(article is from the news section of the Jamestown Post-Journal)
4/28/2004 - By JOHN WHITTAKER
AnneMarie McClain and Christina Kieffer will likely take different career
paths once they finish their high school careers.
While Ms. McClain wants to be a lawyer, Ms. Kieffer is interested in physics
and engineering.
For at least one day, however, their interests reside largely at the Robert
H. Jackson Center and the visit by Linda Brown Thompson and Cheryl Brown Thompson,
the sisters for whom the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of
Education was decided.
The two high school students are among the winners
of a statewide essay contest who will be honored at a dinner tonight that
will also honor the Brown sisters. Nicholas Katzenbach, former attorney general
during the Kennedy administration, will be the keynote speaker at the dinner.
Other winners were to arrive either late Tuesday or early today, according
to Rolland Kidder, Jackson Center executive director, and take part in various
events today and Thursday.
Ms. McClain and Ms. Kieffer were able to tour the Jackson Center on Tuesday
after eating dinner in the American Bar Association conference room and watching
a short film about Justice Jackson's work at Nuremberg.
Ms. McClain is the winner from Region 4 and attends Highland High School.
She's looking forward to meeting the Brown sisters and seeing more of the
Chautauqua Institution and the Jackson Center.
''My AP teacher actually presented (the essay contest) to me,'' she said.
''I thought I would have a unique take on it because I'm bi-racial.''
While Ms. Kieffer - the Region 1 winner from Nazareth Academy in Rochester
- entered the contest because it was mandatory extra credit in an Advanced
Placement United States History class, she said the week's events will be
exciting, particularly a discussion between four former Supreme Court law
clerks scheduled for 10:30 a.m. today.
''I'm looking
forward to meeting the clerks (today),'' Ms. Kieffer said. ''Just to know
what happened at the decision behind the closed doors and what went on there.
It's just gorgeous here.''
The essay contest is the center's first attempt at a statewide contest, according
to Kidder. While Jamestown native Mike Taylor coordinated the contest, it
was judged by several officials chosen by the state Bar Association.
''I was surprised at the interest,'' Taylor said. ''Whether it was a mandatory
class assignment or whether they found it on their own they wrote with such
passion that even talking to the people that judged the contest, they were
very much flattered. They said there were also a lot of good essays out there
and different people took different routes going about them.''
Once the festivities in Jamestown end on Thursday, many of the essay winners
will travel to Albany to be honored by Chief Judge Judith Kaye during her
observance of Law Day. The Jackson Center held its Law Day activities early
because of the Brown v. Board of Education programs.
''Chief Judge of Appeals Judith Kaye would love to meet you and honor you
at Law Day,'' Kidder said. ''After that event she invited you to lunch.''