Buchanan Elementary

Buchanan Center, former elementary school in Topeka Kansas

NPS Photo

By the time the Brown v. Board of Education case was filed in 1951, Buchanan was one of four elementary schools established for Topeka’s African American children, along with Monroe, McKinley, and Washington. Built in 1885, Buchanan became the cornerstone of the Tennessee Town community, a section of Topeka largely settled by former enslaved people fleeing the South in the late 1870s and early 1880s. In 1910, the school became the home for the kindergarten started in 1893 by Rev. Charles Sheldon in the nearby Central Congregational Church. The school was the first kindergarten for African American children west of the Mississippi. In 1920, Buchanan was remodeled, then enlarged from 4 to 8 classrooms, and continued to help accommodate students until the school was closed in the late 1950s.