Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site Seeks Public Input

Release date: October 19, 2011
Contact: Justin Sochacki
Phone number: (785) 354-4273

Topeka, KS - Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site is seeking input from the community at an Open House on Wednesday, Nov. 2 from 4 to 7 p.m. The National Park Service would like to hear ideas about how to better provide visitor and education services for the community. The Open House is informal. Visitors can stop by for as little or as long as they like. Light refreshments will be provided.

What would you like to learn, see, and do at Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site? Visitors will be encouraged to share what they think is important to preserve and share. Comments and suggestions will be incorporated into a Long Range Interpretive Plan that is currently being developed. The plan will outline goals and strategies for preserving and sharing the many important stories of Brown v. Board of Education. "We need to hear from the community about ways to better engage our park visitors and our park neighbors," said Supterintendent David Smith. "This planning process will provide us with strategies to be more relevant and effective. Our National Parks belong to every American and they tell our collective stories. We depend on our constituents - the owners of these parks - to help us make Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site the type of park that helps meet their needs."

Exhibit Features Local Artists in Commemoration of Hispanic Heritage Month

Release date: October 6, 2011
Contact: Justin Sochacki
Phone number: (785) 354-4273

Topeka, KS - Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site will celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with the opening of a new exhibit on Friday, Oct.7, 2011. From Mexico to America: Through the Eyes of Kansas Artists features local artists Joey Rocha and Andy Valdivia and depicts stories of migration from Mexico to Topeka. The exhibit will kick off with a free, public reception from 5 to 9 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 7. Light refreshments will be served and music will be performed by Flamenco guitarist Raul Gomez.

Following the period of the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) many Mexicans came north in search of better opportunities in the United States. By 1930, a sizable Mexican American population existed in urban centers in Kansas. Finding work, raising families, and building communities are all threads that are part of the local and national fabric of our nation. The exhibit features original paintings and collages depicting the artists' family histories and stories of migrations from Mexico to Topeka. "We are delighted to partner with local artists to highlight this important migration story," said Park Superintendent David Smith. "This exhibit depicting Mexican American history and culture will provide our park visitors with an educational opportunity to understand some of the rich diversity of people who call Kansas home."

From Mexico to America: Through the Eyes of Kansas Artists will be open on Oct. 7 and Nov. 4 for the First Friday Artwalks from 5 to 9 p.m. Artists will be onsite during the Artwalks to discuss their works and the stories that inspired them. The exhibit is free and open to the public daily from Oct. 7 to Nov. 30. The site is closed Thanksgiving Day. The exhibition is sponsored by the National Park Service and the Brown Foundation for Educational Equity, Excellence and Research. For a list of all events and exhibits, please visit www.nps.gov/brvb and click on the Special Events link.

Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site tells the story of the U.S. Supreme Court decision that ended legal segregation in public schools. The site is located at 1515 SE Monroe Street in Topeka, Kansas, and is open free of charge from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, with the exceptions of Thanksgiving, December 25, and January 1. For more information, visit www.nps.gov/brvb or call 785-354-4273.

NPS\Cheryl DeShazer

Living history walks featured six reenactors portraying characters from 1854 to 1954 and linked neighborhood
stories to national stories of Civil War and civil rights.

Forging Freedom's Pathway

Date: June 24, 2011

On June 11, visitors leisurely strolled five blocks with uniformed park rangers from the historic Ritchie House to the formerly segregated Monroe Elementary School, meeting six costumed reenactors along the way. Beginning at the home of prominent abolitionists and operators on the Underground Railroad and ending at a formerly segregated elementary school, visitors walked symbolically through time from the birth of the Civil War to the birth of the civil rights movement.

Operated by the Shawnee County Historical Society, the Ritchie House was home to John and Mary Jane Ritchie, early settlers of Topeka who immigrated to Kansas Territory in 1855 to aid the free state cause. The Ritchies were comrades of John Brown and active in the Underground Railroad. After the Civil War the Ritchies gave away and sold land to African Americans seeking a new start in Kansas. This led to a predominantly black neighborhood that came to be known as Ritchie's Addition. Built in 1926 as part of a massive school expansion project, the Monroe Elementary school was built on land once donated by Ritchie. Monroe was one of the four African American elementary schools operating in Topeka in 1951 when the Brown v. Board of Education lawsuit was filed. The restored school now serves as the visitor center for the national historic site.

Beginning with abolitionist Mary Jane Ritchie in 1854, visitors met six characters that portrayed evolving views of race and freedom in Kansas. Other characters included David Rice Atchison, a pro-slavery Senator from Missouri; Clarina Nichols, an abolitionist and women's suffrage activist; Nathan Holder, an African American Civil War veteran and Topeka resident in the 1880s; and Chester Woodward, a member of the Topeka Board of Education in 1930. The concluding character, portrayed by Ranger Joan Wilson, was Julia Roundtree, an African American educator and activist in Topeka who discussed the lawsuit filed in 1951 that would end legal segregation. Though visitation was not as high as hoped, the event received excellent coverage by local print, radio, and television. Local PBS affiliate KTWU was onsite and is producing a segment for their popular program, Sunflower Journeys, to air later this year. The segment will focus on the story of Julia Roundtree.

The program was a cooperative effort by the National Park Service, the Shawnee County Historical Society, the Lecompton Reenactors, and Western National Parks Association. Period Civil War music was provided by the Kaw Valley Cornet Band and an acoustic trio featuring park staff and volunteers provided Civil War and Civil Rights era music. Park rangers from Harry S Truman NHS and Tallgrass Prairie NP also provided assistance before and during the event.

Play Depicts One Ohio Community's Struggle to End Segregation

Date: March 16, 2011

On March 6, approximately sixty people filled the auditorium at Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site for the staging of a dramatic play entitled The Hillsboro Story. At the conclusion of the 90-minute play, the cast and playwright facilitated a 45-minute talkback session, allowing audience members to ask questions about The Hillsboro Story and share their own thoughts on race, education, and history in their own lives and communities.

The play opens in Hillsboro, Ohio on July 5, 1954 when the small town's segregated all-black elementary school erupts in flames. Despite an 1887 law outlawing segregated education in the state of Ohio, the Hillsboro school board created a segregated system in 1939 when it transferred all African American students from the integrated Webster Elementary School to the predominantly black Lincoln Elementary School.

When the U.S. Supreme Court struck down segregated public schools in Brown v. Board of Education, parents in Hillsboro assumed that children would be able to attend the school closest to their home. When the school board failed to integrate, local resident Philip Partridge set fire to the all-black Lincoln School in an attempt to hasten the process. The continued delays on the part of the school board and the conviction and imprisonment of Partridge sparked a two-year struggle that saw the organization of the Marching Mothers, peaceful demonstrations, and the creation of home and church schooling program for African American children. In 1956, the courts decreed in Clemons v. Hillsboro Board of Education that any child not in public school be granted immediate admittance on a non-segregated basis.

Playwright Susan Banyas was a third grader in Hillsboro and remembers these actions literally taking place outside her classroom window. Most of the text for The Hillsboro Story was developed from more than 50 interviews conducted in the last six years with the primary participants in the event, their families and friends, and from national voices representing the civil rights movement. The dramatic recreation of this piece of Ohio history powerfully illustrates both the local and national impacts of the Brown decision.

The lively talkback session took a dramatic turn even for the cast and playwright, when they learned that sitting in the front row were Leola Brown Montgomery and Linda Brown Thompson, the wife and daughter of the case's namesake, Oliver Brown. The Hillsboro Story continued on a Midwestern tour, which included stops at Hillsboro Middle and High Schools and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio.