News Release

National Park Service to Display Historic Doll and Reveal Future Plans for Historic Site

Date: May 15, 2013

Contact: Dave Schafer
Phone: [phone]

Topeka, KS - Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site will commemorate the 59th anniversary of the US Supreme Court decision with a public display of an artifact that was crucial to the case that overturned the "separate but equal" doctrine in public education. This Friday, May 17, from 10 am to 2 pm, the park will place on temporary exhibit an African American doll that Dr. Kenneth Clark used in a series of landmark studies.

In the 1940s and 1950s Dr. Kenneth Clark and his wife, Mamie, conducted several social science experiments with African American children. The Clarks presented the children with a black doll and a white doll and asked them which doll was the nicest, smartest, and prettiest. In response, most chose the white doll. The Clarks correlated the general aversion of the black doll by the children with the existing system of racial segregation. Dr. Kenneth Clark testified in court as part of the legal strategy for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In 2012, Donna Shai, who lives in Pennsylvania and whose friend was a student of Dr. Clark's, donated the doll to the park. "If we could pick one object to symbolize the essence of Brown v. Board of Education," said Supt. David Smith, "we would choose this doll. Tangible artifacts such as this doll make the story real and believable."

In addition to the display of the doll, a short program and press conference at 11 am will highlight several initiatives the park is embarking on to fulfill its long-range interpretive plan. These include re-creating a 1950s Kindergarten room, modifying permanent exhibit galleries, and helping Topeka interpret its civil rights story through a new self-guided driving tour brochure, cell phone tour, and bus tours.

The park has also acquired two Abraham Lincoln prints from Joe Swalwell, a local collector. The largest print depicts President Lincoln's first reading of the Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet on July 22, 1862. The print is believed to have been displayed in the Lincoln School in Topeka. On May 17, Mr. Swalwell will be on hand to talk about this print and a second print of an image of Lincoln captured in an 1860 photograph.

Also, on May 17 the Kansas Historical Society will display several artifacts from its rich museum collection. These items belonged to Kansans linked to sites and stories associated with the state's struggle to provide freedom and equality to its citizens. The artifacts include a sword that belonged to John Ritchie, an anti-slavery activist in Topeka who was active in the Underground Railroad; a cane that was presented in 1895 to Guilford Gage when a Civil War monument was dedicated in Topeka Cemetery; and the Washburn University Distinguished Alumni Service Medal presented in 1973 to Mamie Williams, an important African American educator in Topeka. Blair Tarr, a curator with the Kansas Historical Society, will be on hand on May 17 to discuss these and other artifacts, especially those linked to Bleeding Kansas and the Civil War.

Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site tells the story of the US 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 federal holidays. For more information, call 785-354-4273 or visitwww.nps.gov/brvb and www.facebook.com/brownvboardnps.