• Exterior of Brown v. Board of Education NHS, the former Monroe Elementary School, at night.

    Brown v. Board of Education

    National Historic Site Kansas

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  • "From Brown to Brown: Topeka's Civil Rights Story" Bus Tours Now Available

    This new bus tour maps out locations in the city linked to local and national struggles for freedom and equality. Bus tours will be available Saturday, May 25, 2013 and June 1, 2013. Click on More for complete details of the tour. More »

  • 2013 Teacher Ranger Teacher Opportunity

    During the summer of 2013, the national NPS office of history and civics is seeking a Teacher Ranger Teacher to develop lesson plans that incorporate information about the National Park Service that meet common core standards, located in Topeka, Kansas. More »

Photo Gallery

Rehabilitation of the former Monroe Elementary School
Facility manager Treva Harris documented the first phase of the rehabilitation which took place from 2001 through 2003.

 

Topeka Segregation Cases 1879-1951
Historian Thom Rosenblum has found images related to the segregation of Topeka's public school system from 1879 to 1951. To read more about segregation in Topeka, click here.

 

Forging Freedom's Pathway

On June 11, 2011, visitors leisurely strolled with uniformed park rangers from the historic John Ritchie House to the formerly segregated Monroe Elementary School, meeting six costumed reenactors along the way. Beginning at the home of a prominent abolitionist and operator on the Underground Railroad and ending at a formerly segregated elementary school, visitors walked from the birth of the Civil War to the birth of the Civil Rights Movement in just under a half-mile.

 
 
 
 

Did You Know?

Plessy v. Ferguson court document

In 1896 the U.S. Supreme Court institutionalized the “separate but equal” policy with the Plessy v. Ferguson decision.--Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site More...