Change a Nation," will follow the members of the various communities behind the case and illustrate how the legal argument worked its way to the Supreme Court. This section will include the dining room table from the home of Lucinda Todd, secretary of the Topeka, Kan. NAACP, where the Brown case was born, and footage of the Court's announcement and the public's immediate reaction.

---Network Journal publishes Retail Industry Diversity Report---
This month's issue of The Network Journal details a report on diversity policies at the ten top retail companies headquartered in the New York-New Jersey area. The report, which outlines the companies' practices with respect to ethnic diversity in senior management and doing business with minority suppliers, shows that the overwhelming majority of the companies show little evidence of commitment. In most of the instances, the companies declined to disclose the name and rank of the highest-ranking African American employee and how much money they spend annually with minority vendors, the report shows. "We chose retail because of the NAACP's scathing report on the industry in 2003. We wanted to see where our local retail giants stand on the practice, not the talk, of diversity, given the amount of dollars Black people spend on their merchandise. But a year after the NAACP report, not to mention 50 years after Brown v. Board of Education's historic anti-discrimination ruling, we find that diversity is not as popular as we hoped it would be," Rosalind McLymont, The Network Journal's editor in chief, said. For a copy of the full report, send an email to info@unityfirst.com.

---"It's Better to Know"---
National HIV Testing Day, sponsored by the National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA-US) with support from the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is Sunday, June 27. Local health departments and HIV prevention organizations across the country will host hundreds of community events to encourage people to seek counseling and testing for HIV. Underscoring the critical role that testing plays in HIV prevention and treatment, this year's theme is "It's Better to Know." African Americans make up just 12 percent of the U.S. population but account for more than half of all new HIV diagnoses. Black Women make up 72% of new AIDS cases among women in the U.S., up from 64% a year ago. Black Men make up 40% of the new AIDS cases among men in the U.S. Black teenagers make up over 50% of teenagers with AIDS in the U.S. 30% of Gay men with AIDS in the U.S. are Black. AIDS is the leading cause of death for African Americans between the ages of 24-34. It is estimated that 30% of HIV positive people in the U.S. don't know their HIV status. The Black AIDS Institute is the only national public policy and research organization in the United States focused exclusively on HIV/AIDS among Black people.

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