About 50 miles east of Topeka, Kansas, in what is now the suburban town of Merriam sits South Park Elementary School. Built in 1947 for white children at a cost of $90,000, the school at that time showcased eight modern classrooms, a multi-purpose auditorium, a lunchroom, and playground. Today, the building serves as a monument to a struggle for…

In May 1954, the Supreme Court handed down its unanimous 9-0 opinion in "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas" ("Brown I," 1954). In holding that de jure segregation in public schools based on race violated the Equal Protection Clause, the Court prepared American society for a larger concept, namely that children in…

Modern educational reform owes much to the legal team and educational leaders who fought to make equal educational opportunity a reality for Black students in the United States of America. Their efforts helped to dismantle American apartheid; a.k.a. Jim Crow, a system of allocating human and civil rights according to assigned or assumed…

In this article, the author discusses the 50th Anniversary Commission of the "Brown v. Board of Education" that draws both praise and criticism from nationally prominent figures in education, civil rights, and government--including its own commissioners. As the federal commission commemorates the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme…

In the fall of 1953, the Supreme Court of the United States received the case of "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka" (347 U.S. 483, 1954) that raised essential questions, including whether separate but "equal" facilities in education can be provided for black students in the United States or whether the consideration of…

Initially, Kansas prohibited school segregation except for elementary schools in cities over 15,000 people. As Topeka annexed areas in the early 20th century, African Americans accustomed to integration filed court challenges, which failed. Subsequent efforts to desegregate Topeka are traced, through the landmark 1954 case. Black teachers in…

As Americans commemorate the 50th anniversary of the "Brown v the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas" U.S. Supreme Court public school desegregation decision on (the Brown decision), the author was tempted to refer to it as a "celebration of the Golden Anniversary of the legal end to racial segregation in the public schools of the…