News Release

Naturalization Ceremony Shared Via Webcam

Date: September 11, 2012

Fifty-six new citizens were sworn in at Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site on September 7th. After welcoming the new citizens and their guests, U.S. District Court Judge Julie Robinson surprised one already excited participant. The judge announced that the ceremony would be streamed live via webcast, so that a special guest could watch from afar. Adelina Roberts was delighted to hear that her husband, U.S. Army Sgt. Thomas Roberts was watching the ceremony from his post in Afghanistan and waiting to see his wife become a U.S. citizen.

The program included a welcome from park superintendent David Smith, musical selections by the Williams Science and Fine Arts Magnet School choir, and a moving address by Topeka attorney Pedro L. Irigonegaray, who emigrated to the United States from Cuba in 1961 as a young boy. Irigonegaray urged the newly sworn citizens to uphold their civic duties and responsibilities and remember the Americans that had bravely stepped forward to battle segregation in America's public schools.