The Topeka chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) recruited 13 African American parents to file a lawsuit contesting the state law that allowed cities like Topeka to segregate students in elementary grades. Although the NAACP lost the case in US District Court in 1951, they appealed to the US Supreme Court and joined four other lawsuits from three other states and the District of Columbia challenging legal segregation in the nation's public schools.
The Topeka families who stood together in the early 1950s are remembered today for their part in the legal decision that outlawed segregation in public education and which set a precedent for ending other forms of segregation.
As a child I went through an integrated school [system in Oakley, Kansas]... I had good friends... There was no problem. but when I came to Topeka my children had to go to a separate school for black students clear across town... And I resented that. I knew that's where they learned to play and understand and meet the other races - all races. They get to know one another before they're taught otherwise. And that's why I was happy to be a plaintiff in Brown versus Board of Education.
- Zelma Henderson, pictured here with other plaintiffs, standing to the far left behind her two children, Vicki and Donald.

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Show me all markers in:  Topeka, KS  |  Shawnee County  |  66612  |  Kansas  |  United States of America

Pillars of the Community
A Playground and Community Center
Monroe School
How to Heat and Cool an Old School
Monroe School Neighborhood
A "Separate But Equal" School?
A Turning Point for Equality
On This Site
G.A.R. Memorial Building
Alfred M. Landon State Office Building

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