Topeka ? John Kerry, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, will be among distinguished guests from around the country — including President George W. Bush — who will come to Topeka on May 17 for the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education civil rights education decision.

“I am pleased to welcome Senator Kerry to Kansas on this significant day in our nation’s history as we observe this landmark ruling,” Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a Democrat, said today in a prepared statement.

Kerry has accepted Sebelius’ invitation to attend a a special governor’s proclamation ceremony, which will be at 8:30 a.m. Monday, May 17.

President Bush is expected to fly to Topeka and speak at 11 a.m. at the National Park Service’s dedication of an $11.3 million historic site in the former Monroe School, once one of four all-black elementary schools in Topeka.

In 1951, in an effort organized by Topeka civil rights activists, several black families tried to enroll their children in white schools near their homes, and their requests were denied. Thirteen black families, including the Browns, became plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit.

School desegregation cases from Virginia, South Carolina and Delaware were appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court along with the Topeka case, and they were decided collectively in the Brown ruling, in which the Supreme Court ruled “separate but equal” schools were unconstitutional.