A symposium at Cornell Law School Saturday, Feb. 28, revisitsBrown v. Board of Education on the 50th anniversary of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision.

On May 17, 1954, the court unanimously declared that separate education facilities for black and white students are "inherently unequal" and, as such, violate the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees all citizens "equal protection of the laws." The ruling paved the way for racial integration in education throughout the United States.

"Revisiting Brown v. Board of Education : 50 Years of Legal and Social Debate" takes place in the Stein Mancuso Amphitheater (Room G90), Myron Taylor Hall. All presentations are free and open to the public.

The symposium is hosted by the Cornell Law Review and sponsored by the Office of the Allan R. Tessler Dean of the Law School and a range of other campus and Law School groups. Four panels are planned: Law, Democracy and Ideals: Equal Access to Higher Education, 9-10:30 a.m.; The Realities of Institutional Litigation: The Hard-Fought Battles, 10:45 a.m.-noon; The Many Shapes of Brown: Race, Class and Culture, 1:30-3 p.m.; and Societal Discrimination Through Law: Eliminated or Enduring? 3:15-4:30 p.m.

Presenters will examine the recent split Supreme Court decision in two University of Michigan affirmative action in education cases, look at equal access to education and single-sex schools, and explore equal access from a comparative international perspective, among other topics.

Michael Heise, Cornell professor of law, will give the keynote address, "Brown v. Board of Education , Footnote 11 and the Interdisciplinarity of Law," at noon. Other participating Cornell Law School faculty are Professors Gary Simson, Theodore Eisenberg and Winnie Taylor and Associate Professor John Blume. Taylor will offer a personal perspective on Brown v. Board of Education in her concluding remarks. Other panelists include practicing lawyers and legal scholars from the University of South Carolina, University of Houston Law Center, University of Alabama, University of Southern California Law School, University of Minnesota, University of Iowa and Washburn University School of Law. For information, see this Web site: http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/CLR or contact Abigail Marshall, akm27@cornell.edu .