Traveling Exhibit - Online
Traveling Exhibit Interpretive Program Brown v. Board of Education
In Pursuit of Freedom and Equality: Kansas and the African American Public School Experience, 1855-1955
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View the online version of this exhibit below.
Panel 1 - Credits
Kansas and the African American Public School Experience, 1855-1955
First Grade, Washington School, Topeka, Kansas, 1956
Courtesy Joe Douglas Collection, Kansas Collection, University of Kansas Libraries"
Education is the mightiest weapon you can use to fight your way through.
Fred Scott, Osage City, Kansas, Letter in The American Citizen, June 28, 1889
Brown Foundation for Educational Equity, Excellence and Research, Topeka, Kansas
Funded in part by the Kansas Humanities Council, 1993
Researchers: Deborah L. Dandridge and Katie H. Armitage
Project Directors: Cheryl Brown Henderson and Dr. Emmett Wright
Panel 2 - Education: A First Act of Freedom for African Americans
African Americans viewed education as a means of self-determination and liberation.
SELF-HELP
Denied access to formal education under the nation's chattel slave system, African Americans placed a high value on literacy and schooling.
SEGREGATION BANNED IN MASSACHUSETTS
As public schooling spread, segregation by color became an issue. In 1849, Sarah Roberts was refused admission to the Boston Public School near her home. Represented by Charles Sumner (1811-1873) and Robert Morris, an African American attorney, Robert's father challenged the ruling. He lost the case, but the anti-segregation argument prevailed in 1855 as the Massachusetts Legislature banned separation by race.
SCHOOLS SPREAD TO THE SOUTH
After the Civil War in 1865, African Americans built, financed, and staffed schools for their communities. Newly elected black legislators voted for tax support of schools for blacks and whites. Churches and the United States government also established schools.
The Zion School of Charleston, South Carolina had 13 teachers and 850 pupils by 1866.
Courtesy Library of Congress.
Phillis Wheatley (1753?-1784), achieved renown as a poet.
Courtesy Schomburg Library of Nineteenth Century Black Women Writers.
Abraham Lincoln School of New Orleans, Louisiana was one of the largest of the 4,000 schools established in the South by the Freedman's Bureau.Harper's Weekly, April 21, 1866. Courtesy Library of Congress.
Frederick Douglass (1817?-1895), self-taught under slavery, became the nation's leading abolitionist.Courtesy Amistad Research Center.
Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806) excelled in science. His annual almanac was popular in American households.
Courtesy Amistad Research Center
Charles Sumner's legal brief for desegregation in 1849 anticipated the 1954 United States Supreme Court on desegregation.
Courtesy Library of Congress.
Panel 3 - Seeking Liberation in the Promised Land
The desire for better schooling motivated many African Americans to settle in Kansas during and after the Civil War. Unlike the South, white public opinion in Kansas favored schooling for African Americans.
KANSAS EMANCIPATION LEAGUE FRIENDS OF IMPARTIAL FREEDOM, Leavenworth, 1862
Established in Leavenworth in 1862, this interracial organization provided supplies to African Americans who came to Kansas during the Civil War. Teacher and civil rights activist, Charles Langston (1817-1892), an African American, served as Secretary of the League.
The settlers of Nicodemus, an African American frontier town, founded the first school in Graham County, Kansas about 1880.
The first stops for refugees were Union Army camps where some schooling was provided. Migration increased the African American population in Kansas from 627 in 1860 to over 17,000 by 1870.
Courtesy Kansas State Historical Society
Migration to Kansas, Harper's Weekly, 1862.
Courtesy Kansas State Historical Society.
Initiated by Quakers, Dunlap Academy was a mission school established for the African American settlement in Morris County, Kansas in the 1870's.
Courtesy Kansas State Historical Society.
Pupils assembled outside the African American public school in Leavenworth, Kansas, 1878.
Courtesy Kansas State Historical Society.
To raise funds for a vocational school for African Americans in Columbus, Kansas, Quaker preacher and missionary, Elizabeth Comstock sold this photograph.
Courtesy Kansas Collection, University of Kansas Libraries.
Panel 4 - Seeking Equality of Opportunity in the Promised Land
As the nation's leading advocates of racial equality, African Americans across the nation and in Kansas challenged the laws and practices of segregation in public schools. In Kansas protests emerged in the 1870s and 1880s.
As public schools spread across Kansas, the state's African American press fought against the expansion of segregation in urban schools.
Courtesy Kansas State Historical Society.
John Waller (1850-1907), an African American lawyer and public official moved to Lawrence, Kansas in 1879. Elected to the Lawrence School Board, Waller successfully prevented school segregation in the city during his term on the board.
Courtesy Kansas State Historical Society.
Elected as representative of Chautauqua County in 1889, Alfted Fairfax was the first African American to serve in the Kansas legislature. In an attempt to repeal the segregation provisions of the 1879 Kansas school statute, he introduced a bill which provided all children equal access to Kansas Public Schools. This proposal did not pass.
Courtesy Kansas State Historical Society.
Monroe School
Lowman Hill School
Before the public policy of racial segregation became entrenched, urban schools in Kansas were both integrated and segregated. Shown here are Monroe and Lowman Hill Schools in Topeka in 1892.
Courtesy Mrs. Lois G. Lewis Collection, Kansas Collection, University of Kansas Libraries.
Burnett School District
Burlingame School District
Hoxie School District
In rural areas African American children attended the same one-room schools provided for all children of the community. Only first class cities were allowed to establish separate primary schools. Examples of integrated small town and rural schools were Hoxie, Burlingame and Burnett School District #83, Douglas County, Kansas.
Courtesy Kansas Collection, University of Kansas Libraries.
Panel 5 - Equal Opportunity Deferred
THE NATION ADOPTED RACIAL SEGREGATION AS PUBLIC POLICY in the 1896 United States Supreme Court decision, Plessy v Ferguson.
The Plessy case centered on segregated seating in passenger cars on Louisiana trains. After this decision segregation spread in public accommodations and schools.
"Through the children of to-day we can build the foundation of the next generation upon such a rock of morality, intelligence and strength, that the floods of proscription, prejudice and persecution may descend upon it in torrents and yet it will not be moved"
-- Mary Church Terrell, 1902.
Booker T. Washington
W.E.B. DuBois
Education was at the center of the debates between Booker T. Washington (1856-1915), and W.E.B. DuBois (1868-1963). Booker T. Washington viewed practical education as the best means of African American advancement. W.E.B. DuBois believed leadership depended on university educated African Americans, known as "the talented tenth".
Courtesy Amistad Research Center.
Mary Church Terrell (1863-1954), during her Oberlin College years.
Courtesy Oberlin College Archives.
Mary Church Terrell, women's rights activist, was elected first president of the National Association of Colored Women in 1896, the year the United States Supreme Court upheld segregation laws.
Chemistry Laboratory, Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, established in Virginia in 1868, was the model for Booker T. Washington's philosophy of practical education.
Solomon H. Thompson Collection, Kansas Collection, University of Kansas Libraries.
Kansas schools for industrial training included Western University (1863-1943), Quindaro (Kansas City, Kansas) and Kansas Vocational School (1895-1955), Topeka, Kansas. The Central Congregational Church of Topeka initiated one of the first kindergartens for African American children in Kansas.
Courtesy Doris Larkins Collection, Kansas Collection, University of Kansas Libraries. Courtely Minus Gentry, Collection, Kansas Collection, University of Kansas Libraries. Courtesy John and Pearl Temple Collection, Kansas Collection, University of Kansas Libraries.
Western
University
Kansas Vocational School
Sheldon Kindergarten
Panel 6 - Achievement Despite Segregation: African American Schools
The public school stood with family and church as the foundation for African American institutions under "Jim Crow". Between 1890 and 1920, the illiteracy rate for African Americans in Kansas declined from 32.8% to 8.8%.
In Kansas high schools, social activities were segregated by color.
Courtesy Merrill Ross Collection, Kansas Collection, University of Kansas Libraries.
Dance at Topeka High School, 1940s.
In smaller cities in Kansas African American neighborhoods frequently had their own schools. Plaza School in Ft. Scott and Douglas School in Manhattan were built about 1900.
Courtesy Historic Preservation Association of Bourbon County, Riley County Historical Society, and Kansas State Historical Society.
Plaza School
Douglas School
Kindergarten Class, Buchanan School, Topeka, 1923.
Loan from Ardenia Brown, Kansas Collection, University of Kansas Libraries.
Sumner High School in Kansas City, Kansas, the first and only African American High School in the state, 1906-1978, was established by special legislation.
Science Class at Sumner High School, 1920
Sumner High School Second Orchestra, 1918
Sumner High School Student Council Minutes, 1931-32.
Courtesy Sumner High School Alumni Association Collection, Kansas Collection, University of Kansas Libraries.
Washington School, one of four all black elementary schools in Topeka, occupied this new building in 1910.
Courtesy Kansas State Historical Society
Monroe School Eighth Grade Graduation Program, Topeka, Kansas, 1929.
Courtesy Allabelle Napue Collection, Kansas Collection, University of Kansas Libraries.
Panel 7 - Those Who Cared: Teachers and the PTA
"While we believe it is an outrage ... to carry on the caste school, yet if they must be forced upon us ... then we shall insist ... that our educated sons and daughters are placed in them as teachers...
Colored Citizen, Ft. Scott, Kansas, 1878.
Most Black children were taught by African American teachers who were often better educated than their white counterparts.
Miss Emma E. Cooper (1889-1972) taught in Topeka schools for almost half a century.
Courtesy Sheppard-Cox Collection, Kansas Collection, University of Kansas Libraries.
Members of the faculty, Lincoln Elementary School, Atchison, Kansas, 1952-53.
Courtesy Evelyn Harper Collection, University Kansas Libraries.
Faculty, Monroe School, Topeka, Kansas, 1929.
Courtesy Allabelle Napue Collection, Kansas Collection, University of Kansas Libraries.
Sumner High School Faculty, 1917.
Courtesy Sumner Alumni Association Collection, Kansas Collection, University of Kansas Libraries.
Miss Abbot's kindergarten class, Washington Elementary School, 1955.
Courtesy Joe Douglas Collection, Kansas Collection, University of Kansas Libraries.
PARENT TEACHER ORGANIZATIONS
Parents and other members of the African American community organized to support their schools.
Kansas Congress of the Colored Parents and Teachers meeting, Leavenworth, 1952.
Loan from Mrs. Beatrice Johnson Collection, Courtesy Kansas Collection, University of Kansas Libraries.
General Program of the Kansas Congress of Colored Parents and Teachers.
Courtesy Ethel Moore Collection, Kansas Collection, University of Kansas Libraries
Minutes Mothers League, Monroe School, Topeka, Kansas, 1907-1915.
Courtesy Sheppard-Cox Collection, Kansas Collection, University of Kansas Libraries.
Panel 8 - Court Cases on Segregation in Kansas
African American parents challenged the inequities of "separate but equal" in first class cities (population over 15,000) and tried to prevent extension of segregation in small towns.
Cases varied in specific issues. These appeals through the courts arose from a belief that enforced segregation prevented children from equal access to Kansas public schools.
ELEVEN CASES REACHED THE KANSAS SUPREME COURT
1881 - The Board of Education of Ottawa v. Elijah Tinnon
1891 - Knox v. Board of Education, Independence
1903 - Reynolds v. Board of Education, Topeka
1906 - Cartwright v. Board of Education, Coffeyville
1907 - Rowles v. Board of Education, Wichita
1908 - Williams v. Board of Education, Parsons
1916 - Woolridge v. Board of Education, Galena
1924 - Thurman-Watts v. Board of Education, Coffeyville
1929 - Wright v. Board of Education, Topeka
1941 - Graham v. Board of Education, Topeka
1949 - Webb v. School District No. 90, South Park Johnson County, Kansas
Harvey Webb et al. won their case based on unequal school facilities in South Park, Johnson County, Kansas. This decision by the Kansas Supreme Court came just before Brown et al. challenged the Board of Education of Topeka in federal court.
Article entitled: Appeal of Negroes Heard by High Court", Olathe Mirror, April 14, 1949.
Courtesy Kansas Collection, University of Kansas Libraries.
Emblem of the Kansas Supreme Court, Topeka, Kansas
Courtesy Kansas State Historical Society.
Window at entrance to Supreme Court Room, Kansas Statehouse, Topeka, Kansas, and entrance to Supreme Court, Kansas Statehouse, Topeka, Kansas.
Courtesy, Kansas State Historical Society.
Panel 9 - Those Who Challenged
Tinnon Challenge - 1881
When the School Superintendent in Ottawa refused Leslie Tinnon admission to the school near his home, his father, Elijah Tinnon, brought suit. The Kansas Supreme Court ruled that second class cities could not discriminate.
The decision in the Tinnon case was one of the earliest in the nation to favor racially integrated schools. Both Franklin County District Court Judge Nelson T. Stephens and Supreme Court Justice Daniel M. Valentine found for Tinnon on the basis of the 14th amendment to the U.S. Constitution which guaranteed equal protection of the law.
Russell Cartwright, teacher, at Cleveland Elementary, 1940s. As neighborhood population shifted by 1920, this school, at issue in the 1906 Supreme Court case, had become all black.
Courtesy Russell Cartright Collection, Kansas Collection, University of Kansas Libraries.
D.A. Williams refused to send his four children to the new all black Douglas School located across seven railroad tracks from the family home in Parsons. In the 1908 Williams v. Board of Education case, the Kansas Supreme Court upheld the parents.
Courtesy Kansas State Historical Society.
Ehsha Scott (1891I?- 1963), attorney for Celia Thurman-Watts in the 1924 case from Coffeyville successfully argued "such discrimination is without authority of law, un-American, unjust and contrary to the law governing cities of the first class."
Courtesy Kansas State Historical Society.
Central School, Ottawa, Kansas, 1885.
Courtesy Franklin County Historical Society and Kansas State Historical Society.
James H. Guy (1861-1940?) was one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs in the 1906 Cartwright v. Board of Education, Coffeyville.
Courtesy Blue Book of Topeka 1910, Kansas Collection, University of Kansas Libraries.
Park School, Wichita, about 1900. Classrooms and playgrounds were segregated within Park School. African American parents briefly succeeded in halting this practice in the courts. The 1907 Kansas Supreme Court case Rowles v. Board of Education involved Park School. By 1914 Wichita had two all black schools, Frederick Douglass and L'Ouverture.
Courtesy The Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum.
Panel 10 - School Segregation Banned
Leaders of the NAACP in Topeka asked African American parents to be a part of a legal challenge to segregated schools.
(Those not pictured)
MRS. SADIE EMMANUEL AND SON,
JAMES MELDON EMMANUEL
MRS. IONA RICHARDSON AND SON,
RONALD DOUGLAS RICHARDSON
MRS. ALMA LEWIS AND SONS,
THERON LEWIS AND ARTHUR LEWIS,
AND DAUGHTERS,
MARTHA JEAN LEWIS AND
FRANCES LEWIS
MRS. DARLENE BROWN
AND DAUGHTER,
SAUDRIA DORSTELLA BROWN
MRS. SHIRLA FLEMING AND SONS,
DUANE DEAN FLEMING AND
SILAS HARDRICH FLEMING
The Reverend Oliver L. Brown and daughter, Linda Carol Brown.
Loan from Brown and Brown Collection, Kansas Collection, University of Kansas Libraries.
Mrs. Vivian Scales and daughter, Ruth Ann Scales.
Loan from Vivian Scales, Kansas Collection, University of Kansas Libraries.
Mrs. Lena Carper and daughter, Katherine Louise Carper.
Loan from Mr. Lena Carper.
Mrs. Shirley Hodison and son, Charles Hodison.
Loan from Mrs. Shirley Hodison.
Mrs. Richard Lawton and daughters, Victoria Jean Lawton and Carol Kay Lawton.
Loan from Victoria Benson, Kansas Collection, University of Kansas Libraries.
Mrs. Marguerite Emmerson and sons, Claude Arthur Emmerson and George Robert Emmerson.
Loan from Claude Emmerson.
Mrs. Lucinda Todd and daughter, Nancy Jane Todd. Mrs. Todd served as secretary of the Topeka NAACP.
Loan from Mrs. Lucinda Todd, Kansas Collection, University of Kansas Libraries.
Mrs. Andrew Henderson and daughter, Vicki Ann Henderson and son, Donald Andrew Henderson.
Loan from Mrs. Zelma Henderson Collection, Kansas Collection, University of Kansas Libraries.
Panel 11 - "Equal Protection of the Laws"
Panel 12 - The Pursuit of Liberty and Equal Opportunity Continues
Victory through the courts assured African Americans access to public schools. Education remains a focal point of the continuing pursuit of liberty and equality.
RESISTANCE
Many Southern states resisted the Supreme Court order to end segregation with "all deliberate speed". Violent opposition in Little Rock provoked a national crisis in 1957.
The end to segregation affected teachers in schools in Topeka and across the nation before and after the 1954 decision.
Public School Teachers, Topeka, Kansas about 1949.
Merrill Ross Collection, Kansas Collection, University of Kansas Libraries.
Students entered Central High School in Little Rock under the protection of federal troops.
Courtesy Arkansas History Commission.
Loan from Veda Whiteside, Kansas Collection, University of Kansas Libraries.
ACHIEVEMENT
Lowman Hill School, Topeka, Kansas, 1957.
Loan from Mrs. Zelma Henderson, Kansas Collection, University of Kansas Libraries.
Sumner School, Topeka, Kansas, 1962.
Loan Brown and Brown Collection.
Teacher Evelyn Harper (1913-1992) in Atchison High School classroom about 1955.
Courtesy Evelyn Harper Collection, Kansas Collection, University of Kansas Libraries.
Monroe School, significant in the Brown v. Board of Education case, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1991 and joined the National Park System in 1992.
Courtesy Kansas State Historical Society.