(article is from the news section
of the Jamestown Post-Journal)
4/25/2004 - By JOHN WHITTAKER
Robert H.
Jackson Center officials are putting the finishing touches on the 50th anniversary
celebration of the landmark Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education.
While most of the two-day ceremony has been set for months, Rolland Kidder,
Jackson Center executive director, announced late last week that the discussion
with Linda Brown Thompson and Cheryl Brown Thompson has been moved from the
Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall in the Chautauqua Institution to the Amphitheater
because more people are expected to attend than initially planned.
More than 1,000 area high school students are expected to attend, a response
that Greg Peterson, Jackson Center board president, said is ''overwhelming.''
While the amphitheater can hold 5,000 people, Institution officials had to
work to install new fiber-optic wiring to allow the event to be simulcast
on the Jackson Center Web site, www.roberthjackson.org.
''We're going to have more than 1,000 school students coming in buses and
all of that,'' said Rolland Kidder, Jackson Center executive director. ''It
wasn't possible to fit everybody in over at the Lenna Hall. Another positive
benefit to it is that Chautauqua, for the first time, has wired the amphitheater
for simulcasting. We had agreed to simulcast it on the Web site and they didn't
have a T-1 line over there.''
Kidder credits Mike Bayba of BOCES with working to install the new wiring
and Bruce Stanton, Athenaeum Hotel general manager, with working to accommodate
both moving the event and with helping to plan events being held inside the
hotel.
''This is the earliest opening of the amphitheater in over 130 years,'' Stanton
said. ''Given the historical significance of Brown v. Board of Education,
we are pleased that the Institution will be able to open its doors to thousands
of visitors, especially school children from throughout the region.''
Another addition to the program is a discussion with former Robert H. Jackson
law clerk E. Barrett Prettyman at 2 p.m. Tuesday in the Jackson Center's Carl
Cappa Theater. The discussion will serve as the first of several events for
the center.
Prettyman will team with former Supreme Court clerks John David Fassett, Earl
Pollock and Frank E.A. Sander for a roundtable discussion in the Cappa Theater
at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday. Anyone planning to attend the discussion is asked
to be inside the theater by 10 a.m.
''It is fitting that E. Barrett Prettyman be represented on this historic
roundtable as he brings personal insights into Justice Jackson's thinking
and his work which helped shape this life-altering case,'' Peterson said.
After the discussion, the clerks will participate in a luncheon inside the
Jackson Center cafeteria. There is no charge for either the clerks' discussion
or the lunch.
The scene will then shift from the Jackson Center to Chautauqua Institution
with a 6 p.m. reception at the Athenaeum Hotel followed by a dinner program
at 7 p.m. Center officials will recognize the Brown sisters, the four Supreme
Court clerks and five winners of a statewide essay contest held in conjunction
with the Brown sisters visit.
''This was our first attempt to go statewide here at the Jackson Center with
a learning event,'' Kidder said. ''It really worked out great. We had 465
essays that came in. They were judged by a panel of seven judges that the
state Bar Association selected - teachers and retired lawyers. We have five
winners from five distinct regions of the state. I think it's a really unique
thing.''
Both events Thursday will be held at Chautauqua Institution, starting with
the 11 a.m. roundtable discussion with the Brown sisters in the amphitheater
and followed by a reception.
Several representatives of major event sponsors are expected to be among those
attending several of the events. National Fuel Gas Company, HSBC Bank, U.S.A.,
The Cummins Foundation, Chautauqua Institution, the Northern Chautauqua Community
Foundation, the New York Bar Foundation and the law firm of Phillips Lytle
LLP are sponsoring both the three-day celebration but also several events
that have been held in the last three months at the Jackson Center.
''The president of National Fuel Gas, who are one of our sponsors, is coming,''
Kidder said. ''One of the managing partners at Phillips Lytle is coming in
and we have several high-level people from Cummins coming. Of course, HSBC
Bank will be represented by an individual from Buffalo. Also, two of Jackson's
grandchildren are coming - Julia Craighill from Washington and Tom Loftus
from Washington. We're very happy and pleased that they're coming.''