The day the United States Supreme Court handed down a decision in
Brown v. Board of Education — May 17, 1954 — has been called “the
most important [day] of the 20th Century.”
In many ways, [that day was part of] a terrible era in America: a
time of murder and a church bombing in Birmingham, and violence in the
streets. It was a bitter period for America. But it was also a time of
hope. For not only did that decision allow millions of African American
children to go to better schools, that decision helped demolish
barriers separating races all over America — whether at lunch
counters, or water fountains, or on the job. It provided opportunity
for millions of Americans — opportunity to go as far in society as
their hard work and potential would allow.
Today; 44 years later, [we’re] being given another opportunity….
For, like people in 1954, we are also in the middle of a revolution —
a revolution of technology.
By itself, that’s not entirely new for Americans. Through much of
this century, technology has fueled our economic growth. Increasingly,
it has defined what each person can achieve in our society, — and what
we can achieve as a nation.
But in span, depth, and speed, the telecommunications revolution
has no precedent. It is changing the way we work, live, think, and
communicate.
You see the signs everywhere. You see it on the streets, where
every third person seems to have a wallet-sized cellphone pressed to
the ear. [And] you certainly see it on campuses, whether in the
computer labs, or using e-mail to communicate with students and faculty
in India, or out on ships surveying dolphin populations.
When an instructor in Kyoto, Japan, gives a Long Island University
writing course to students in Israel and Kenya, you’re not just
watching a revolution; you’re in it. Four in 10 American families have
a personal computer in their homes. More Americans make semiconductors
than work in construction. By the year 2000, 46 million Americans will
be buying products on line.
