1.1 Repositories:
Kansas State Historical Society (Topeka)
Brown Foundation for Educational Excellence, Equity, & Research
(collection is located at Kansas Collection at University of Kansas, Lawrence)
Washburn University Law Library (Topeka)

1.2 Title: Brown Vs. Topeka Board of Education Oral History Collection

1.3 Dates: 1991-1996

1.4 Quantity: 2 cubic feet (3-5" document cases and 1 cubic foot box) and 115 audiotapes.

1.5 Abstract: Individuals involved with or affected by the school desegregation cases.

Transcripts and audio tapes of interviews, conducted by Jean Van Delinder and Ralph Crowder between 1991 and 1996, of individuals involved with Belton v. Gebhart (Delaware); Bolling, et. al. v. Sharpe (District of Columbia); Brown, et. al. v. Board of Education of Topeka, et. al. (Kansas); Briggs v. Elliott (South Carolina); and Davis, et. al. v. Prince Edward County Board of Supervisors (Virginia).

1.6 Identification: Manuscript Collection No. 251; Audiotapes: 35-10-05-05 to 35-10-05-06.

2 SCOPE AND CONTENTS

This collection provides a look at the background surrounding the landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka from those who, in one way or another, were involved with the cases before they reached the Supreme Court, or who were involved in or affected by the ruling in some way (i.e., victims, plaintiff, and beneficiaries). Those interviewed included: former students, community leaders and activists, attorneys, judges, and others affected by the outcome of the case.
This collection also contains information on the following topics: segregation, discrimination, the Topeka school system, history of Topeka’s African American community, Atchison Topeka Santa Fe Railroad, U.S. military, and World War II.

3 HISTORY

3.1 Brown et. al. v. Board of Education of Topeka, et. al.
In Kansas there were eleven school integration cases, dating from 1881 to 1949, prior to Brown in 1954. In many instances the schools for African American children were substandard facilities with out-of-date textbooks and often no basic school supplies. What was not in question was the dedication and qualifications of the African American teachers and principals assigned to these schools.
In response to numerous unsuccessful attempts to ensure equal opportunities for all children, African American community leaders and organizations stepped up efforts to change the dual education system. In the fall of 1950 members of the Topeka, Kansas, Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) agreed to again challenge the “separate but equal” doctrine governing public education.
The strategy was conceived by the chapter president, McKinley Burnett; the secretary Lucinda Todd; and attorneys Charles Scott, John Scott, and Charles Bledsoe. For a period of two years, Mr. Burnett had attempted to move Topeka public school officials to simply choose to integrate schools because the Kansas law did not require segregated public schools. The law permitted segregated schools only at the elementary level in first class cities (cities with populations of 15,000 or more). Filing suit against the District was a final attempt to secure integrated public schools.
Their plan involved enlisting the support of fellow NAACP members and personal friends as plaintiffs in what would be a class action suit filed against the Board of Education of Topeka Public Schools. A group of thirteen parents agreed to participate on behalf of their twenty children.
Each plaintiff was instructed to watch the paper for enrollment dates and take their child or children to the school for whites only nearest to their home. Once they attempted enrollment and faced denial, they were to report back to the NAACP. This would provide the attorneys with the documentation needed to file a lawsuit against the Topeka School Board. The African American schools appeared equal in facilities and teacher salaries, but some programs were not offered and some textbooks were not available. In addition, there were only four elementary schools for African American children as compared to eighteen for white children. This made attending neighborhood schools impossible for African American children. Junior and Senior high schools were integrated.
Oliver Brown was assigned as lead plaintiff, principally because he was the only man among the plaintiffs. On February 28, 1951, the NAACP filed their case as Oliver L. Brown, et .al., v. The Board of Education of Topeka (KS). The District Court ruled in favor of the school board and the case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. At the Supreme Court level, their case was combined with other NAACP cases from Delaware, South Carolina, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. The combined cases became known as Oliver L. Brown, et. al., v. The Board of Education of Topeka, et. al.
On May 17, 1954, at 12:52 p.m., the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision that it was unconstitutional, violating the 14th Amendment, to separate children in public schools for no other reason than their race. Brown v. The Board of Education helped change America forever.
In 1979 a group of young attorneys were concerned about a policy in Topeka Public Schools, which allowed open enrollment. Their fear was that this would lead to desegregation. They believed that with this type of choice, white parents would shift their children to other schools creating predominately African American or predominately white schools. As a result, these attorneys petitioned the federal court to reopen the original Brown case to determine if Topeka Public Schools had in fact ever complied with the court’s ruling of 1954.
This 1979 case is commonly known as Brown III. These young attorneys were Richard Jones, Joseph Johnson, and Charles Scott, Jr. (son of one of the attorneys in the original case), in association with Chris Hansen from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in New York. In the late 1980's Topeka Public Schools were found to be out of compliance. On October 28, 1992, after several appeals, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Topeka Public Schools’ petition to once again hear an appeal in the Brown case. In June of 1993 the U.S. Supreme Court again declined to review the case, and it was remanded back to the U.S. District Court in Topeka. A court-ordered desegregation plan to remove any remaining vestiges of school segregation was issued on July 25, 1994.
As a result, the school district was directed to develop plans for compliance and have since built three magnet schools. These schools are excellent facilities and make every effort to be racially balanced. Ironically, one of the new schools is named for the Scott family attorneys for their role in the Brown case and civil rights. It is the Scott Computer and Mathematics Magnet School. United status was at last granted to Topeka Unified School District # 501 on July 27, 1999.

3.2 Belton v. Gebhart Bulah v. Gebhart
The final challenge to segregated schools in Delaware came by way of two separate cases with identical issues. One case developed in the suburb of Claymont and another in the rural community of Hockessin.
Segregated Howard High School was a continual source of frustration for African American parents in suburban Claymont. Although their community had a well-maintained school in a picturesque setting with spacious facilities, African American children could not, by law, attend the Claymont school. Instead they were transported daily on a twenty mile round trip to Howard High School located in an undesirable section of Wilmington. Not only was the distance an adverse factor, class size, teacher qualifications in terms of advanced degrees, and the incomplete curriculum also angered African American parents. Students interested in vocational training courses had to walk several blocks to the run-down Carver annex, regardless of the weather.
In March of 1951, eight African American parents sought legal counsel from attorney Louis Redding. At his urging these parents asked state education officials to admit their children to the local Claymont School; they were denied. Consequently, Redding agreed to take their case.
In the rural community of Hockessin, Mrs. Sarah Bulah only wanted equal opportunity for their adopted daughter, Shirley Barbara. While a bus carrying white children passed her home daily, she had to drive Shirley two miles to an old one-room schoolhouse designated for African American children. Sarah Bulah decided to share her concern with state officials, so she wrote to the Department of Public Instruction and to the Governor. Their replies reaffirmed that no bus transportation would be provided because “colored” children could not ride on a bus serving white children. Undaunted Mrs. Bulah made an appointment with attorney Louise Redding.
In both cases, attorney Redding was ready to challenge the notion of not permitting integrated schools. Both Sarah Bulah and the parents from Claymont, including Ethel Belton, were prepared to sue in order to change state law. Their case would name the State Board of Education as the principal defendant. The Board members were specifically charged. The first name among the members was Francis B. Gebhart. The resulting cases were called Belton v. Gebhart and Bulah v. Gebhart.
Judge Collin Seitz, in this case ruled that the “separate but equal” doctrine had been violated and that the plaintiffs were entitled to immediate admission to the white school in their communities. Although a victory for the named plaintiffs, his decision had dealt the sweeping blow to segregation they had hoped for. The decision did not apply broadly throughout Delaware.
The Belton and Bulah cases would ultimately join four other NAACP cases in the Supreme Court ruling in Brown.

3.3 Bolling, et. al v. C. Melvin Sharpe, et. al.
Since its inception, Washington, D.C. has been home to a significant population of African Americans. Yet as the nations capital, the District of Columbia did not set a positive example regarding race relations, it merely followed custom. Washington, D.C., was firmly rooted in racial segregation.
After World War II, the country moved to integrate the military, Washington, D.C., seemed uninterested in challenging racial custom. By 1951 the traditional African American community leadership (i.e., churches, sororities, lodges) had failed to organize any protest against the run-down facilities that served as schools for their children. Even most parents with “good” wages from government jobs remained silent in the matter of substandard segregated schools. That same year, the owner of a local African American barbershop stepped forward and filled the leadership void in the matter of better schools for their children. His name was Gardner Bishop, a man who simply knew civil rights from social wrong.
It has been reported that on September 11, 1950, Bishop led a group of eleven African American children to the city's new high school for white students. The school, named for John Phillip Sousa, was a large modern building, boasting of multiple basketball courts and spacious classrooms. At that moment Gardner Bishop asked for admittance for the African American students that had accompanied him to see Sousa High School. It seemed clear that the building could accommodate a higher enrollment. His request was denied, ensuring the African American students a continued unequal educational experience.
Bishop had been organizing parents to take action regarding the poor school their children were assigned to, after his trip to Sousa High, it was time for action. He approached attorney Charles Hamilton Houston on their behalf. The idea was to request a facility, equal to that of Sousa High, be constructed for their children. Houston worked on the case independently; it was not an NAACP case.
In 1950, while preparing the Bolling case, Charles Houston was stricken with a heart attack. As a result, he asked a colleague and friend, James Nabritt, Jr., to help Gardner Bishop and his group. At that point, the idea of equalization of facilities was rejected by Nabritt and replaced by a challenge to segregation per se.
In 1951, in U.S. District Court, the case of Bolling v. Sharpe was filed. This was named for Spottswood Thomas Bolling, one of the children who accompanied Gardner Bishop to Sousa High. He was among those denied admission based solely on race.
Although unsuccessful, Nabritt trusted his concept of an all out attack on segregation. The Bolling case would later meet with success as one of the cases combined under Brown v. Board of Education.

3.4 Briggs v. Elliott
The legal action in Summerton, South Carolina, began in 1947. Ironically the push to take action derived from a fortuitous encounter between Rev. James Hinton, president of the South Carolina NAACP, and Rev. J. A. DeLaine, a local school teacher. The NAACP leader, through a speech attended by DeLaine, issued a challenge to find the courage to test the legality of the discriminatory practices aimed at African American school children.
Rev. J. A. DeLaine was teaching in St. Paul Rural Primary School and also serving several small churches as an A. M. E. Minister. (Initially schools for African Americans in Clarendon County began in their churches and gradually moved to separate buildings. Therefore, many schools and churches had the same names such as Liberty Hill A. M. E. and Liberty Hill Elementary). For these children and their parents the issue was bus transportation to school. Rev. DeLaine approached Clarendon County school officials but failed to secure school buses. African American children did not have buses; they had to walk, sometimes as far as eight miles each way to school.
School officials justified their refusal by claiming that since the African American community did not pay (collectively) much in taxes, it would be unfair to expect white citizens to provide transportation for African American school children. Even a letter writing campaign launched by Rev. DeLaine yielded no assistance from state educational officials. Because of the urgent need, African American parents collected donations within their community and purchased a second-hand school bus. The continual repairs on the bus proved to be too costly for the parents.
Again frustration prompted Rev. DeLaine to seek relief from the District Superintendent L. B. Accord. It was hoped that since Accord was a fellow minister, he would be sympathetic. However, he refused to even consider Rev. DeLaine’s request. Remembering the words of Rev. Hinton, the NAACP state president, DeLaine knew it was time to take legal action.
On March 16, 1948, local attorney Harold Boulware, together with Thurgood Marshall, filed in the U.S. District Court the case of Levi Pearson v. County Board of Education. Their case was dismissed on the technical matter of where Mr. Pearson paid his taxes. His land straddled more than one school district. The court ruled that Pearson had no legal standing because he paid taxes in District 5 and his children attended school in Districts 22 and 26.
This did not stop Rev. DeLaine and by 1949 he had obtained enough signatures to file a second case. The national office of the NAACP agreed to sponsor their case. It would give Clarendon’s African Americans not just buses, but would seek educational equality. In May of 1950, with the help of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the case of Briggs v. Elliott was filed. Two months later, the plaintiffs’ attorneys moved from simply pursuing equalization of facilities and obtaining buses to attacking segregation.
The court ruled against the petitioners and ordered schools to be equalized, focusing on equalization and ignoring the broader question of the constitutionality of segregation. The state’s action resulted in an NAACP appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Briggs case became part of the Brown litigation.
The Briggs case evoked an extreme reaction. All of the petitioners suffered swift and severe hardships for their courage. Harry Briggs was fired from his job. Annie Gibson lost her job as a motel maid, and her husband lost land that had been in his family for eight decades. Rev. DeLaine saw his home burned to the ground. Federal Judge Walter Waring, who sided with the petitioner’s concerns, was forced to leave the state by a joint resolution of the South Carolina House of Representatives.

3.5 Davis, et. al., v. Prince Edward County Board of Supervisors
In the Commonwealth of Virginia, the only way an African American could receive a high school diploma in the early twentieth century was by attending a private academy. Catholics, Methodists, Episcopalians, and Presbyterians in Virginia operated private high schools. The public schools for blacks were elementary schools (grades 1-8) operated by county school boards. The fact that school boards were county affiliated rather than city or town affiliated might have something to do with the relatively rural population of most school districts.
The history of activism in Richmond dates back to the streetcar boycotts in the 1900s. When the privately owned streetcar lines attempted to segregate the cars, blacks boycotted them for two years. This impasse was resolved when the Commonwealth of Virginia passed laws making segregation of public facilities legal. Streetcar companies had to comply with the new law. African Americans were not prepared to fight the state legislature at this point in time.
In Prince Edward County, public schooling for blacks was considered "progressive" compared to neighboring counties. Due partly to the fund-raising efforts of the Farmville Colored Women’s Club, the Robert Morton School added grades 9-12 by 1947. Prior to 1947, African Americans "graduated" from high school after the 11th grade. Given that the number of school years was fewer than in the white schools, African Americans from neighboring counties came to Farmville to attend Robert Morton High School in the 1930s and 1940s. The original building was a two-story frame building that later became the elementary school once the Anew@ Robert Morton High School was built in 1943 across the street. The Anew@ school was never adequately large enough, necessitating the use of Tarpaper-covered buildings hastily constructed on the campus for use as classrooms. It was the use of these temporary buildings as classroom space that sparked a student strike in 1951.
The student leaders responsible for the strike were from families who were all long-term residence of the surrounding area. One student leader, Barbara Jones, had a family distinguished by activism. Barbara was the niece of Vernon Johns, the legendary minister who served in the Dexter Street Baptist Church the ten years prior to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Vernon Johns was an outspoken critic of segregation and involved in numerous protest attempts throughout this career. Even though he was in Montgomery, Alabama, at the time of the student strike, community members reported that he was influential in giving advice to the striking students. His wife was a former teacher in the Robert Morton High School, and he still had numerous family ties in the community of Farmville and the surrounding area.
The Johns family knew the social politics of the area. Farmville is an hour and a half southwest of Richmond, on the same route Robert E. Lee followed during his retreat from Richmond in the spring of 1865. Farmville is just two miles from where the Confederacy made its last stand at the battle of Sailor’s Creek. Even in 1950, life in the rural south still carried certain risks for African American adults whose livelihoods were inextricably linked to a group of whites who controlled commerce in the area. Opinion was divided within the African American community over whether segregated conditions in Farmville should be challenged.
The Reverend Francis Griffin considered the situation unacceptable and used every opportunity to address the need for chance. As president of the local NAACP and chair of the Morton High School PTA, he was well positioned to push for change. Together with school principal M. Boyd Jones, they petitioned the school board to address the obvious disparity in the schools by asking for a new building to replace Morton High. After several months of inactivity by school officials, the stage was set for the Morton students, frustrated with their circumstances, to take action.
On April 23, 1951, a student strike, organized largely by Barbara Jones, was underway. School principal Jones was called away by a false claim of racial problems at the bus station downtown. With him absent, the students assembled under pretense of a school sanctioned gathering, and Barbara Spoke of the plan to strike. The strike amounted to students walking out of school with instructions, from strike leadership, not to leave the school grounds. Some of the students were given signs to carry that expressed their goal of better facilities. With the strike underway, Barbara Jones and classmate Carrie Stokes sought legal counsel from the NAACP in Richmond. The students received a response in the form of a commitment by NAACP attorney Oliver Hill agreeing to meet with them. The strike lasted ten days. Hill promised that action would be taken on their behalf, with that, the students returned to school on May 7, 1951.
After a month of legal maneuvering, Oliver Hill’s colleague, Spottswood Robinson, citing the student’s complaint, filed a suit in Federal Court. Surprisingly when the case was filed, it did not carry the name of Barbara Jones as its lead plaintiff. It was by happenstance that the first student listed was a ninth grade girl, the daughter of a local farmer. Her name was Dorothy Davis. The Virginia case was filed as Dorothy E. Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County. After filing this case, Spottswood Robinson immediately traveled to South Carolina where the case of Briggs v. Elliot was about to be heard in another Federal Court.

4 ARRANGEMENT

The transcripts are arranged alphabetically by the last name of the interviewee. The audiotapes are arranges alphabetically with each interview group. The tape number is listed by the name of the interviewee on the List of Interviewees and Access Restrictions section.

5 ADJUNCT DESCRIPTIVE DATA

5.1 Related materials:
Microfilm Collections
· Afro-American Club Women’s Project. MS 1192-1194.
· Black Phone Directory of Topeka.
n 1928: LM 939, No. 3.
n 1934: LM 428, No. 4.
· National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Kansas Branch Office Files, 1913-1965. MS 1386-1396.
· National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Papers of the NAACP: Part 3. The Campaign of Educational Equality: Legal Department and Central Office Records, 1913-1950.
§ Series A: Legal Department and Central Office Records, 1913-1940. MS 4649 – 4672.
§ Series B: Legal Department and Central Office Records, 1940-1950. MS 4678-4696.
§ Series C: Legal Department and Central Office Records, 1951-1955. MS 4697-4719.
§ Series D: Central Office Records, 1956-1965. MS 4720-4732.
· Kansas Appellate Court Case Files (see Appendix D for reel numbers)
· U.S. District Court of Kansas, Civil Case Number T-316: Oliver Brown et. al., v. Board of Education, Topeka, KS. AR 1939.

Library Collections
· Census of Tennessee Town, Topeka, Kansas, 1898. *K929.3/T62/T256cen.

Web Resources
· National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Visual Materials. Library of Congress. Search for the finding aid at http://lcweb2.loc.gov/faid/faidquery.html)

5.2 Separated material:
Original transcripts and audiotapes stored separately from reference copies.

5.3 Index:
See Appendix D for indexes to each interview.

5.4 Bibliography:
· Kansas Appellate Court Case No. 4,844: Buford Crawford, et. al. v. Fort Scott Board of Education. Location: 51-02-04-18.
· Kansas Reports. SP 345.42/K13.

6 CONTROLLED ACCESS HEADINGS
(See Appendix _ for access headings to each interview.)

6.1 Personal names:
Belton, Ethel Louise
Bolling, Spottswood Thomas
Briggs, Harry
Brown, Oliver, 1918-1961-Trails, litigation, etc.
Davis, Dorothy E.
Elliot, R. W.
Gebhart, Francis B.
Sharpe, C. Melvin

6.2 Corporate names:
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Prince Edward County (Va.) School Board
Topeka (Kan.) Board of Education-Trials, litigation, etc.
United States. Supreme Court

6.3 Geographic names:
Claymont (Del.)
Prince Edward County (Vir.)
Summerton (S. Car.)
Topeka (Kan.)
Washington (D.C.)

6.4 General Subjects:
Afro-Americans
Afro-Americans-Civil rights
Afro-Americans-Education
Discrimination in education-United States
Discrimination in education, Racial and religious-Jurisprudence -United States
Race discrimination-Law and legislation-United States
School integration-Law and legislation-United States
Schools-Kansas-Topeka
Segregation in education-Law and legislation-United States
United States. Supreme Court-Education law
United States-Race relations

7 ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

7.1 Copyright Notice:
Notice: This material may be protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code). The user is cautioned that the publication of the contents of this microfilm may be construed as constituting a violation of literary property rights. These rights derive from the principle of common law, affirmed in the copyright law of 1976 as amended, that the writer of an unpublished letter or other manuscript has the sole right to publish the contents thereof unless he or she affirmatively parts with that right; the right descends to his or her legal heirs regardless of the ownership of the physical manuscript itself. It is the responsibility of a user or his or her publisher to secure the permission of the owner of literary property rights in unpublished writing.

The Kansas State Historical Society does not own the exclusive copyright to these records.
7.2 Restrictions on access and use:
The use of information from some interviews is restricted. See the following list on interviewees and restrictions of further information.

7.2.a List of Interviews & Access Restrictions

Jack Alexander (Box 1. Tape 1-2)
2509 SW Fillmore
Topeka, KS 66611
Restrictions: None

Vera Jones Allen (Box 1. Tape 3)
Restrictions: I give my permission for the information gathered to be used for educational and scholarly purposes. If a researcher wishes to use the information gathered for other than educational and scholarly purposes, he/she may not do so without further permission as long as proper acknowledgment of the participants is made. Do not release address.

“Anonymous” (Box 1)
Restrictions: I give my permission for the information gathered to be used for educational and scholarly purposes. If a researcher wishes to use the information gathered for other than educational and scholarly purposes, he/she may do so without further permission without using my name. Do not release address.

Mr. Charles I. Baston [Deceased: 1993 Jan 01] (Box 1. Tape 4)
1531 Campbell
Topeka, KS 66604
Restrictions: None

Eliza Briggs (Box 1. Tape 7)
PO Box 857
Summerton, SC 29148
Restrictions: I give my permission for the information gathered to be used for educational and scholarly purposes. If a researcher wishes to use the information gathered for other than educational and scholarly purposes, he/she may not do so without further permission.

Onan C. Burnett [deceased: 2000 Jan 01] (Box 1. Tape 8-9)
2419 SW Western
Topeka, KS 66611
Restrictions: None

Broadus O. “B. O.” Butler, Sr. (Box 1. Tape 10)
PO Box 152
Summerton, SC 29148
Restrictions: I give my permission for the information gathered to be used for educational and scholarly purposes. If a researcher wishes to use the information gathered for other than educational and scholarly purposes, he/she may not do so without further permission.

Judge Robert Carter (Box 1. Tape 11)
40 Center St.
New York, NY 10801
Restrictions: None

Geraldine Crumpler (Box 1. Tape 12)
100 E 23rd St.
Wilmington, DE 19802
Restrictions: None

Deborah L. Dandridge (Box 1. Tape 13-14)
1015 SE 10th Ave.
Topeka, KS 66607-1506
Restrictions: I give my permission for the information gathered to be used for educational and scholarly purposes. If a researcher wishes to use the information gathered for other than educational and scholarly purposes, he/she may not do so without further permission. If using direct quotes from the transcript or tapes in a publication, prior written permission is necessary.
Jeanette Dandridge [deceased: 2001 April 22] (See Temples)
Restrictions: I give my permission for the information gathered to be used for educational and scholarly purposes. If a researcher wishes to use the information gathered for other than educational and scholarly purposes, he/she may not do so without further permission. Do not release address.

Maurita Burnett Davis (Box 1. Tape 15)
725 Parallel
Kansas City, KS
Restrictions: None

Joe Douglas (Box 1. Tape 16-18)
1811 SW Indiana Ave.
Topeka, KS 66607
Restrictions: I give my permission for the information gathered to be used for educational and scholarly purposes. If a researcher wishes to use the information gathered for other than educational and scholarly purposes, he/she may not do so without further permission

Mr. Claude Emerson (Box 1. Tape 19)
2715 SE Kentucky
Topeka, KS 66605
Restrictions: None

Annie V. Gibson (Box 1. Tape 20)
Rt. 1, Box 5
Summerton, SC 29148
Restrictions: I give my permission for the information gathered to be used for educational and scholarly purposes. If a researcher wishes to use the information gathered for other than educational and scholarly purposes, he/she may do so without further permission, however a copy of the work is required to be sent to me.

Barbara Gibson (Box 1. Tape 21)
1448 Sheridan St., NW
Washington, D.C. 20011
Restrictions: None

Dr. George Goebel (Box 1. Tape 22)
Restrictions: I give my permission for the information gathered to be used for educational and scholarly purposes. If a researcher wishes to use the information gathered for other than educational and scholarly purposes, he/she may not do so without further permission. Do not release address. **SEE RELEASE FORM FOR FURTHER DETAILS**

Jack Greenberg (Box 1. Tape 23)
Restrictions: I give my permission for the information gathered to be used for educational and scholarly purposes. If a researcher wishes to use the information gathered for other than educational and scholarly purposes, he/she may not do so without further permission. Do not release address.

L. L. Hall (Box 1. Tape 24-26)
Rt. 2, Box 790
Farmville, VA 23901
Restrictions: None

Chris Hansen (Box 1. Tape 27)
ACLU - 132 W. 43td St.
New York City, NY 10036
Restrictions: None

Cheryl Brown Henderson (Box 1. Tape 28)
1500 SW Campbell
Topeka, KS 66604
Restrictions: None

Mrs. Zelma Henderson (Box 1. Tape 29-30)
3610 Eveningside Dr.
Topeka, KS 66614
Restrictions: None

Barbara Byrd Henry (Box 1. Tape 31)
20 Hickman Rd.
Claymont, De 19703
Restrictions: I give my permission for the information gathered to be used for educational and scholarly purposes. If a researcher wishes to use the information gathered for other than educational and scholarly purposes, he/she may not do so without further permission.

Rev. E. B. Hicks [Deceased: Aug. 1992] (Box 1. Tape 32-33)
Restrictions: I give my permission for the information gathered to be used for educational and scholarly purposes. If a researcher wishes to use the information gathered for other than educational and scholarly purposes, he/she may not do so without further permission. Do not release address.

Charles L. Hill (Box 1. Tape 34)
130 Topsfield Rd.
Ipswich, MA 01938
Restrictions: I give my permission for the information gathered to be used for educational and scholarly purposes. If a researcher wishes to use the information gathered for other than educational and scholarly purposes, he/she may not do so without further permission.

Oliver Hill (Box 1. Tape 35-36)
509 N 3rd St.
Richmond, VA 23219
I reserve the right to use any parts of this material in any publication I may choose.
Restrictions: I give my permission for the information gathered to be used for educational and scholarly purposes. If a researcher wishes to use the information gathered for other than educational and scholarly purposes, he/she may not do so without further permission.

Christina Jackson (Box 2. Tape 37-38)
219 Grattan
Topeka, KS
Restrictions: None

Mr. Eugene Johnson (Deceased) (Box 2. Tape 39-40)
2000 Kansas Ave.
Topeka, KS 66612
Restrictions: None

Lois May Johnson (Box 2. Tape 41)
611 Grant
Hockessin, DE 19707
Restrictions: I give my permission for the information gathered to be used for educational and scholarly purposes. If a researcher wishes to use the information gathered for other than educational and scholarly purposes, he/she may not do so without further permission.

Katherine King (Box 2. Tape 42-43)
1727 SW Kent Place
Topeka, KS 66604
Restrictions: None

John Calhoun Land III (Box 2. Tape 44)
PO Box 138
Manning, SC 29102
Restrictions: None

Rev. Maurice Lang (Box 2. Tape 45)
1424 N. Jefferson
Topeka, KS 66613
Restrictions: None

Henry Lawson (Box 2. Tape 46-47)
PO Box 469
Summerton, SC 29148
Restrictions: None

Clara Ligon (See Allen)
PO Box 38
Prospect, VA 23960
Restrictions: None.

Mr. Ernest Manheim (Box 2. Tape 48)
408 W. 59th Ter.
Kansas City, MO 64113
Restrictions: None

Mrs. Clementine Martin (Box 2. Tape 49-50)
1421 SW Western
Topeka, KS 66604
Restrictions: None

Mrs. Connie Menninger (Box 2. Tape 51-52)
1505 SW Plass
Topeka, KS 66612
Restrictions: None

Mr. William Mitchell, Jr. (Box 2. Tape 54-56)
1406 SE Quincy
Topeka, KS
Restrictions: None

Mrs. Ida Norman (Box 2. Tape 60-61)
2019 Fillmore
Topeka, KS 66612
Restrictions: I give my permission for the information gathered to be used for educational and scholarly purposes. If a researcher wishes to use the information gathered for other than educational and scholarly purposes, he/she may not do so without further permission. (Dates necessary - only reason)

Mr. James Parks (Box 2. Tape 63-64)
1042 SW Woodward
Topeka, KS 66604
Restrictions: None

Dr. Julia Etta Parks (Box 2. Tape 63-64)
1042 SW Woodward
Topeka, KS 66604
Restrictions: None

Mr. Ferdinand Pearson (Box 2. Tape 65)
Restrictions: I give my permission for the information gathered to be used for educational and scholarly purposes. If a researcher wishes to use the information gathered for other than educational and scholarly purposes, he/she may not do so without further permission. Do not release address.

Mr. Thayer Brown Phillips (See Mitchell)
Topeka, KS
(Address unknown)
Restrictions: None

Jean Price [Deceased] (Box 2. Tape 66)
1032 SW Boswell
Topeka, KS 66604
Restrictions: None

Fred Rausch, Jr. (Box 2. Tape 67)
220 W 33rd St., #201
Topeka, KS 66606
Restrictions: None

Connie M. Rawlins (See Allen interview)
Restrictions: I give my permission for the information gathered to be used for educational and scholarly purposes. If a researcher wishes to use the information gathered for other than educational and scholarly purposes, he/she may not do so without further permission. Do not release address.

Joseph Richburg, Sr. (Box 2. Tape 70)
PO Box 697
Summerton, SC 29148
Restrictions: I give my permission for the information gathered to be used for educational and scholarly purposes. If a researcher wishes to use the information gathered for other than educational and scholarly purposes, he/she may not do so without further permission.

Richard and Frances Ridley (Box 2. Tape 71-72)
6202 SW 21st Ter.
Topeka, KS
Restrictions: None

Willie Spencer Robinson [deceased: 1997 Oct 19] (Box 2. Tape 73)
2308 Knowles Rd.
Wilmington, DE 19810
Restrictions: I give my permission for the information gathered to be used for educational and scholarly purposes. If a researcher wishes to use the information gathered for other than educational and scholarly purposes, he/she may not do so without further permission.

Barbara J. Ross (Box 2. Tape 74-76)
3025 Illinois
Topeka, KS 66605
Restrictions: None

Merrill R. Ross (Box 2. Tape 74-76)
3025 Illinois
Topeka, KS 66605
Restrictions: None

Constance Sawyer (Box 3. Tape 77)
Restrictions: I give my permission for the information gathered to be used for educational and scholarly purposes. If a researcher wishes to use the information gathered for other than educational and scholarly purposes, he/she may do so without further permission. Do not release address.

Vivian M. Scales (Box 3. Tape 78)
629 SE Lafayette
Topeka, KS 66605
Restrictions: None

Mrs. Berdyne Scott (deceased: 2000 Feb 06) (Box 3. Tape 79-82)
4540 Bladggen NW
Washington, DC 20011
Restrictions: I give my permission for the information gathered to be used for educational and scholarly purposes. If a researcher wishes to use the information gathered for other than educational and scholarly purposes, he/she may not do so without further permission. Copies to be deposited at KSHS only.

Deborah L Scott (Box 3. Tape 83)
3121 Emerson
Topeka, KS 66605
Restrictions: I give my permission for the information gathered to be used for educational and scholarly purposes. If a researcher wishes to use the information gathered for other than educational and scholarly purposes, he/she may not do so without further permission. Permission from informant required.
Dorothy E. Scott (Box 3. Tape 84-85)
1427 SE Indiana
Topeka, KS 66607
Restrictions: None

C. E. "Sonny" Scroggins (Box 3. Tape 86)
3730 SE Truman Ave.
Topeka, KS 66609
Restrictions: None

Judge Collins J. Seitz (Box 3. Tape 87-88)
844 King St.
Wilmington, DE 19801-3574
Restrictions: None

Irvin Sheffel (Box 3. Tape 89)
Menninger Clinic
Box 829
Topeka, KS 66601-0829
Restrictions: None

Dr. Hugh Speer (Deceased: 1996 June 21) (Box 3. Tape 90-91)
6304 Sherwood Ln.
Shawnee Mission, KS 66203
Restrictions: I give my permission for the information gathered to be used for educational and scholarly purposes. If a researcher wishes to use the information gathered for other than educational and scholarly purposes, he/she may not do so without further permission. Most of the content of the interview is written and copyrighted. I conducted more than 30 interviews with participants about 15 years after the trial of Brown I.

Stanley A. Stalter (Box 3. Tape 92)
1916 SW Wayne Ave.
Topeka, KS 66604
Restrictions: I give my permission for the information gathered to be used for educational and scholarly purposes. If a researcher wishes to use the information gathered for other than educational and scholarly purposes, he/she may not do so without further permission.

Carrie V. Stokes (Box 3. Tape 93)
1880 Gola Dr.
Fayetteville, NC 28301
I reserve the right to use and publish this material in any publication I may select.
Restrictions: I give my permission for the information gathered to be used for educational and scholarly purposes. If a researcher wishes to use the information gathered for other than educational and scholarly purposes, he/she may not do so without further permission.

Charles Sudduth (Deceased: 1995 Sept. 23) (Box 3. Tape 97)
6436 SW Castle Ln.
Topeka, KS 66614
Restrictions: I give my permission for the information gathered to be used for educational and scholarly purposes. If a researcher wishes to use the information gathered for other than educational and scholarly purposes, he/she may not do so without further permission.

Alberta Temple (Box 3. Tape 98-100)
Restrictions: Do not release address.

Frederick Temple, Ph.D. (Box 3. Tape 98-100)
2330 79th Ave.
Baton Rouge, LA 70807
Restrictions: I give my permission for the information gathered to be used for educational and scholarly purposes. If a researcher wishes to use the information gathered for other than educational and scholarly purposes, he/she may not do so without further permission.

Joe Thompson (Box 3. Tape 101-102)
3246 Indiana
Topeka, KS 66605
Restrictions: None

Linda Brown Thompson (Box 3. Tape 103)
Restrictions: I give my permission for the information gathered to be used for educational and scholarly purposes. If a researcher wishes to use the information gathered for other than educational and scholarly purposes, he/she may not do so without further permission. Do not release address.
Alvin Todd (Box 3. Tape 104-106)
1007 SW Jewell
Topeka, KS 66604
Restrictions: None

Lucinda Todd (Deceased: 1996 July 17) (Box 3. Tape 104-106)
1007 SW Jewell
Topeka, KS 66604
Restrictions: None

Ruby J. Walker (Box 3. Tape 107)
735 SW Jewell
Topeka, KS 66606
Restrictions: None

Lacy B. Ward, Jr. (See Allen)
PO Box 26
Prospect, VA 23960
Restrictions: None

Vadeth Whiteside (Box 3. Tape 108)
3522 W Dunlap Ave
Phoenix, AZ 85051-5356
Restrictions: None

Lacy B. Ward, Jr. (Box 3. Tape 109-110)
3105 Adams
Topeka, KS 66605-1269
Restrictions: None

J. Samuel Williams, Jr. (Box 3. Tape 111)
Restrictions: I give my permission for the information gathered to be used for educational and scholarly purposes. If a researcher wishes to use the information gathered for other than educational and scholarly purposes, he/she may not do so without further permission. Do not release address.

Frank Wilson (Box 3. Tape 112)
Restrictions: I give my permission for the information gathered to be used for educational and scholarly purposes. If a researcher wishes to use the information gathered for other than educational and scholarly purposes, he/she may not do so without further permission. Do not release address.

Harriet S. Wilson (Box 3. Tape 113)
3027 University Dr.
Lawrence, KS 66049
Restrictions: None

Paul E. Wilson [Deceased: 2001 April 22] (Box 3. Tape 114-115)
3027 University Dr.
Lawrence, KS 66049
Restrictions: None

7.3 Preferred citation:
MS. collection no. 251, Brown v. Topeka Board of Education Oral History Collection; library and archives division, Kansas State Historical Society.

AV. collection no. 13 Brown v. Topeka Board of Education Oral History Collection; library and archives division, Kansas State Historical Society.

7.4 Acquisition information:
Kansas State Historical Society Project, 1991-1996

7.5 Funding
This collection consists of three sets of interviews. Hallmark Cards Inc funded the first set of interviews. The second set of interviews was funded through grants obtained by the Kansas State Historical Society and the Brown Foundation for Educational Excellence, Equity, and Research. The final set of interviews was funded in part by the National Park Service and the Kansas Humanities Council.

8 DESCRIPTION OF SUBORDINATE COMPONENTS

8.1 Appendix A: Biographies of the Interviewees

Jack Alexander
Mr. Jack Alexander was born on December 7, 1930, in Iola, Kansas, to Agnes Stewart Alexander and James Alexander. Throughout the time he was growing up, the family resided on the east side of Topeka, around Washington School, in an area called Mudtown because of its un-surfaced streets. Mr. Alexander attended Washington Grade School (his father worked for the administration and an uncle worked as a custodian there), East Topeka Junior High, and Topeka High School. He was attending Topeka High when the Brown case was filed. At that time, only the grade schools were segregated, although there were separate sports teams at the at the high school level.
Because of his father’s job, and the fact that he helped out when he was older, Jack Alexander had the distinct advantage of seeing a different side of a key participant in the African American schools and community than others did. He had a close relationship with Mr. Harrison Caldwell (who was sort of the Superintendent of the African American Schools and principal at Washington), often accompanying him on trips out of town on school business while in high school.
After high school, he attended Washburn University before he entered the U.S. Navy in March of 1952; he remained in the Navy until 1956. In 1972, Mr. Alexander became the first and only African-American to be elected as the Topeka city water commissioner. He served in that capacity until 1985. That year he went to work at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment; when he left the agency, he was the chief of permits’ compliance and enforcement.

Vera Jones Allen
Vera (Jones) Allen was born in Charles City, Virginia, in 1913. She graduated from Virginia State College (now Virginia State University) with both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree. She continued postgraduate study at the University of North Carolina. Her career included serving as a primary grade teacher, a visiting teacher supervisor and a principal. She retired in 1980 from the position of director of instruction.
Vera met her husband, Edward Allen, while in college. Once they married, the new couple moved to Farmville, Virginia. That move associated her with the school integration care of Davis v. Prince Edward County (one of the companion cases under Brown v. the Board of Education). Vera Allen taught school in Prince Edward County in a two room segregated school for African American children.
As her career progressed she became one of the first women hired by the school district as director of instruction. Vera Allen found herself involved in efforts to integrate county schools when in 1951 her daughter Edwilda Allen joined a student strike protesting conditions at segregated Morton High School. In 1995 Vera Allen again found herself associated with the historic school case. As head of the Martha E. Forrester Council of Women, she organized efforts to preserve the old high school building. The organization’s efforts were successful and the old school building once an overcrowded reminder of segregation is now a Historic Landmark. The R.R. Morton High School building will eventually be used as a museum and conference center. Mrs. Allen still resides in Farmville. Her daughter Edwilda is now a band teacher at Farmville’s integrated high school.

Anonymous
Mr. XXXXX was born in Topeka, Kansas. He graduated from Monroe School on June 3, and did not receive any other formal education. While attending Monroe School, he played on the softball and soccer teams. In the 1920s, he worked for Himer’s Grocery Store and the City Hotel in Holton, Kansas. From the 1920s to the 1970s Mr. XXXXX worked for Santa Fe Railroad in the Store Department. He also served in the Army during World War II (1941-1945). During the interview, Mr. XXXXX talks about his various memories of Topeka from the 1910s on.

Charles Batson
Mr. Charles Batson was born in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, on April 24, 1917, to Bertha Dysort and Irvin Batson. His father’s family escaped slavery in Texas to Missouri where they came established the family farm. His mother died in 1924, and his father passed away eleven years later in 1931. He attended grade school and junior high school there, but only went to high school for two years at Kansas Vocational Tech in Topeka.
After Mr. Batson finished high school, he worked at Postal Wade Glass Company in Kansas City, Missouri, for a time. He spent some time in the service during World War II, and after his discharge, he moved to Topeka to stay. Mr. Batson first worked out at Forbes Field when he returned to the area; after that he was transferred to the Oklahoma Air Command (the old supply depot across the street from Forbes) where he worked until 1960. After that, he was transferred to the VA Hospital and stayed there until retiring in 1973.
Mr. Batson married Edith Crouder of Sedalia, Missouri. The couple has a daughter who lives in Louisiana. Edith Batson passed away in March of 1982. Mr. Batson was a member of the executive committee of the local chapter of the NAACP at the time the Brown case was filed; he passed away on January 1, 1993.

Eliza Briggs
Eliza Briggs was born in Clarendon County, South Carolina. Her family lived on a farm raising cotton, corn and pigs. Unlike some African Americans in the county, the land belonged to their family. Mrs. Briggs’ mother had inherited the land from her parents. As a child Eliza and her siblings were only able to attend school six months out of the school year. They attended Liberty Hill Elementary School and later St. Paul. During the remaining months the children helped around the farm. At one time there were six children in the family. Three of her siblings died at an early age.
Eliza recalls the poor conditions at Liberty Hill Elementary, where classrooms did not have desks. She and her classmates sat on benches and school assignments were completed while holding paper and books on their laps. For African-American high school students, education ended at 10th grade. Four years after graduating from St. Paul, Eliza married Harry Briggs. The two had grown up in the same neighborhood. The Briggs family grew over the years to five children. They were typical parents concerned about education and opportunities for children.
Rev. J. A. DeLaine was a man Mr. & Mrs. Briggs knew and respected. It was his urging that encouraged the Briggs family and others to join the case against the county school board. They were all concerned about the hardship created by not having bus transportation for their children. Even after the strategy moved from buses to dismantling segregated schools, the Briggs family agreed to stay involved. Although there were more than 30 plaintiffs in the NAACP case, the name of Harry Briggs headed the list of petitioners. All who signed on as petitioners faced various forms of backlash. The Briggs family was no longer able to find anyone to gin their cotton. Mr. Briggs was fired from his job at a local gas station. The timing of his job loss was particularly painful since it took place on Christmas Eve.
After the Briggs case met with success as part of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown decision, the family moved to Florida. From there they moved to New York living in the city for 16 years before returning to Summerton in Clarendon County, South Carolina. Harry Briggs died in 1986 and was survived by his wife and children. Mrs. Eliza Briggs died in 1998.

Onan Burnett
Mr. Onan Burnett was born on August 24, 1921, in Oskaloosa, Kansas, to Edna (born in Perry, Kansas) and Jesse Burnett (born in Oskaloosa). The couple had three other children: Oleta, Eldon, and Evelyn. The Brunettes can trace their roots back to slavery in Tennessee. The family moved to Topeka when Onan was nearly two years old; his father got a job at the Diagnostic Center (the former vocational and technical school). The couple has a son, Kevin. Mr. Burnett=s parent are both buried in Topeka.
Mr. Burnett attended the partially integrated, rural Rice Elementary School in Shawnee County. He attended seventh grade at Monroe School, even though his family lived two blocks from Van Buren School, and ninth grade at Crane Junior High. He attended Highland Park High School so that he could play football and basketball. His sister, Oleta Burnett, was a student teacher at Monroe School at the time the Brown case.
Mr. Burnett went into the Air Force in 1941, and was among the first group of African Americans to attend the Army Air Force Maintenance School in Amarillo, Texas. His group had the highest GPA of any class that went through the school. His bitterest memories of that time centered around the fact that at Fort Knox the German and Italian prisoners of war were allowed to go to the movies, but the African American service men could not. After leaving the service in 1946, Mr. Burnett did his undergraduate study at Washburn University and graduate study at both the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Kansas.
Mr. Burnett and his wife, Norma Jean, were married on July 15, 1956. Norma Jean was born in Emporia, Kansas, in 1928. Mr. Burnett passed away on January 1, 2000.

Broadus Butler, Sr.
Mr. Broadus Butler, Sr., was born in Greenville County, South Carolina. He grew up on a farm, and he himself was a farmer. He attended the school that was just outside the town of Simpsonville; at that time the school was for first through eleventh grade (students graduated after the eleventh grade). He went to college at South Carolina State after the end of World War II.
The school outside of Simpsonville was a segregated school. Mr. Butler had to walk 41/2 miles to and from school; this walk took him right by the white school located in the town. The roads in the area were not paved and the white school bus would often splash water on the children walking after it had rained. Like most African American schools at the time, the students at Simpsonville School had desks and textbooks that were "hand-me-downs" from the white school. The school term was only five, maybe six, months long. It started in late October, after harvest, and ended in the spring, around planting time. In addition to this, the students would go back to school during the summer, during July and for part of August, in what was called the lay-by time; this was during the hottest part of the summer.
At South Carolina State Mr. Butler=s concentration was in vocational agriculture. He wanted to teach vocational agriculture and to be a school principal eventually. Back then, after graduation a member of the State Board of Education interviewed the graduates and assigned them to their first position. His first position consisted of teaching at the school in St. Paul, as well as the principal there, and he was also the supervisor of three other schools in the area. Understandably, Mr. Butler did not like having that much responsibility involved with his first job. It was there that six years later he met his future wife.
Mr. Butler was a non-active member of the NAACP at this time, but was encouraged by the NAACP leaders not to attend the meetings because he would be fired. As a result of the Briggs, School Districts 4 and 22 were combined into one district, and a few select African American students were chosen to attend the white schools. It was shortly after this that Clarenton Hall, a private white academy, was built and the all white Summerton High School was abandoned. In 1971 Mr. Butler became the first African American superintendent in South Carolina. However, after seven years he asked to be moved back to principal of the high school so that he could get it “straightened out.” He retired in 1984, but was elected to the county school board in 1992.

Judge Robert Carter
U.S. District Judge Robert Carter was born in Florida in 1917. He received his bachelor’s degree from Lincoln University in 1937 and law degrees from Howard and Columbia universities in 1940 and 1942 respectively. Although, Mr. Carter started college with the intent of pursuing political science, he was recruited and offered a scholarship to Howard University Law School. While at Howard he was mentored by famed attorney Charles Hamilton Houston and befriended by classmate Thurgood Marshall. After receiving his law degrees he served in the Air Force during World War II.
He was hired by Thurgood Marshall to assist the legal team of the NAACP. During his early years with the organization he visited with Esther Brown the Kansas women who initiated the Webb case in 1949. She was an active member of the NAACP. He praised her for the work she did in keeping her local chapter going. Robert Carter was assigned to assist the Topeka NAACP attorneys with the development of their case against the local school board regarding ending the practice of segregating elementary school children. He worked along side Topekans Charles Bledsoe, Charles Scott, John Scott, McKinley Burnett and Lucinda Todd.
During the Brown case, Carter traveled to Topeka on several occasions. His role was to assist with development and agreement of the Topeka case. As a result he appeared in Federal District Court under presiding judge and former Kansas Governor Walter Huxman.
Mr. Carter’s career as an attorney has placed him firmly in the history books as part of the legal team in Brown v. the Board of Education. He was appointed to the bench for the Southern District of New York in 1972. He is the father of two sons. One is a lawyer working for the New York District Attorney’s Office and the other is in finance. Judge Carter remains on the U.S. District Bench.

Geraldine Crumpler
Geraldine Crumpler was born in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1941, the second of six children. Her parents were from North Carolina, but moved to Wilmington when her father got a job with Wurtz Steel. She attended grades 1st through 6th in a one room schoolhouse. For grades seven through 12, she went to school in Claymont. Mrs. Crumpler’s family did not talk about the desegregation cases, and the problems in Arkansas were the only desegregation issue she remembered. She did not know that her father was one of the petitioners in the case so that she could attend school at Claymont. Mrs. Crumpler had to take a city bus to attend school at Claymont.
She had not had much contact with whites prior to this. But she did not give it much thought; as she puts it, “You didn’t see the color, you just went to school.” At first, during the 7th grade, there was some name calling, but by the end of the year it had stopped; white students were partnered up with black students, so they got to know each other better. U.S. District Judge Robert Carter was appointed to the bench for the Southern District of New York in 1972.

Deborah Dandridge
Born in Topeka, Kansas on November 9, 1946, Deborah L. Dandridge attended Washington Elementary School, one of the city’s schools designated for African Americans before the 1954 Supreme Court decision. The school continued to maintain a predominantly African American faculty and student population until it’s closing in the 1960’s. She was a student at Washington School from kindergarten (1951) through the sixth grade (1957).
Her mother, Mildred Brown Dandridge, who was also born and raised in Topeka, owned and operated Dawn’s Beauty Shop from 1937 until the late 1940’s. When her mother died in January of 1951, her father, Milburn Dandridge, hired friends and relatives to take care of her during the day while he worked at the Santa Fe Shops as a boilermaker. With her father’s marriage to Jeanette Temple, she enjoyed the advantages for having two parents; she graduated from Topeka Junior High School and Topeka High School.
After having earned a B.A. degree in history from Washburn University, she pursued graduate studies at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In the fall of 1968, she began attending graduate school in Georgia at Atlanta University where she received an M.A. in history in 1970. After serving as a full-time instructor in history at Washburn University, she entered the Ph.D. program in history at the University of Kansas, passed the comprehensive exams, and became a Ph.D. candidate. She later began a career in archives and has served as the field archivist for documenting the African American experience in the Kansas Collection in the Spencer Research Library at the University of Kansas since 1986.
Deborah is a member of the Episcopal Church and the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. She still resides in Topeka.

Jeanette Dandridge
Jeanette Ruth Dandridge is the second child of Mr. John and Mrs. Pearl Temple and the sister of James, Alberta, and Frederick. Born on February 27, 1912, she is a native Topekan who attended Monroe School, graduated from Topeka High School, and earned a B.A. degree from Washburn University in 1933. After acquiring several years of teaching experience at Kansas Technical Institute, an African American vocational school located outside the city limits of Topeka, she joined the faculty of Monroe School and taught fourth-grade classes.
More interested in teaching on a college level, Mrs. Dandridge earned an M.A. degree from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois in 1942. From the 1940’s until the summer of 1953, she served on the faculties of African American colleges, including Langston University in Oklahoma, Barber Scotia College in North Carolina and Morgan State College in Maryland. During this period, she also toured the South as a concert performer in literary interpretation.
On December 28, 1952, she married Milburn Dandridge, a widower and Topeka native who had been raising his six-year-old child, Deborah Dandridge, by himself. From 1959 until her retirement in 1976, she served as an instructor in the Speech Department at Washburn University. Jeanette was a member of the Episcopal Church and the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. Mrs. Dandridge passed away on April 22, 2001, in Topeka.

Maurita Davis
Maurita (Burnett) Davis was born October 8, 1923, at home at 1522 Quincy Street, Topeka, Kansas. Her mother, Nina Jones Burnett, was born and raised in the little town of Perry, Kansas. McKinley Burnett, her father, hailed from Oskaloosa, a neighboring community to Perry. Her maternal grandparents also had Kansas roots in Bonner Springs. Her paternal grandparents were from the state of Tennessee. Maurita was one of five children. Once the Burnett children reached school age they had only to travel next door to the segregated Monroe Elementary School. As a consequence they attended grades 1-8 at Monroe. Junior high schools in Topeka were integrated for 9th grade. Topeka High School was the only facility at that level, and except for extracurricular activities, was fully integrated.
Maurita’s father, McKinley Burnett, garnered his interest in civil rights during military service in WWII. He insisted on being treated fairly and was quick to protest the treatment of his fellow African American soldiers. His commitment was further fueled by segregation at home in Topeka. In 1948 Burnett was selected to head the Topeka Branch of the NAACP. From that vantage point he started down a road leading to the end of legal racial segregation. In 1948 Maurita watched her father’s crusade on behalf of the Topeka NAACP.
For a period of two years he attempted to persuade the Topeka Board of Education to integrate their elementary schools. Undaunted by the board’s refusal, he decided to organize a legal challenge under the auspices of the NAACP. He worked tirelessly to find plaintiffs. Fortunately, chapter secretary Lucinda Todd as well as legal counsel Charles Scott, John Scott, and Charles Bledsoe, aided him. The resulting case became known as Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka.
Maurita’s late husband, James Parker Davis, served in the Kansas Legislature from 1959 to 1973. He represented Kansas City, Kansas, in Wyandotte County. Mrs. Davis still resides in Kansas City.

Joseph “Joe” Douglas
Mr. Joseph “Joe” Douglas was born on June 9, 1928, in Topeka, Kansas, to Imogene and Joseph Douglas. Mr. Douglas attended Monroe Elementary School from 1933 to 1939. He was a member of the only class from the African American elementary schools that attended junior high for only the eighth and ninth grades because of a rule change that went into effect that put all the grade schools, African American and white, on the same system of K-6.
Topeka Junior High was not the first time Mr. Douglas was exposed to an integrated situation. He lived in an integrated neighborhood, where African American, white, and Hispanic kids played together and ate at one another’s house. However, it was the first time he encountered an integrated education system. He strongly felt the lack of eye contact between him, and the other African American students, and the white teachers. It was during this time that Mr. Douglas started to feel left out of the educational system because it did not relate to him anymore. This feeling, along with the feeling of simply being treated unfairly by the teachers in relation to grading, continued at Topeka High School. Eventually this, along with a few other incidents, led him to leave high school in 1946, his senior year, and join the military.
Mr. Douglas did not pay a great deal of attention to the Brown case, but he was aware of who was involved with it (like the Scotts). There was a feeling that the case would not be successful, so therefore he did not follow it; he was unaware that similar cases had been filed in other states. At the time that the case was filed, he had been with the Fire Department for four years. He worked for the Topeka Fire Department for just over 39 years; he served as the first African American city fire chief from 1983 to 1989. He also served on the school board for eight years.

Claude Emerson
Claude Arthur Emerson was born July 11, 1942. His only living sibling, a brother named George, Jr., was born in 1945, also in Topeka. The family was deeply rooted in the city since his mother Marguerite (Harrison) Emerson was born in Topeka in 1919. His father George, Sr., was born in Columbia, Missouri. The Emerson family found themselves involved in a class action suit to bring about integration in Topeka’s elementary schools. Mrs. Emerson was among the parents recruited by NAACP secretary Lucinda Todd. This group would comprise the roster of plaintiffs once their case was filed. The Emersons were friends with Oliver Brown for whom their case would eventually be named. The family lived next door to Brown’s brother.
During the NAACP’s work to organize a legal challenge, Claude and George Emerson attended segregated Buchanan Elementary School. Had it not been for segregation, the boys would have attended Lowman Hill, an elementary school closer to their home. In spite of the public stance taken by Mrs. Emerson on behalf of her children, Claude’s world did not change. The family lived in an integrated neighborhood. Children of all races spent their free time playing together. However, because of school segregation policies they could not attend the same school. By the time the U.S. Supreme Court rendered a decision in the Brown case, Claude was in junior high school. Secondary schools were already integrated.
Florence Nicholson, Claude’s wife, was born in Sabetha, Kansas, in 1953. The couple, who were married in Topeka in 1974, has seven children. Claude Emerson along with his wife and children still resides in Topeka.

Annie Gibson
Annie Gibson was born in 1910 or 1911 in the small farming community of Summerton, South Carolina. The town sits in the midst of Clarendon County, which became famous during the case of Briggs v. Elliot. This case was filed in an attempt to integrate public schools in Clarendon County. Like most families of Annie Gibson’s time, farming provided both food and money for her family. Unlike many other farm families, her father was a teacher. Her mother ran a local diner.
Annie and her three sisters all attended the segregated schools of Summerton. The community operated two elementary schools for African American children, St. Paul and Spring Hill. Scotts Branch was their segregated high school. At the time Annie Gibson attended school, high school ended with 10th grade. Although she wanted to become a teacher, she never pursued a college education.
Annie married a local man in 1935. They began living on the farm her husband had lived on since he was born. His family had been tenant farmers. Unfortunately, once Annie agreed to participate in the movement to integrate the county’s public schools, her family
was evicted from the land. Mrs. Gibson never wavered and remained committed to the goal of better education for their children. This public stand resulted in the family having to rent a smaller farm that faltered because white business owners refused to extend credit to Mr. Gibson. Annie herself was fired from her job as a maid at a local motel. The pressure applied throughout the community made it impossible for the Gibson’s to find work.
Annie Gibson supported Rev. J. A. DeLaine in his mission to improve the plight of African American people. Her determination to participate in the case of Briggs v. Elliot was firmly in place. She wanted her children to have classrooms with desks and up-to-date educational resources. She wanted a bus for other African American children who walked great distances to school. Staying the course along with numerous fellow plaintiffs ultimately paid off. Their case became part of the U.S. Supreme Court decision to end segregated schools. Mrs. Gibson still resides in Clarendon County, South Carolina.

Barbara Gibson
Barbara (Caldwell) Gibson was born in Topeka, Kansas, on December 21, 1995. Her parents are Margerite Mallory and Hiram O’Neal (Neal) Caldwell. Mrs. Caldwell was born in Topeka, while her husband Hiram was born in Atlanta, Georgia. Her family attended church at St. Johns’ AME. She met her late husband, William Gibson, in Washington, D.C.; they were married on November 28, 1958, in Washington. Mr. Gibson was born in Toledo, Ohio.
Mrs. Gibson attended Monroe Elementary School and Crane Junior High; she also went to Topeka High School. During school, she wrote for the school paper. After a semester at Washburn, she transferred to Howard University where she majored in math and German.
One of Mrs. Gibson’s favorite hobbies is tennis, although she just watches it now instead of actually playing. She also enjoys reading and bowling. Her first job after leaving Howard University was helping with the 1950 Census. Later she worked in statistics for the Department of the Army. She was really excited when she was asked to work at the David Taylor Model Basin in the new Applied Mathematics Laboratory.

George Goebel
Mr. George Goebel grew up in Western Kansas. From 1934 to 1936 he attended Kansas State Teacher’s College of Emporia (now Emporia State University), but due to difficulties caused by the Depression, he returned to where he grew up to teach. He taught in both Jetmore and Hanston, Kansas. After serving in the military during the war, Mr. Goebel finished his teaching degree at Kansas State Teacher’s College and moved to Topeka, with his wife, to teach the 5th grade.
In 1951 he took the job as principal at Quinton Heights and taught both the 5th and the 6th grade for part of the day. Mr. Goebel recalls seeing African American student going past his school on their way to Monroe. Mr. Goebel recalls that the first African American teacher hired to teach at Quinton Heights was very uncomfortable there. He tried to draw her out, include her in things, and spoke with her during evaluations about what he could do to make it easier for her, but she was just not comfortable with the situation. Other African American teachers seemed to have an easier time of fitting in at Quinton.
The antagonistic attitudes of some of the students seemed to be influenced by their parents, but mostly things went relatively smoothly, after a period of adjustment, given that everyone lived in the same general area. He is very proud of all of his students; he recalls two who went on to become prominent dentists in the area, and the successes of Sharon Woodson and Wanda Scott.

Jack Greenberg
Jack Greenberg was born into a family that placed high value on education. He spent his childhood in a Bronx, New York, neighborhood of Irish and Jewish families. Jack attended PS 56 Elementary School and graduated from DeWitt Clinton High. His parents inculcated him with an abiding concern for others. At an early age Jack was involved in efforts to help those less fortunate. Bertha Rosenberg, his mother, came to America from Romania. His father was born in Poland. Both Jack and his brother Daniel were influenced by their parents’ belief that education and caring about the work you choose were fundamental elements of a successful life.
Jack went on to study Chinese culture at Columbia University, became a civil rights lawyer in 1949, and pursued his interest in international human rights in the 1960s. He was one of the founders of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund and attempted to set up a similar organization for Native Americans. He also created the first private national poverty law program (National Office for the Rights of the Indigent). His brother Daniel became the first journalist to specialize in the politics of science. Jack served in the military during World War II. The Navy sent him to Cornell University as part of officer training. While at Cornell, he developed an interest in the law. He spent his tour of duty as a naval officer.
Jack Greenberg began his career with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in 1949 at the age of 24. During his tenure there, he litigated numerous school cases, voting rights cases, and won the legal right for Martin Luther King, Jr., to lead a march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. He was part of the legal team in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education.
From 1961-1984 Jack served as the NAACP Legal Defense Fund director-counsel; he succeeded Thurgood Marshall. From 1989 to 1993 he served as dean of Columbia College and is currently a professor with Columbia Law School.

L. L. Hall
Mr. L. L. Hall was born in Ahoskie, North Carolina; when he was six years old, his family finally settled in Portsmouth, Virginia. His father worked in the Norfolk navy yard during World War II.
Mr. Hall finished his elementary education in Portsmouth and attended Longwood Industrial School (now St. Paul College) before going to New York University for a year. He started his career in physical education, but decided he did not want to coach. In 1946 he received a bachelors degree in education from Virginia State University in Petersburg. During his career in Farmville, he was a coach, a teacher, and a principal. One of Mr. Hall’s responsibilities as principal was the mapping of the school bus routes for the county. He was a principal from 1943 to July 1, 1959, when the schools were closed down.
In Farmville, the county school board, except for the private white academy, controlled the schools. Although the schools were segregated, there was only the one school board and one superintendent. The African American schools had to supply their own equipment and textbooks, although they usually got "hand-me-downs” from the white schools whenever they would get new equipment and books.

Chris Hansen
Chris Hansen was born on October 18, 1947, in Chicago, Illinois. His father was a financial analyst and his mother was a homemaker. The family included Chris and his two sisters. In 1969 he received a bachelor’s degree from Carlton College and pursued a childhood dream of becoming an attorney. By 1972 he received his law degree from the University of Chicago. Chris began his career working as an attorney for the Legal Aid Society of New York City.
He was responsible for criminal defense cases. In 1973, after one year with Legal Aid, he joined the staff of the American Civil Liberties Union. His primary assignment was mental health litigation. In 1984 he was assigned to the reopened case of Brown v. the Board of Education, which was focusing on whether or not Topeka Public Schools had, in fact, ever complied with the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision.
When Chris Hansen joined the local legal team working on this case, he replaced fellow ACLU attorney Richard Larsen. The substitution was made because Larsen’s caseload limited the time he could devote to the Topeka litigation. After two years of preparation the case was heard in Federal District Court, in October of 1986. Four years later in October of 1992, the Federal Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the petitioners, stating that Topeka Public Schools did in fact have facilities that were racially identifiable and as a result the school board must develop a plan for remedy. The school district complied by constructing magnet schools and has since been granted unitary status. During the court proceeding, Chris lived in Topeka for one month. He is still with the ACLU and resides in New York.

Cheryl Brown Henderson
Cheryl Brown was born December 20, 1950, in Topeka, Kansas. The family included two other girls: Linda, born in 1942, and Terry, born in 1947. Her mother Leola was born in Marvel, Arkansas, and moved to Topeka when she was two years old. Her father Oliver was a Topeka native. In 1950 the Brown family found themselves involved in a class action suit to bring about integration in Topeka’s elementary schools. Mr. Brown was among the parents recruited by NAACP attorney Charles Scott. This group would comprise the roster of plaintiffs once their case was filed.
In 1953 Oliver Brown became the pastor of St. Mark’s AME Church, and the family moved to another integrated neighborhood, this one in North Topeka. One year later the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the NAACP case named for Oliver Brown. In the fall of 1955 Cheryl began school in the newly integrated elementary system of Topeka; she attended Grant Elementary. In 1959 Rev. Oliver Brown was assigned to Benton Ave AME Church in Springfield, Missouri, where Cheryl attended Boyd Elementary School. Her father died in June of 1961 and Mrs. Brown moved the family back to Topeka.
In 1961 Cheryl attended 6th grade at Sumner Elementary School. She graduated from Roosevelt Junior High in 1965, attended Topeka High School her sophomore year, and graduated from Highland Park in 1968. Cheryl received a B.A. degree in education from Baker University in 1972 and an M.S. in Counseling from Emporia Kansas State College (now Emporia State University) in 1976. She married Larry Henderson on August 5, 1972.
After serving as a classroom teacher and a guidance counselor, she joined the administrative staff of the Kansas State Department of Education. In 1988 she, along with a co-worker, established the Brown Foundation for Educational Equity, Excellence, and Research. In 1990 she successfully worked with Congress and the Department of Interior to establish the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site. She serves on various national, state, and local boards and is a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. Cheryl still resides in Topeka, along with her husband, son, her mother, and sisters.

Zelma Henderson
Zelma Henderson is listed among the thirteen parent plaintiffs in the Brown decision. As a case petitioner she is noted as Mrs. Andrew Henderson. Zelma was born in Colby, Kansas, a small town 60 miles from the Colorado border. Her date of birth is February 29, 1920. Her parents were also born in small Kansas towns. Her father Thomas Hurst started life in Ozawkie, and her mother Bansy Belle Hurst in Oskaloosa, both communities are located just north of Topeka. Her parents married and moved to Kansas City where the first three of their five children were born. Her father left his job at a Kansas City packinghouse to move his family to Oakley, Kansas, near Colby. His plan was to homestead and farm. Two more children were born including Zelma.
The Hurst children attended integrated rural schools through high school. For most of that time they were the only African American family in the county. When Zelma Hurst graduated from Oakley High School in 1940, she moved to Topeka to find work and attend the Kansas Vocational School at Topeka, a segregated training school for African Americans. Not many years after arriving in Topeka she married Andrew Henderson and completed cosmetology training. She quickly became an entrepreneur opening a beauty salon in her home. Her aspirations were fueled by the discrimination present in the Topeka job market. Zelma had been an AA” student with excellent typing skills, but when she applied for clerical work she was always, turned down and offered domestic work instead.
Now as Mrs. Andrew Henderson, she continued to be active in her church, St. John AME, other and civic endeavors. Two years after their 1943 marriage, the Hendersons started a family with the birth of daughter Vicky, followed later by son Donald. Having grown up in a small community where schools were integrated Mrs. Henderson was not keen on the idea of her children being forced to attend a certain school based solely on race. She and her husband, who worked at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., provided a good life for their family. It did not take her long to agree to become a plaintiff in the NAACP case to challenge segregated schools. She was asked to join the effort by the Charles and John Scott. In addition, the NAACP President, McKinley Burnett, had been a long time family friend. Mrs. Henderson shared the growing concern about the African American schools not always receiving up to date textbooks; she also did not want her children being separated from other children.
Zelma Henderson and her son Donald still live in Topeka. Her husband Andrew and daughter Vicky are both deceased.

Barbara Henry
Barbara Henry was born in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1947. Her mother came to Delaware from Florida to attend college, and her father also came from there in search of his brother and work after an incident on his job in Florida. Her family lived in the Hickman Road housing development that was built to house the African American workers at Worth Steel.
Ms. Henry attended State Line Grade School. She has very fond memories of Mrs. Dyson and the overall atmosphere there. It was in sixth grade that she first went to Claymont High. Ms. Henry did not feel that the transition from a one-room school to Claymont was difficult because of the sense of love and security that was provided by Mrs. Dyson and her parents. She felt that the African American boys had a harder time with the teachers, and others at school, than the girls did. There were no African American teachers while she was at Claymont.
Ms. Henry recalls being discouraged from taking college-prep classes and directed towards business courses so she could work in secretarial positions. She went to Delaware State College (Now Delaware State University), which was an African American college, but she really wanted to go to the University of Delaware. What Ms. Henry really wanted was to be a teacher, but at the time she did not realize that UD was integrated.

Rev. E. B. Hicks
Reverend Elder Barney (E. B.) Hicks was born to Daniel Henry and Carrie Smith Hick on July 11, 1907, in Wichita, Kansas, the youngest of five children. After his mother’s death, when he was three, he moved to Topeka with his sister, one brother, his aunt, and his maternal grandmother, although he was primarily raised by his aunt and uncle. They lived in an integrated neighborhood.
Rev. Hicks attended McKinley Grade School, Quincy Junior High, and Topeka High. He recalls wondering why he had to walk past other schools that were four or five blocks away to get to McKinley, which was twelve blocks from his house. After two years at Topeka High, Rev. Hicks dropped out to help support the family after his uncle came down with rheumatism. However, he was able to continue his education later, through night school, and ended up receiving four degrees.
Rev. Hicks severed as a First Lieutenant in the army Chaplain Corps during World War II. He served at several different posts throughout the United States during the war. His involvement in the Brown case was through the alliance of African American pastors from the Interdenominational Ministries; his actual involvement came about because somehow his name came to be in a newspaper ad against the Board of Education.
Rev. Hick married his first wife, Effie Mae, in 1927. She passed away in 1960. He remarried on October 10, 1961, in Grahm County, Kansas. His second wife was Roena Sayers. Rev. Hicks had four children: three sons and a daughter. Rev. Hicks passed away in August of 1992.

Charles Hill
Mr. Charles Hill was born in July of 1937 in Wilmington, Delaware. Before working as the community and school nurse in Claymont, his mother was the private duty nurse for the duPont family. His father worked in the wholesale food business. When Mr. Hill started at Claymont School, it contained grades K-12, with two classes for each grade. The school had tremendous community support and involvement. It served as a focal point in the community; Claymont was unincorporated so there was no town hall or other place to gather.
He was unaware that some African American students tried to enroll at Claymont in 1951; he does not recall there being anything in the paper about it. When school started in the fall of 1952, the students were told that African American students would be attending school at Hickman Road. Mr. Hill felt that the students just accepted this; the incidents of name calling, and the like, seemed to be under circumstances that mostly any kid would do so on any day. During the elementary grades they would go to the State Line School and students there would go to Claymont on occasion, so they had been around each other before. Mr. Hill felt that it was Mr. Stall’s reputation and the "Red Hummer” (his paddle) that kept things from getting out of hand with those students who would have been more active and vocal in their dislike of attending school with the African American students. It was later that they learned that Mr. Stall, the school superintendent, had allowed this despite the State Board of Education ordering him not to.
Mr. Hill had not thought much about Claymont’s role in the Brown case until years later when an article appeared in Life Magazine, when he and a student he helped through nursing school talked about it some (he started a scholarship at Claymont in his mother’s name) and when Claymont was closed between1990 and 1991. Over the years, he slowly began to realize that something more significant had happened there than anyone thought at that time.

Oliver Hill
Oliver Hill was born May 1, 1907, in Richmond, Virginia. During his childhood the family lived in Roanoke, where Oliver attended elementary school. By the time he reached age twelve, formal education for African Americans had been extended beyond 7th grade. He was among the first group to attend the newly established 8th & 9th grade classes. His mother, and by then stepfather, moved the family to Washington, D.C. It was there that Oliver Hill completed high school.
According to Hill, the turning point in his life came by way of an uncle who died and left him an annotated copy of the U.S. Constitution. It was the receipt of this document that resulted in his interest in the law, and he decided to become a lawyer. While he was working on an undergraduate degree at Howard University, the school itself was undergoing a major change. University President Dr. Mordicia Johnson was determined to make Howard’s fledgling law school into a first class program. He began by hiring the scholarly and ambitious Charles Hamilton Houston, a recent Harvard Law School graduate. Houston was to be both the dean of the Law School and one of its prominent professors. When Oliver Hill applied to Howard’s Law School, it was fast becoming, for African Americans, the best in the nation. He and Thurgood Marshall were classmates. After graduation he passed the Virginia Bar exam. However, several years passed before he began practicing law in Virginia.
After serving in the Army during World War II, he returned to Richmond and immediately became involved in cases to equalize teachers’ salaries. In addition, the firm Hill was now employed by had taken on a school integration case in Montgomery County. It was during this time that he received a call from sixteen-year-old Barbara Johns explaining that students in Farmville, Virginia, were staging a strike for better schools; they needed his help. Oliver Hill was persuaded to assist the striking students. His actions ultimately led to the case of Davis v. Prince Edward County School Board. Oliver Hill still resides in Richmond, Virginia.

Christina Jackson
Christina Jackson was born on August 15, 1926 in Topeka, Kansas. Her parents were Georgia and Jess Edwards. She only attended school through the 11th grade, having dropped out to get married, but received various kinds of training through her positions as a volunteer coordinator and a receptionist for the Kansas Department of Motor Vehicles. Over the years she has been involved in numerous community activities and programs. She and her husband Enoch have eight children.
Mrs. Jackson attended Washington Grade School, East Topeka Junior High, and Topeka High School. The thing that stands out the most in her mind about Washington was the music; every morning, at a certain time, principal Ridley would lead the whole school in singing "Lift Every Voice and Sing.” The school also had a Health Room where some students were served breakfast. Ms. Jackson also recalls the fact that the teachers there were very strict; students did not get away with talking back to the teachers. Even her children, who attended Monroe School and were then transferred to State Street School, recalled being surprised by students being allowed to talk back to the teachers. She also remembers the stressing of African American History at Washington, and the other African American schools, by Mr. Ridley.
The Brown case impacted Mrs. Jackson’s children. They started out attending Monroe School, but after the case, they were transferred to State Street School. She recalls that the faculty at the school really tried to integrate the students; they were generally accepted, and the students were told how to behave towards one another. Not having to bundle up her kids and walk them down to the bus in the freezing cold was the best thing that resulted from the case as far as she was concerned; the white schools were not. Children felt that they were treated better at State Street than they were later on at Holliday Junior High. This was not necessarily better to her, but it was closer to where she lived. She partly attributed this to the fact that the kids at State Street knew her children from the neighborhood. It was at Holliday that Mrs. Jackson’s children ran into problems with instances of name-calling and such.

Eugene Johnson
Mr. Eugene Johnson was born on October 15, 1920, in Little Rock, Arkansas. He moved to Topeka with his aunt and great-aunt when he was just three-years-old. At that time his mother, Theota Lee Johnson, was attending the normal school in Topeka. Mr. Johnson married Charline Hoard on September 22, 1952, in Lawrence, Kansas.
Mr. Johnson attended Monroe Grade School, Crane Junior High, and Topeka High School. In 1925 he started attending Monroe. At that time it was the old two-story building. It was in 1926 that the Monroe School that people are more familiar with was built. To help prepare the students for the integrated setting at Crane Junior High, special teachers were brought in once a month to help with penmanship, music, and drawing.
The hardest thing to adjust to at Crane for Mr. Johnson was the fact that students had a homeroom, but other than that, students went from classroom to classroom. The athletic teams were integrated, unlike at the high school level. Topeka High was a lot larger than the students coming from Monroe had imagined. There were no African American teachers at Topeka High at this time. While the school choir was integrated, the sports teams were not, except for tack. However, the intramural teams were integrated, so that is how many of the African American students got to play football against some of the white students.
The Booker T. Washington Club there was a type of Asocial club” for the male African American students at Topeka High. There were separate dances (prom, etc.) for the white and African American students. Mr. Johnson remained active in the Boy Scouts during high school; the scouts gave out baskets during the Depression. The Gay Knights was a group of African American guys who hung out together. The group was made up of Mr. Johnson, Charles Scott, and some guys from Tennessee Town, as well as a few guys from other parts of Topeka. This was the "in” group; they had parties and even had a sister club, the Stella Puellas. The Bachelor Boys were a group of older guys who formed around the same time as the Gay Knights. Other clubs included the Owl Club and the Pleasure Mirrors.
In 1938, he dropped out of high school after his junior year to go through the conservation course before enlisting in the army. When he returned to Topeka, after leaving the army in 1945, he passed the equivalency test for high school and started working at his aunt’s restaurant, Jean’s Sandwich Shop. In 1947 he started working as a reliever at the Motive Power Building at Santa Fe. He joined the Army Reserves and reenlisted in September of 1950, but was discharged in August of 1951.
The "Back Home Reunion” was co-founded by Eugene Johnson, along with Charles Scott and Carl Williams. It’s an attempt to reunite former classmates from the four African American grade schools. They started out meeting every two years, but moved it back to every three years to make it easier to organize and for people to come.

Lois Johnson
Lois Johnson was born in Hockessin, Delaware, in 1940, the third of eight children. She was born in the house next door to the one where she currently lives. At the age of six she started attending school at Hockessin School 107; the school was about two blocks away from her home. She has very fond memories of the school and its teachers. The children usually went home for lunch, and there was a nice playground, even though there was not a lot of equipment for the children to play on. Ms. Johnson was aware of the Bulah v. Gebhart case, but did not pay much attention to it at first. However, she did know Shirley Barbara from school and church.
Ms. Johnson started attending Howard High School in 1954 or 1955, after it had been integrated. Her mother prepared her for this by telling her about the case and what had happened to some of the children who went there. She was reluctant to go; she did not grasp what integration was since she played with white, African American, and Latino children. However, the white children she played with at home did treat her differently at school. The principal, who was also one of Ms. Johnson’s teachers, read a note in class from the mother of one of the white children saying she did not want her child going to school with African American children. This really hurt her because she played with this woman’s child and did not realize that she felt this way.
Katherine A. King
Katherine A. King was born in Topeka, Kansas, the oldest of a family that included one brother and four sisters. Her mother Bessie Hicks King was born in Tonganoxie, Kansas, one of twenty-six children. She died on March 10, 1966, and is buried at Mt. Hope Cemetery along with her husband who died on November 3, 1957. Her father, Richard Leonard King, was born in the farming community of Neely, Kansas; the town is now defunct.
Katherine began her formal education at Clay School. This was an all white school, except for her family. In sixth grade she was transferred to Buchanan Elementary, a segregated school for African American children. She graduated from Topeka High School and received her B.A. Degree from Washburn University, a master’s from the University of Kansas, and engaged in postgraduate study at Emporia State and Colorado State Universities.
Ms. King began her teaching career in a one-room school in Hugoton, Kansas, where she was responsible for all elementary grades. She distinguished herself while teaching in Topeka by serving as a building representative, on teacher salary committees, textbook committees, and in extra curricular leadership with the Girl Scouts and Audubon Society. When she retired, she had been a teacher for 44 years. Katherine King still resides in Topeka.

John Land III
Mr. John Land III was born in Manning, South Carolina, in 1942. He has been practicing law in Manning since March of 1968, and since 1976 he has been serving in the state Senate continuously. His district is 65% African American and 35% white.
During the time that Mr. Land was going to school, the schools were fully segregated. He attended Manning High School while African American students went to Manning Training School. He was away at college during the period of the Briggs case and, later on, the Brown case. However, he does remember the controversies that presided the Briggs case, due in part to the fact that his father’s service station had a large African American clientele. Both his father and his uncle continued to extend credit to their African American clients during the period leading to and including the Briggs case, even though their white counterparts had not done so.

Rev. Maurice Lang, III
Rev. Maurice Lang, III, a native of Topeka, was born on June 29, 1928. His mother, Ruth Sterling was born in 1914; she passed away in 1945 and is buried in Topeka. Maurice Lang, his father, was born in Topeka. He died in 1945, and is also buried in Topeka. There were four other children in the family besides Maurice, III.
Although his family lived in integrated neighborhoods, he attended segregated schools for white children. As a child Maurice was a student at Sumner and later Grant Elementary Schools. It was not until he enrolled at Topeka High that he experienced integrated schooling. After high school he attended Bible College in Los Angeles, California. He returned to Kansas and married a local girl \by the name of Opal. His new family grew to include four children.
He began his career with an unsuccessful attempt to organize an African American branch of the Four Square Gospel Church. He eventually became good friends with fellow Minister Rev. Oliver Brown and his family. In the late 1950’s he served as Assistant Pastor of St. Mark’s AME Church, working along side Rev. Brown. In 1959 the AME Church reassigned both men. Rev. Lang became the first white pastor of an AME congregation in Manhattan, Kansas. Rev. Brown was assigned to Benton Avenue AME Church in Springfield, Missouri.
In 1961 Rev. Brown brought his family to Topeka to visit relatives. Because church business required him to return to Missouri, he asked Rev. Lang to accompany him on the trip. After several days while in route to pick up his family in Topeka, Rev. Brown became gravely ill resulting in his death. It was his friend Maurice who was with him in his final hours at St. Francis Hospital. Maurice Lang has encountered two historic figures in his life. In the 1950s he met and talked with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and became very close friends with Rev. Oliver Brown. Rev. Maurice Lang still resides in Topeka.

Henry Lawson
Mr. Henry Lawson was born on August 31, 1929, in Crawford County, South Carolina. He has lived in that area for all of his life. His father was a sharecropper of sorts. The school term was only seven months long and centered around the agricultural crops. Mr. Lawson helped his father in the field after school, and along with his mother and other siblings, during harvest time. When he started school, he attended Scotch Branch School. That was not the original name of the school, but the name given to the new school that was built after the other one burned down when Mr. Lawson was in the second grade. The new school was a wood building without insulation and electricity until Mr. Lawson was in the 5th grade. For 1st grade through 6th, there was one room per grade; for grades 7th through 10th (high school went up to the 10th grade) the classes were combined two grades per room.
Mr. McCord was the county superintendent over the African American and white schools at this time. The students had desks and textbooks that were "hand-me-downs” from white schools. The school did not provide some textbooks, and the students had to provide their own pencils and paper, which meant that some had to borrow from others since this was during the Depression. They had a dirt basketball court; there was no gym.
Mr. Lawson was aware of the Briggs case. He was invited to attend a meeting that was called for by the students at Scotch Branch. They had gone to the principal over their concerns about the textbooks and other things in the school. They were told if they did not leave his office, their transcripts, and therefore their ability to graduate, would be affected. It was a result of this that the parents bought a school bus and asked the school district to help keep the bus up and running. It was sometime after the district’s refusal to help fund the school bus that the NAACP became involved and filed the suit.

Clara Ligon
Clara Ligon was born in Prospect, Virginia, and spent part of her childhood in Sorrow, Pennsylvania. Her parents separated resulting in a move back to Virginia for Clara and her mother. They settled in Prince Edward County just outside of Farmville.
Her mother sent Clara to live with her aunt in Bedford, Virginia, so she would not have to attend the rural one-room school in the county. After finishing the eighth grade she returned and joined the student body of Morton High School, the only segregated secondary school in the area.
Her high school years were uneventful because she lived 22 miles from town; it was difficult to participate in extra curricular activities. During her freshman and sophomore years she walked to school. Finally through the efforts of the African American community leaders a school bus made available and Clara’s trip to school became easier. Clara graduated in 1947 before the infamous student strike, which led to the school integration case of Davis vs. Prince Edward County.

Dr. Ernest Manheim
Dr. Ernest Manheim was born in Hungary to a Hungarian father and an Austrian mother on January 27, 1900. Hermine Wengraf, his mother died in 1950 and is buried in Budapest. His father, Joseph Manheim was born in Zenta (formerly part of Hungary). Mr. Manheim died in 1925 and is also buried in Budapest. Dr. Manheim had a sister, Marguarie, who passed away in 1968. His wife, Sheelagh, was born in British Columbia, Canada, on November 14, 1943. The couple was married in Kansas City, Kansas, and has two daughters.
Dr. Manheim studied sociology in Hungary, Austria, Germany, and in London, England. He moved to the United States in 1937 to study at the University of Chicago. His interest in sociology stems from his feeling that the Austrian monarchy was natural and divine and had always existed, so that when it was dissolved, he wanted to find out more about its background which history did not explain. Dr. Manheim first experience with class distance between African Americans and whites was in 1937 when he invited members of a synagogue near Chicago to his house, and only the white members showed up. The African American graduate students told him that they knew that his invitation did not really include them.
Dr. Manheim moved to Kansas City in 1938 because he saw it as having a typical American community that was not too big or too small. The president of Kansas City University (KCU), now the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC), let him have a free hand in choosing what direction his department would take academically with the curriculum. When he started at the university, there were no African American students enrolled. The first African American was admitted to the Law School after applying a second time. Slowly more African American students were admitted without resistance from white students or the faculty. The fact that there were African American students enrolled at KCU was kept out of the papers for three years, so that by the time the news was released, it was already an accepted fact.
Dr. Hugh Speer, then dean of student education at KCU, asked Dr. Manheim to testify on behalf of the Browns. The decision, he felt, was based on what the Supreme Court and lower courts found to be true rather than on his testimony. He also felt that the decision was inevitable because of the changing social and economic situations in the United States. Dr. Manheim continued to teach at KCU and UMKC until 1968. He still considers Kansas City his home even though he has taught elsewhere since then.

Clementine Martin
Mrs. Clementine Martin was born in Newton, Kansas, on September 7, 1910. Her parents were Eva (Bradshaw) and C. James Phelps. Her mother, who died on May 5, 1970, was born near Larned, Kansas; she is buried in Topeka. Her father was born in Columbus, Kansas. He passed away on February 22, 1937, and is buried in Springfield, Missouri. Clementine Martin was the oldest of three children. Her maternal grandmother’s family was homesteaders in Jetmore, Kansas; one of her grandfathers was a justice of the peace in Emporia, Kansas.
Mrs. Martin’s father worked for the Santa Fe and Frisco Railroads as a cook. As a result, she attended grade school in Chilicothe, Illinois, as well as in St. Louis and Springfield, Missouri. She attended high school at Sumner High School in St. Louis, and briefly in Tulsa, Oklahoma, before the family moved back to Springfield, Missouri, where she attended Lincoln High School. It was not until she went into the St. Louis school system that Mrs. Martin attended a segregated school. In Springfield the family lived in an integrated neighborhood, but the children attended segregated schools there as well. Public facilities and businesses were also segregated.
Mrs. Martin went to Washburn University for a year before leaving college to marring Eugene Martin; she met her husband at a party on the campus of the University of Kansas. Mr. Martin was born on October 11, 1911, in Topeka. His father, T. P. Martin was a doctor who shared an office with another doctor on the corner of Fourth Street and Kansas Ave. Mr. Martin was one of a hand-full of nonwhite (mostly African American) policemen that worked for the city of Topeka. The couple was married in Topeka on August 25, 1939. Mr. Martin passed away in November 1949. The couple’s daughter, Eva Louise Blythe of Kansas City, Kansas, was born in January 1950.
Mrs. Martin remembers how things opened up for African Americans after World War II, but it really was not until the mid to early 1950s (after her husband’s death) that things began to open up on a larger scale. Mrs. Martin was unable to join any civil rights organizations early on since her husband worked for the city. The Martins were not directly involved in the Brown case because their daughter had not started attending school at the time the case was filed. Mrs. Martin is a long time member of the Kansas Association of Colored Women. She also belongs to the American Legion Auxiliary.

Connie Menninger
Connie Menninger was born on November 10, 1931, in Newton, Massachusetts, to Marian (Prince) and Henry Libbey. Mrs. Libbey passed away on May 14, 1974, in Delray Beach, Florida. Mr. Libbey died on June 16, 1984, also in Delray Beach; both are buried there. Mrs. Menninger has one brother, John Libbey. She married Dr. William W. Menninger on June 15, 1953, in Palo Alto, California. The couple met while students at Stanford University; they were both working for the student newspaper, The Stanford Daily. The couple has six children.
The couple moved to New York so that Mr. Menninger could attend Cornell University Medical School. While in New York, Mrs. Menninger worked as a TV program analyst for NBC until she became pregnant with the couple’s first child. While at NBC, she covered what the network broadcasted on the U. S. Supreme Court’s Brown decision. She did not return to the workforce until 1976 when her youngest child was in the third grade; she worked as an administrator for St. Francis Hospital’s Robert Wood Johnson grant program. Mrs. Menninger left that position after four years.
The Menningers’ children attended Randolph Elementary School which was predominantly white, as well as Boswell Junior High and Topeka High School, which were more diversified. In 1983 Mrs. Menninger entered the University of Kansas Master’s of Museum Studies graduate program; she received her degree in 1985. She started working for the Kansas State Historical Society in the summer of 1983 as an intern, primarily working with the manuscript collections, and currently handles reference requests concerning the Santa Fe Railway collection.
Mrs. Menninger was elected to the Topeka Board of Education in 1969. She was aware that there were no women or other minorities on the board at that time; the last woman to serve on the board was 12 years prior to that. She ran because she wanted to be more involved with what the schools were doing; she felt that would benefit her six children. She made a point of visiting every school in Topeka; no one had done that for years. Mrs. Menninger also served on the Kansas Committee for the U.S. commission on Civil Rights. The Menningers still resides in Topeka.

Dorothy Lydel Mills
Dorothy Lydel Mills was born on April 15, 1917. She was the daughter of Felicia Davis Lydel of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Charles Lydel of Topeka, Kansas. She had three brothers and one sister. Their names were Lutie; Charles, Jr.; Raymond; and John. Her father’s sister was a lawyer and the first black woman to pass the bar in St. Paul, Minnesota. Mrs. Mills’ father was a barber by trade; he owned a barbershop on Fourth Street in Topeka. In later years he became a policeman. The Lydel family lived on a farm east of Topeka. They were the only black family there, but there were farmers all around. Dorothy was involved in all the chores as she was growing up: milking cows, picking grapes and strawberries, and planting.
The Lydel children attended a little red school called Rice. Dorothy made lifetime friends at this school, even though she was the only African American there. Mrs. Mills attended Highland Park Junior High and then Topeka High School. She remembers going to school with lots of children from the Pierce Addition. In high school she remembers having no organizations for the black kids. Her family still lived in the country and her brother drove them to and from school in a Model T Ford; sometimes she would drive. Their father was very strict. Before they could go to a party, their father would go to the school to check their grades.
After Dorothy finished high school, she went to Kansas City to beauty school. Her father set up a beauty shop for her in the back of his barbershop. She started her business in the middle of the Depression, but business was good. Dorothy’s father and stepmother attended Lane Chapel AME. That is where Dorothy attended church until she started driving her grandfather to St. John AME. Eventually she joined St. John.
Mrs. Mills wanted to leave home when she was grown because her father was hard on them. By this time she was on her own and working in her sister-in-law’s restaurant on Fourth Street. She met Douglas MacIntosh, who was a bellhop at the Kansas Hotel. They were married in the 1930s. Shortly they broke up, and Douglas moved to California. Dorothy eventually went to California and rejoined her husband. She got a job as a carhop and then became a waitress at the Alabama Club in Los Angeles where she became excellent at her job.
Mrs. Mills grew up in the midst of the Depression, but she remembers that the black business district in Topeka was booming. Her father and attorney Elisha Scott were good friends. All the business owners on Fourth Street were nice and everyone had a good time at Max’s Tavern. When Mrs. Mills returns to Topeka for reunions, she says it is like going somewhere strange, until she sees all the familiar faces at the school reunion. Mrs. Mills now resides in Las Vegas, Nevada.

William Mitchell, Jr.
William Mitchell, Jr. was born in Perry, Oklahoma, on June 21, 1913. The family moved to Topeka, Kansas, in 1915. His mother, Vivian (Anderson) Mitchell, was born in Waco, Texas. Mrs. Mitchell died in 1968, and is buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in Topeka. W. A. Mitchell, William’s father, was born in St. Joseph, Missouri. He died on June 2, 1953; he is also buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in Topeka. William Mitchell has five brothers and sisters. His grandfather was a Methodist minister in St. Joseph, Missouri, but he was originally from Oklahoma.
Mr. Mitchell attended Washington and Sumner Elementary Schools; he attended Sumner before it became an all white grade school and he was transferred to Buchanan Elementary School. He attended Crane Junior High and dropped out of high school in the tenth grade; he began selling newspapers on Kansas Avenue. Later he shined shoes in a place that was a shining parlor and a dry cleaner. While working there he learned how to operate a clothing press. At the same time, he waited tables at the Jayhawk and Kansas Hotel on a part-time basis and at the Women’s Club when he could.
Mr. Mitchell enlisted in the army; in 1933 he went to Civilian Conservation Corps Camp at Fort Riley on Camp Funston. He married Lucille Mitchell on March 19, 1937, at Antioch Baptist Church in Topeka. Mrs. Mitchell was born in Wewoka, Oklahoma. She died on October 6, 1983, and is buried at Topeka Cemetery.
Mr. Mitchell belongs to the American Legion, the Elks, and is a Mason, as well as, being a member of the Antioch Baptist Church. In past years his favorite hobby was playing pool. He still lives in Topeka.

Leola (Williams) Brown Montgomery
Leola Williams was born May 7, 1921 in Marvel, Arkansas. Her parents, Carrie and Edward Williams, were sharecroppers. They had moved to Arkansas from the Delta region of Mississippi. In 1923 the family, which included Leola and her older brother Robert, relocated to Topeka, Kansas. Mr. Williams moved the family on the advice of his brother who was living in the city and working for the Santa Fe Railway. Mr. Williams was hired by Santa Fe and the family began a new life.
Leola and her brother attended Monroe Elementary, a segregated school for African American Children, and Lincoln Junior High for 9th grade. She graduated from Topeka High School in 1939, where she was inducted into the National Honor Society and was elected All School Queen by the African American Students. Although junior and senior high schools were integrated extra curricular activities were segregated. August 16, 1939, she married her high school sweetheart, Oliver Leon Brown. Leola was eighteen and Oliver, born August 2, 1918, was twenty-one. Three years later the couple started a family; on February 20, 1942, their first daughter Linda, was born. In 1947 they had a second daughter, Terry, and in 1950 a third daughter, Cheryl.
In the summer of 1950 Oliver Brown agreed to participate in a Topeka NAACP plan to integrate public elementary schools. He joined with twelve other parents who would become plaintiffs in a class action suit against the Topeka Board of Education. Charles Scott, one of the local NAACP attorneys, was a friend of the Brown family and convinced Oliver to participate. In February when the case was filed, it was ironically named for Oliver Brown, principally because he was the only male among the parent plaintiffs. Leola had just given birth in December, to their third child and could not participate. As a result the Topeka NAACP school integration case was called Oliver L. Brown, et. al., v. the Board of Education.
In 1953 Oliver Brown became the pastor of St. Mark’s AME Church. In 1959 the family was moved to Springfield, Missouri, where Brown was the pastor at the Benton Avenue AME Church. Leola remained a homemaker until Oliver’s death from a heart attack in 1961, after which Leola moved her family back to Topeka. She worked part-time for nine years at J.C. Penny Co. and moved onto thirteen years at Merchants National Bank. She remarried in 1973. Her second husband, Thirkield Montgomery, died in 1993. She retired at age sixty-three and still resides in Topeka along with her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.

Judge Constance Motley
Judge Constance Motley was born and raised in New Haven, Connecticut, near Yale University; everyone she knew worked at Yale. She decided to become a lawyer because she knew of only two African American women lawyers, yet there were other female professionals. The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the Gains case in 1938 also influenced her. It made her realize that if you were a lawyer you could do something about discrimination.
Judge Motley was a lawyer for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund team; she worked on one of the four other school segregation cases that were being tried around the same time that the Brown case was being tried in Topeka. She started working as a law clerk for the Legal Defense Fund in October 1945 while a senior at Columbia Law School. She continued working there after she passed the bar. While there she got to argue cases at the court of appeals level as well as in front of the U. S. Supreme Court. She felt that this is experience she would not have gotten working at a law firm.
Judge Motley recalls seeing very few women lawyers during her time at the Legal Defense Fund. She tried cases in 11 southern states and Washington, D.C., but remembers only three women. One was the solicitor for the Labor Department. Outside of government agencies, the Legal Defense Fund, while headed by Thurgood Marshall and Jack Greenberg, had the most cases go before the Supreme Court. Judge Motley argued 10 cases in front of the Court between 1961 and 1964.
After the Brown case, Judge Motley was involved with school cases in Atlanta, Savannah, Brunswick, and Albany, Georgia. She had 12 cases in Florida where the conditions of the schools were much worse than the situation in Topeka. Judge Motley was also the one who tried the case of James Meredith who wanted to attend college at the University of Mississippi. She tried other college cases as well. Judge Motley left the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in February of 1965 to become president of Manhattan Law School (?). She left there in September of 1966 to become a Judge.

Ida Norman
Ida Norman was born Ida Sheffield, in St. Louis, Missouri, on September 22, 1914. After finishing high school she pursued a career in nursing, receiving a bachelor’s degree from Colorado State University. In the late 1930’s she served as a registered nurse at Douglass Hospital in Kansas City, Kansas, and from 1938-1940 as a nurse and health supervisor at the Kansas Vocational School in Topeka. She married Leo Norman on December 24, 1945. To this union was born a daughter, Norma Jean Norman.
After their marriage, the couple began life as a military family. Her husband was in the U.S. Navy. In the early 1950’s the family returned to Topeka from Seattle, Washington. At that time Mrs. Norman became the first African American school nurse for Topeka Public Schools. She was assigned to the four segregated schools for African American children. After the Brown decision, her schedule included several of the formerly segregated schools for white children, along with the new Head Start Program. She tried to no avail to persuade the district to hire more African American School nurses.
Ida Norman also broke barriers by starting the first African American Girl Scout Troop in Topeka. She saw many changes after school integration. Mr. Norman is now deceased, and Ida now lives in the care of her daughter, Norma, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

James Parks
James Parks was born in Topeka, Kansas in 1914. He is the eldest child of Rosa Anna (Draine) Parks and James A. Parks, Sr. His mother was born in Clarksville, Tennessee, and his father hailed from Windsor, Missouri. In later years the family grew to include twin boys, Sherman and Sheriden.
James and his brothers attended Sumner Elementary School in Topeka, which was located across the street from their home. Ironically this same school would later close its doors to African American children and become a segregated school for whites only. His education included graduation from Roosevelt Junior High and Topeka High Schools. He married Julia Etta in 1941 and in 1942 James became specialist first class in the U.S. Army.
After returning from World War II he became one of the coaches of Topeka High School’s segregated African American basketball team the “Ramblers.” Although both junior and senior high schools were racially integrated, extra curricular activities were segregated. By 1948 James Parks had completed his undergraduate degree from Washburn University. From there he joined the staff of a wholesale drug business, a job he would keep until retirement. Both James and his wife were active in the Topeka community. He served as a church trustee at St. John A. M. E. for some 40 years. He was also an active member of the Omega Si Phi fraternity. In 1961 and 1962 he was one of 4 commissioners on the Topeka Planning Commission. Later in life he volunteered for Meals on Wheels and the Topeka Housing Authority.
James Parks passed away on October 12, 1997. The couple’s only child, James III, died in 1999. Dr. Julia Etta Parks still resides in Topeka.

Dr. Julia Etta Parks
Dr. Julia Etta Parks was born in Kansas City, Kansas, on April 5, 1923. Her parents were Idella Johnson of Kansas City, Missouri, and Hays Long of Hannibal, Missouri. She had one sister who died during childhood. The family moved to Topeka when Julia Etta’s father became a maitre-de at the Jayhawk Hotel. She attended Monroe Elementary, a segregated school for African American children. She went on to Crane Junior High and Topeka High during her secondary years; both schools had integrated student bodies. After graduating from high school she married James A. Parks in 1941 in Tecumseh, Kansas. She had a son, James Pace Parks, III, of Illinois, who died in 1999.
The young couple joined the historic St. John African Methodist Episcopal Church. They met in this church and were members there for more then five decades. Another central part of the African American community was the Kansas Vocational School at Topeka (KVS), a segregated trade school. Dr. Parks and her husband attended KVS, which at the time was considered one of the hubs of the African American life Topeka along with Fourth Street, which was the black business district. This district was a major social and business outlet for African Americans. It included drug stores, barbershops, and a dance hall and tavern, which hosted entertainers such as Count Basie and Jay McShan.
Julia Etta started college when her son entered junior high school. She received her bachelor’s and master’s from Washburn University and her doctorate from the University of Kansas. Her major was education, specializing in reading instruction for elementary and secondary students. She taught at Lowman Hill Elementary School and Washburn University. The Parks’ son also attended segregated Monroe Elementary School, and went on to Boswell Junior High and Topeka Senior High. He also graduated from Washburn University. Her husband is now deceased. Dr. Julia Etta Parks still resides in Topeka.

Ferdinand Pearson
Ferdinand Pearson was born in XXXXX County, South Carolina; he was the youngest of four children. Pearson’s family had been slaves in that area. Mrs. Pearson, his mother, died when he was just six years old; his father remarried and had seven more children with his second wife. Mr. Pearson’s father was a farmer who owned his land; he grew corn, peas, cotton, and rice. As a young man, Mr. Pearson spent several years in Baltimore, Maryland. He was drafted into the army during World War II; he served in the European theater. He was in the army for three and a half years.
Many times a year, Ferdinand was kept out of school to help on the farm. The school year came out to be about four months long due to the children missing so much school to help on their family’s farm. Mr. Pearson’s first school was a one-room schoolhouse with two teachers. After that school was closed, he attended Bob Johnson School. That school featured a potbellied stove and two rooms; there were no desks, only benches. Mr. Pearson had to walk between five and eight miles to get to school.
Pearson’s siblings from his father’s second marriage were involved the Civil Rights law suite centered around transportation to and from school for African American children, which later became known as the Briggs case. They had a sixteen-mile round-trip walk to school. Mr. Pearson’s father bought an old truck to take many of the kids to school. He later helped the community buy a bus to transport the children to school, but it was difficult to keep it in working condition. After the county repeatedly refused to help with the upkeep of the bus, the parents turned to the NAACP.
After the law suite was first dismissed on a technicality, many of the petitioners lost their jobs. Mr. Pearson’s father was denied credit to buy the supplies he needed to keep the farm going, so Ferdinand sent him part of the money he made while in the army. Ferdinand Pearson still resides in the area.

Thayer Brown Phillips
Thayer Brown Phillips was born in Topeka, Kansas, on December 21, 1921, to parents Madia (Brown) and Jesse R. Phillips. He has a sister, Talayah Miller, and a brother, George, who passed away in 1967. Madia Phillips was also born in Topeka, but Jesse Phillips was born in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Jesse was recruited by Santa Fe to work as a strikebreaker during the 1936 Railway strike. The family moved around the country because of Jesse’s job with Santa Fe. Both parents are buried at Mt. Hope Cemetery in Topeka.
Thayer Phillips attended elementary in Alameda, California, and then the family moved back to Topeka, so he attended Crane Junior High for a year. At that time, junior high for African Americans was only a year. So after a year off, Mr. Phillips went to Topeka High School; he graduated in 1941 at midyear. On February 27, 1941, he enlisted in the army. Thayer was stationed at Fort Riley; he helped with the building of the fort and was a member of the famed 9th U.S. Calvary B the Buffalo Soldiers. He left the service in November 1945. About a year after he left the service, he started attending classes at Washburn University on the G. I. Bill while working at the V. A. Hospital. Eventually he would earn a master’s degree in social work from the University of Kansas.
Thayer Phillips married Barbara Jean Sheffield in Kansas City, Kansas. She was born in Hot Springs, Oklahoma. The couple’s son, Jesse R. Phillips, was born on March 8, 1951. Mr. Phillips still resides in Topeka.

Jean Price
Jean Price was born in Wichita, Kansas, on June 16, 1929, to parents Mamie (Richardson) and Glover Scott. She had two sisters and one brother. Her mother was born in Ottawa, Kansas; in 1946 she died as a result of breast cancer when Jean was 16 years old, and is buried in Wichita. Glover Scott was born in Louisiana. He passed away in 1942, after being hit by a car while riding his bike, when Jean was just 12 years old; he is also buried in Wichita.
In Wichita, Mrs. Price attended segregated schools in grades first thru eighth, but went to integrated North High School. However, when she moved in with her aunt and uncle in Kansas City, Kansas, after her mother’s death, she went to segregated Sumner High School. After a year, she moved to Los Angles, California, to live with another aunt and uncle. The schools there were integrated. She graduated from North High School in Wichita and went on to attend Wichita University (now Wichita State University).
It was when she was in the seventh grade that Mrs. Price started working outside the home; she washed dishes for a neighbor every evening. After graduating from Wichita University with a teaching degree, she took a teaching job in Wichita. She attended classes at the University of Kansas and received a master’s degree in education from Emporia State University. Jean taught for 38 years.
Jean married Gratz Price on April 30, 1955; he was also born in Wichita, Kansas. Gratz’s father was a dentist who had moved his practice from Wichita to Topeka. The couple was introduced to each other by one of Jean’s former teachers. Mr. Price worked for the Santa Fe Railway. The couple adopted a five-year-old girl, Pamela (Price) Long.
After they were married, Mrs. Price stayed in Wichita for a while since she could not find a teaching job in Topeka. She finally found a job in 1956 at Topeka State Hospital as the first to teach the emotionally disturbed children who were patients there. After three or four years, Mrs. Price moved onto a teaching position at Parkdale School; she was the only African American teacher there. From Parkdale she went to Lowman Hill; she taught there until her retirement. Mrs. Price still resides in Topeka.

Fred Rausch, Jr.
Fred Rausch, Jr. grew up in East Topeka, Kansas. The neighborhood his family lived in was within two blocks of Mud Town. His father, who was born on a farm near Kingsburry, Kansas, became a paint contractor after working as a painter for Santa Fe for several years. He met Fred’s mother while working for Santa Fe in Beaumont, Texas. Fred Rausch attended Parkdale Elementary School and Lincoln Junior High. After a year and a half, he was transferred to East Topeka Junior High.
Fred Rausch was elected to the Topeka School Board in 1957. He decided to run for the school board because as an assistant attorney general for the state, he was charged with representing the superintendent of public instruction. Mr. Rausch became interested in the Board and had several children in the school system, so he decided it would be a good idea to run for it. He served on the Board for 20 years.
He recalls the first year’s task for the School Board was to integrate the teachers. The Board’s attorney informed them that they needed to do this. He remembers that the African American teachers who were moved to predominantly white schools faced opposition from some parents, but that after a year or so, they had parents requesting their children be put into the classes of those same teachers. There was also some opposition from African American parents about their children having white teaches; they felt that the white teachers would not be able to understand the kids as well as their former teachers had. This died out in a year or so as well.
Mr. Rausch recalls that the schools were integrated by creating neighborhood schools in which no child attended a grade school that was more than six blocks from home. Students attended the junior high school that was within a one-mile radius of their home. The Board felt that this was what the Brown decision meant, that children who lived across the street from a school should be able to go to that school. However, this theory did not take into account neighborhood shifts that would result in a lesser degree of integration in some schools. His two oldest children went to three different schools in three years because of the city’s expansion to the southwest and the subsequent shifts in school boundaries. Mr. Rausch left the Topeka Board of Education two years before the Brown case was reopened in 1979.

Connie Rawlins
Connie Rawlins is a native of Prince Edward County, Virginia. She is one of four children in a family of two boys and two girls. Although her siblings attended private schools outside of the county, by the time Connie was ready for school the "Great Depression” was in full swing and she had to attend public school. Public schools only extended to 7th grade. However, the Martha E. Forrester Council of Negro Women worked tirelessly to add one grade each year. They raised money for equipment and books. Their efforts eventually resulted in the establishment of the R. R. Morton High School. Connie graduated from the new high school as a member of the first graduating class. Morton High School would later become the center of controversy during a strike by the African-American student body wanting better facilities.
She attended college at Virginia State College in Petersburg, Virginia, where she met Mrs. Vera Allen, a woman who would be a positive influence in Connie’s life. Connie’s teaching career began in Cumberland County, Virginia, where she taught social studies for three years. It was while in Cumberland she met and married Dr. Albert G. Rawlins. The couple eventually relocated because Dr. Rawlins began working for a hospital in West Virginia. Their three children were born in West Virginia.
Because of the isolation of the area, Connie Rawlins returned to Farmville in Prince Edward County. She taught high school there until 1959 when the segregated school closed. She relocated in order for her son to finish high school in Charlottesville they returned to Farmville in 1965. She recalls the shock of being a teacher in the midst of the student strike, even though she understood that better facilities were needed. She vividly recalls the tarpaper shacks that served as extra classrooms.

Joseph Richburg, Sr.
During the time that Joseph Richburg, Sr., was in school, his family lived the rural area of South Carolina called Spring Hill. It was part of School District # 8. The first school in the area was held in the Spring Hill Church. There were only two teachers at that time; the parents of the students were responsible for providing the wood needed to keep the school heated. The school went up only to the fourth grade. From the fifth grade on, the children had to go to school in Summerton; Mr. Richburg went to Scotch Branch, which was seven miles from his home. He was able to take his father’s horse and buggy except when it was time to plow the fields and harvest the crops. At this time, the Richburgs had some white neighbors whose children were able to take a bus into Summerton. When it became time for him to start the eighth grade, Joseph’s father said he needed him at home to help with plowing the fields and harvesting the crops.
Mr. Richburg was married by the time the Briggs case came about. His wife was originally from St. Paul; her father had sent her to Sumpter, South Carolina, to attend Morris College. After completing her second year, she quite school, got married, and began teaching; she taught at Joseph’s former school in Spring Hill. In an effort to improve school conditions, the community bought some barracks and assembled them on the two acres of land that they had also bought. The NAACP convinced the community that they needed to sue the district for equal transportation and equal facilities. At that time, Mr. Richburg’s uncle, E. E. Richburg, was the local branch’s secretary, and his other uncle, Lawrence Richburg Rives, was the president. Joseph did not join the suit when the petition was first circulated because he knew that his wife would lose her teaching job if he did. He was later convinced to do so, and Mrs. Richburg did not have a teaching job between 1955 and 1956.
Mrs. Richburg lost her job right after the family had built a new house. Mr. Richburg was farming as well as working for the Veteran’s Administration. He was retraining farmers who had served in the military. Eventually his wife went up North with a group of teachers and found work, but the teachers were not paid a comparable wage. In August of 1956, Mr. Richburg went to Baltimore, Maryland, where his wife was staying. He worked as a barber for a while, and then he went into construction work for a time. From November of 1956 to 1967, he worked in a meat plant. In 1967 the Richburgs moved back to South Carolina, but their children stayed with relatives in Baltimore.
Mr. Richburg, Sr. is currently a member of South Carolina’s School Board for School District # 1. He owns a barbershop and does not plan to retire anytime soon.

Richard and Frances Ridley
Richard Ridley was born in Topeka, Kansas, on February 10, 1929. His mother, Maude (Brandon) Ridley was born in 1909 in Jefferson City, Missouri. She passed away in 1984 and is buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in Topeka. Dana Ridley, his father, was born on January 14, 1906, in Topeka. Frances Ridley was born in Osage City, Kansas, on August 1, 1930. Her parents were Regina (Grant) and King Price. Mrs. Price was born in 1909. King Price passed away on May 6, 1991; he is buried in Topeka. Richard and Frances Ridley were married on July 15, 1952, in Topeka. The couple has three sons and one daughter.
Mr. Ridley went to Monroe Elementary School while Mrs. Ridley went to school in Holdrege, Nebraska; Her family was the only African American family in the town. Richard recalls that his education from Monroe was outstanding; it did not seem inferior to him. He was valedictorian and president of the senior class at Topeka High School. He attended the University of North Carolina and the University of Colorado. He has a bachelor’s degree in political science, a master’s degree, and was 12 hours away from an LL.B. degree when he left school. Mr. Ridley was in law school when the Brown decision came down from the U.S. Supreme Court. He knew the local attorneys involved with the case. The Ridleys reside in Topeka, and Mr. Ridley still works as a social worker.

Willie Spencer Robinson
Willie Spencer Robinson was born in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1937 at Memorial Hospital; he is an only child. His mother was a graduate of Howard High School in Wilmington. His father worked in a steel mill. Both parents’ families were from Virginia. Spencer went to elementary school in the one room State Line School. From the seventh to the tenth grade he attended Howard High School. He had to walk about a mile to catch a city bus to get to the high school. His father insisted that Spencer finish high school since he only went to school through the third grade.
At the age of fourteen, Spencer got his first job at the Tea House in Wilmington washing dishes. He worked there for nearly three years. After the case, his father gave him the choice of staying at Howard or transferring to Claymont High School for the tenth grade; his mother wanted him to go to Claymont. Someone put Spencer through some training so he would be use to hearing the type of verbal abuse he might encounter at Claymont without reacting to it.
After high school, Mr. Robinson went into the Air Force as a mechanic; he was stationed in Thailand during the Vietnam War. He met his wife while stationed in South Carolina for three years. They got married in 1959. Spencer Robinson passed away on October 19, 1997.

Merrill and Barbara Ross
Merrill Roy Ross was born on December 28, 1919, in Flatlick, Kentucky to Tamra (Patton) and Richard F. Ross. His mother was born in Ely, Kentucky, while his father was born in Rogersville, Tennessee. Both of Merrill’s parents are buried in Topeka. He married Barbara Jackson on June 12, 1951, in Charleston, West Virginia, to parents Gertrude (Campbell) and James Jackson. She was born there on August 10, 1926.
Their life’s work and their childhood experiences centered around education. Mrs. Ross graduated in 1947 from West Virginia State College. Mr. Ross took a detour, after two years at Kentucky State College (now Kentucky State University), which resulted in a history making opportunity.
In 1941 Mr. Ross joined a U.S. military experimental program offering pilot training, for the first time, to African American soldiers. On December 6, 1941, Merrill Ross made his solo cross-country flight. That flight placed him in the history books because he was now among the ranks of the famed and highly decorated Tuskegee Airmen.
After military service he returned to college. A family member living in Coffeyville, Kansas, persuaded him to transfer to Kansas State Teacher’s College of Pittsburg (now Pittsburg State University) in Pittsburg, Kansas. He went on to complete graduate work at the University of Chicago with additional study at the University of Minnesota.
Merrill Ross met his wife during a teacher-recruiting trip while visiting friends at Lorkburn Air Force Base. Barbara Jackson was living at the base with her sister’s family. A mutual acquaintance knew she was seeking a teaching position. After a brief courtship and marriage, the couple settled in Topeka. School district policy in Topeka prohibited married women from teaching. Mrs. Ross raised their children, Karen and Brian, and served as a substitute teacher. By 1954 Mr. Ross had become principal of Washington Elementary School. This was one of the four segregated schools for African American children. Washington was among the schools named in the Brown case.
In 1963 Mr. Ross became assistant principal of one of the formerly segregated schools for white children. He served as principal of various elementary schools until he retired in 1985. In 1993 Highland Park South Elementary School was renamed in honor of Merrill and Barbara Ross. After returning to teaching, Mrs. Ross taught school there until 1989. It is now known as Ross Elementary School. Mr. and Mrs. Ross still reside in Topeka.

Constance Sawyer
Constance Sawyer was born in Topeka, Kansas, on April 5, 1932 in Christ’s Hospital (now Stormont Vail Medical Center). Her parents were Theata (Cyrene) and Daniel Sawyer. Theata Sawyer was born in September 1910 in Topeka; she died in March 1952 and is buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Topeka. Daniel Sawyer was born in Topeka on April 5, 1902; he passed away in January 1950 and is also buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Topeka. Constance is one of six children born to Theata and Daniel Sawyer. Constance Sawyer’s grandparents, freed during the Civil War, were homesteaders in the Topeka area, and her grandfather was active in the leadership of the NAACP’s Topeka Chapter from its formation in 1913. Ms. Sawyer attended segregated Buchanan Grade School. The school was a mile from her home; she recalls having to run to keep up with the older kids on the way to school. As a result, Ms. Sawyer moved in with her great-grandmother who lived across the street from Buchanan. That year, the parents of the African American students where successful with their petition to get the children bused to school.
Her father had a key role in the formulation of the NAACP’s plan to challenge segregation in the schools. African American students had a hard time passing their classes in junior high because by the time they got there, they were two years behind the white students due to the fact that the African American schools received textbooks from the white school once they had bought new books.
This situation eventually led to the Graham case where Tinkham Veale and William M. Bradshaw, representing Ulysses Graham’s parent, argued that junior high school was part of high school, and by not providing similar education for African American students, these children were denied rights under the U.S. and Kansas Constitutions. The Court found that the refusal to permit twelve-year-old Ulysses Graham to enroll in a junior high school was "discriminatory.” As a result, some of the African American teachers were fired as result of the junior high schools being opened up to African American students in the seventh grade.
In 1942 or 1943, Ms. Sawyer’s father tried to enroll her sister Grace at Lowman Hill as part of the local NAACP branch effort to test the legality of segregation itself. This attempt failed, as did the 1947 attempt with her sister Mary. Ms. Sawyer remembers Esther Brown coming to Topeka to help raise money for the challenge; she stayed with the Todds when she was in town. She also recalls the leadership of the local branch having a hard time convincing Oliver Brown to become a plaintiff in the case. This was not uncommon since the men involved with the challenge were putting their livelihood at stake; Reverend Brown also had a heart condition.

Vivian Scales
Mrs. Vivian Scales and her sister Mrs. Shirla Fleming (deceased) secured their places in the history books as two of the thirteen plaintiffs in the NAACP’s Brown case of 1954. Mrs. Scales was a participant on behalf of her daughter Ruth Ann. Mrs. Fleming participated on behalf of her sons Silas and Duane.
Vivian was born March 11, 1922, in the small central Kansas community of Winfield. Her parents were Ella (Palmer) and James Willhoite. Mrs. Scales was one of eight children. When she was entering third grade when her parents, Sarah and James Willhoite, moved their seven daughters and one son to Topeka. Both parents had come to Kansas from the South. Her mother was born in Jackson, Mississippi, and her father in Memphis, Tennessee. Ironically Winfield was a second-class city based on population and according to Kansas law could not operate segregated schools. Consequently Vivian and her siblings came to Topeka’s segregated schools from an integrated rural education.
Once in Topeka, she attended McKinley Elementary, one of the segregated schools for African American children. From there she went on to Curtis Junior High and Topeka Senior High, both integrated schools. However, the high school was only integrated for academics. Extra curricular activities were segregated. After graduation she married George Scales (born August 3, 1919, in Topeka, Kansas) on August 5, 1941, and started a family.
As a young wife and mother she joined the Topeka NAACP along with her sister Shirla. It was through the organization that they were asked to participate in a class action suit to challenge segregated public elementary schools in Topeka. She was willing because her daughter, Ruth Ann, attended segregated Washington and later Monroe Elementary Schools. Both of these schools were of some distance from their home while Parkdale Elementary School for white children was just two blocks away. In the fall of 1950, she and her sister took a stand. By following the instructions given by NAACP legal counsel, their unsuccessful attempts to enroll their children in public elementary schools designated for white children only provided evidence to file a court challenge to the Board of Education racial segregation policy. Her sister’s husband has been quoted over the years for his testimony in this case. "The only way to reach the light is to start our children together in their infancy and they will come up together.”
Mr. & Mrs. George Scales still reside in Topeka. Their daughter Ruth Ann (Scales) Everett, her children and grandchildren also reside in Topeka.

Berdyne Scott
Berdyne Scott was born on July 5, 1918, in Topeka, Kansas. Her parents were Beatrice (Thompson) and Victor Anderson. Beatrice Anderson was born in Del Rio, Texas, because her father was a telegrapher working in Mexico and Del Rio was the nearest American town; he could not get a job with Santa Fe since he was African American. Mrs. Anderson died in 1989 and is buried at Mt. Hope Cemetery. Victor Anderson was born in Topeka; he also died in 1989 and is buried in Washington, D.C. Berdyne is one of four children the Andersons had.
As a young child, Mrs. Scott lived in the area of Topeka referred to as Sand Town. She went to McKinley Elementary School, which was an hour’s walk from her home. Next, she attended Curtis Junior High; this was before the Graham case in 1941 that ended segregation at the junior high level. In 1935, Berdyne Scott graduated from Topeka High School. While in high school, she worked in the law office of her future father-in-law, Elisha Scott. After graduating, she went to Chanute Junior College in Chanute, Kansas; while in Chanute, she worked in a doctor’s office. Later, she moved to Washington, D.C.; she worked in the Government Printing Office, attended Howard University, and met and married her first husband. She graduated from Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas, in 1951.
Berdyne Scott’s first husband was Alfonza W. Davis. He was born in Florida in 1919 and primarily grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. They met while he was a member of the 9th Calvary (Buffalo Soldiers) at Fort Riley. She married Mr. Davis in 1941 in Washington, D.C. After Mr. Davis died, she married John J. Scott in St. John’s Church AME in Topeka in 1947. In 1955 the couple moved to Washington, D.C.; Mrs. Scott taught in area schools including Charles Young. She took early retirement after five years. After a time, the Scotts returned to Topeka where Mrs. Scott gave workshops on the importance and meaning of the Brown case without the help of outside funding. Mrs. Scott passed away on February 6, 2000.

Deborah Scott
Deborah Scott was born in Topeka, Kansas, on August 31, 1953. Here mother, Louise (Crawford), was born in Ponca City, Oklahoma; she passed away in December of 1989. Charles Scott, Sr., Deborah’s father, was born in Topeka. He died six months before his wife on March 3, 1989. Both of her parents are buried in Topeka. She has one brother Charles Scott, Jr.
Deborah Scott went to segregated Buchanan Elementary School for kindergarten; it was a few blocks from where she lived. The next year, she attended Lowman Hill Elementary School as a result of the Brown decision. Lowman Hill was just a block from her home. She felt that the sense of unity present at Buchanan was lost at the integrated school; she felt the teachers were more interested in the performances of the students. From the first grade on, the only African American teacher that Deborah Scott had was Dr. Julia Etta Parks. (Dr. Parks was her third grade teacher.) Deborah attended Boswell Junior High and Topeka High School.
Ms. Scott does not feel that either she, or her brother, was treated any differently in school as a result of whom their father was. They just knew a lot of people who treated them like family. She says that it was quite a cultural shock when her father’s death, and subsequent funeral, drew such a vast amount of attention and media coverage. Over the years Deborah worked in a variety of fields. She’s worked at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, the Kansas Neurological Institute, and Josten’s American Yearbook, not to mention serving in the army as well. She also started work on a psychology degree at Washburn University.
Deborah Scott sees the positive and the negative effects that desegregation has had on society. It has improved the opportunities available to African Americans, yet at the same time, they have lost some of their historical and cultural heritage. She feels that complete integration has not occurred yet. Ms. Scott still lives in Topeka.

Dorothy Scott
Dorothy Scott was born in Topeka, Kansas. Her mother and stepfather raised her. Her mother, Elizabeth Jackson, was born in Mississippi. The family lived in Kansas City until Dorothy was six years old. When they returned to Topeka, she attended Washington Elementary, a segregated school for African American children. She was so impressed with her teachers that she decided, while in elementary school, that she wanted to become a teacher. Dorothy’s grandfather had taught school in Mississippi before he opened a small store.
Dorothy received her bachelor’s degree from Washburn University and began teaching in the segregated elementary schools of Okmulgee, Oklahoma. Her next teaching experience was in Kansas City, Missouri. While teaching there she met her future husband, Edward Scott. They married in Topeka in1943. The couple moved to Ohio where her husband taught at Wilburforce University. He died in 1952 after their return to Kansas City, where he served as principal of St. Joseph’s High School. Dorothy moved to Topeka
and resumed her teaching career. In 1954, after the Brown decision, she was assigned to Parkdale Elementary, a previously segregated school for white children.
She holds a master’s degree from the University of Kansas, post graduate hours from the University of California at Berkeley, and has international teaching experience. Dorothy Scott was one of 36 teachers selected to train African and European teachers in Africa. She still resides in Topeka in her original family home.

C. E. “Sonny” Scroggins
C. E. “Sonny” Scroggins was born on June 11, 1951, in Checotah, Oklahoma. His grandparents in Oklahoma raised him. His godmother was part white, and had an air about her as if she was better than everyone else; this led Sonny to be the exact opposite of her. Until he entered the eighth grade in 1965, he attended segregated public schools. Nevertheless, Sonny grew up in a family setting that was ripe with activism and the push for civil rights.
His family history traces back to Red River County, Texas, where they were the slaves of the Guest family. Mr. Scroggins’ great-great-great-grandmother was Isaac Guest’s mistress; she had children by him. There are some 20th century celebrities who are related to that side of the family including Vice President John Nance Garner and the poet Edward Guest. His family moved to Oklahoma shortly after the birth of his grandfather. Some members were sharecroppers, but others were professionals (i.e., a plumber, a blacksmith etc.).
Sonny Scroggins became active in the NAACP at a very young age-he was between 10 and 11 years old. At one time, he was the chairman of the Junior NAACP (now the Youth Council). He participated in sit-ins and run-ins at the local businesses in Checotah, Oklahoma. His family held meetings and other types of gatherings in their home as well. Sonny followed his older sister to Topeka in 1965. One of the projects he worked on in Topeka was getting Monroe Elementary School on the National Register of Historic Places.

Judge Collins Seitz
Judge Collins Seitz was born in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1914. His family has resided in the state for many years; both his parents and his maternal grandparents were born there. His paternal grandfather was born in Alsace, France, and came to the United States sometime between 1860 and 1870. Judge Seitz’s father worked at the duPont Company as a construction engineer.
Judge Seitz attended St. Ann’s Catholic School through the eighth grade. He got his undergraduate degree from the University of Delaware and law degree from the University of Virginia Law School. He received a duPont scholarship to attend law school. He decided to become a lawyer after hearing a debate between Clarence Darrow and Clarence Wilson on the 18th Amendment. While at the University of Delaware, he had a job with the state Board of Education; he was the driver for the director of the adult education. He has taught at several different law schools over the years and really enjoyed doing it. He was also chancellor of a law school.
President Johnson appointed the Judge Seitz to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals after being recommended by Delaware Governor Albert Carvell. The school desegregation cases came to the chancery court because in Delaware it has the sole jurisdiction to grant injunctions. He traveled to Hockessin and Claymont to look at the schools before he made his decision in the Briggs case; he did the same thing in the case against the University of Delaware. The judge had never gone to any typed of segregated school as a student, but as a lawyer he was always for the underdog. Judge Seitz was also involved in the desegregating of Sally; he wrote a letter to the school’s principal. Judge Seitz still resides in Wilmington.

Irving Sheffel
Irving Sheffel moved to Topeka in February 1949, to work for Karl Menninger at the Menninger Clinic. At the time he was working in Washington, D.C., at the Veteran’s Administration in the Medical Department. When he took the job at the Menninger Clinic, his background was in administration; his wife knew more about psychiatry than he did since she worked as a psychiatric social worker. Dr. Karl Menninger offered the job of chief of administration at Menninger to Mr. Sheffel, and he accepted the position.
Mr. Sheffel has a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Chicago. Then he completed a year of graduate school, but went to work for the federal government instead of finishing his master’s degree. It was at the University of Chicago that he met his wife who was working towards a bachelor’s degree in history. Mr. Sheffel was drafted into the army on January 6, 1942. After three years he became a major and was in charge of the Finance Office. He served overseas during World War II. When he was discharged, he went to Harvard and received a master’s in public administration.
Mr. Sheffel’s wife knew more about the segregation situation in Topeka than he did. She quickly got involved with groups working to improve the conditions of the poor and fighting against discrimination. He recalls that Dr. Karl Menninger was always working to decrease the amount of discrimination present in Topeka, but does not recall the doctor being directly involved with the Brown case. Mr. Sheffel did not have a lot of time to follow the case because the Menninger Clinic was playing a key role in reforming the state hospitals in Kansas.

Dr. Hugh Speer
Dr. Hugh Speer was born on a farm near Olathe, Kansas, in 1906. His parents were Camellia (Shonir) and Henry Speer. The couple had three other children. Both of his parents taught at the college level. Mr. and Mrs. Speer are buried in the Olathe Cemetery. Catherine Edwards, Dr. Speer’s wife, was born in Dobbs, Maryland. The couple was married in 1930 in Washington, D.C.; they have two daughters.
Dr. Speer spent a year at Tarkio College after graduating from Olathe High School, mainly for a job writing the college news for papers in Kansas City; Omaha; St. Joseph, Missouri; and Des Moines. He finished his undergraduate studies at the American University, College of Liberal Arts in Washington, D.C., where he met his future wife, Catherine Edwards, who worked in the Library of Congress. He received his master’s degree from George Washington University.
During World War II Dr. Speer served in Italy as a field director with the Red Cross after being turned down by all the branches of the armed forces for minor medical reasons. After the war, he became the director of the Veteran’s Advisement Center at Kansas City University (KCU). After two years, he left to pursue his doctorate degree at the University of Chicago. Dr. Speer then returned to KCU as the chairman of the Education Department.
Dr. Speer became involved with the Brown case through contact with Esther Brown and the Kansas City Jewish Community Center. Mrs. Brown needed some help to move the Brown case along, and Dr. Speer was a good friend of Sid Lawrence, the director of the center, who contacted him about helping the NAACP and Mrs. Brown with the case. He started out by meeting with the Topeka school administrators, Kenneth McFarland and Don Garr, who tried to talk him out of getting involved. He also met with some of the community leaders and a few of the African American residents. The NAACP asked three things of him: to survey the schools to see if they were equal, to help recruit expert witnesses, and to be a witness. Dr. Speer passed away on June 21, 1996.

Stanley Stalter
Stanley Stalter moved to Topeka, Kansas in September of 1949 to become the principal at Quinton Heights Elementary School. The next year he moved onto Central Park Elementary School and remained there for four years. He then moved to Randolph Elementary School. In the fall of 1955, he was hired as the principal of the new McEachron Elementary School. Prior to moving to Topeka, Mr. Stalter worked in schools in Morris County, Council Grove, and Manhattan, Kansas.
Mr. Stalter remembers that he and the other three principals of the elementary schools in Manhattan had a good working relationship with the principal of the African American elementary school. He recalls the five of them traveling together outside of Manhattan, but not having lunch with him; the principal was African American, so he had to eat elsewhere. Mr. Stalter feels that these experiences helped shape the future career decisions of the four white principals, including Dr. Frank Wilson.
Even though he was an administrator, Mr. Stalter does not recall much being said in meetings about the Brown case until it started to gain substantial momentum. It was Dr. Wilson who had to deny the admittance of Linda Brown to Sumner Elementary School. Mr. Stalter recalls speaking with him about it.
Mr. Stalter’s first real connection with the Brown case center’s around the hiring of an African American teacher at Randolph Elementary School in 1955. The teacher alternated half days between Randolph and Whitson Elementary Schools with a white teacher. Mr. Stalter had the task of notifying parents that there would be an African American teacher and asking if he could put their child in the class. Some of the parents were adamantly against it, others gave him odd reasons for not allowing it, but he recalls about 50% of the parents willing to let their child be in the class. Mr. Stalter also states that the following year it was harder to keep the students out of the class because the teacher had such an impact on the students the previous year. However, the next year, the African American teacher was moved to Whitson Elementary School full-time. In 1955, Mr. Stalter recalls having only two African American students at Randolph Elementary School.
Mr. Stalter retired as principal of McEachron Elementary School in 1977. He feels that the Brown decision’s impact on education has been positive.

Carrie Stokes
Carrie Stokes is known historically as part of the team of students who organized a student strike to protest segregated schools in Farmville, Virginia. Along with strike leader Barbara Johnson, the African American student body of R.R. Morton High School went on strike in the spring of 1951. Their school was overcrowded and county supervisors all but ignored the conditions. The county’s attempt to ease overcrowding involved constructing a few "tar paper” shacks to handle the overflow. These buildings were substandard facilities with heat provided by coal burning stoves.
Although Carrie’s parents were raised in Farmville, she, along with her sister and her four brothers, believed circumstances should be better. The Stokes children helped with the family farm. Raising and selling vegetables as well as hogs provided the family’s living. While their father tended the farm, Mrs. Stokes took in laundry and worked as a domestic in several homes.
In 1951, Carrie, her brother, and most of the student body of R.R. Morton High School made history by staging the strike. As a result of their effort, a school integration case was filed. The NAACP petitioned the Federal District Court in Richmond with the case of Davis v. Prince Edward County. Their case was eventually combined with similar cases and heard by the U.S. Supreme Court under the heading of Brown v. Board of Education. Carrie continued her education receiving a degree in business from New York University. She returned to Virginia and currently resides in Farmville.

Charles Sudduth
Charles Sudduth was born on April 12, 1909, in Coweta, Oklahoma (near Tulsa). In 1911, his family was forced to leave town due to a race riot; the loaded up a wagon, went to the train station, and moved to Topeka, Kansas. Mr. Sudduth’s parents were originally from Dade County, Alabama, but they had to leave the state due to the fact that they were an interracial couple; his father was white, and his mother was African American. His mother, Dora (Culpepper) Sudduth, was a schoolteacher in Alabama, but became a housewife when the couple moved to Oklahoma. Mr. Sudduth’s father was a cotton farmer and a Baptist minister in Oklahoma, but worked as a handy man in Topeka. His parents started a new church, the Church of God, out of their home; it was a church with very strict religious beliefs. Charles Sudduth was one of the couple nine children.
Education was an important factor in the lives of the Sudduth children. Charles attended Dr. Charles Sheldon’s kindergarten that was just around the corner from where the family lived. Before for then, Charles had always been called Beaut, but a teacher at the kindergarten convinced Mrs. Sudduth to name the 42-year-old boy after the school’s founder. Charles Sudduth attended Douglas Elementary School; it was a two-room schoolhouse where grades first thru third were held in one room and grades fourth thru sixth were in the other room. His older siblings went to integrated Topeka High School. Charles later attended Buchanan Junior High School for grades seventh though eighth and Topeka High School. He had not had much interaction with white people until he went to Topeka High.
Mr. Sudduth graduated from high school in 1922, but he had to quit the football team while in the 11th grade so that he could get a job to help pay for school. His first job was in a Greek shining parlor, working until seven o’clock every evening and then all day on Saturdays. He made more in tips than he did from his salary. Next, Mr. Sudduth worked in the Santa Fe shops as an apprentice; this is when he met his future wife. However, his parents convinced him to quit and go to college. He went to live with an uncle in Ohio while he was in school, but he started working at Firestone Tire Company. Mr. Sudduth never went to college because he was making so much at Firestone and wanted to earn enough to return to Topeka and get married.
At the age of 18, Mr. Sudduth married Mildred Jones of Oskaloosa, Kansas. Soon after, Charles went to work at Dibble’s Grocery Store and then at Green’s Grocery Store. He was the first African American stockman at Green’s Grocery Store, but he was injured on the job, so he had to quite. Mr. Sudduth went back to working for Santa Fe in 1941 as a private office janitor. Next he became the first African American supervisor at Santa Fe. While working there, he helped Ray Clark start a union for the African American workers. Mr. Sudduth retired in 1971 from the position of supervisor of elevator operations and janitors.
Mildred Sudduth passed away in March 1958. Mr. Sudduth was married to his second wife for more than 30 years. He has two sons and one daughter from his first marriage, and two adopted daughters from his second one. The Brown decision really helped his children who were in school at that time. Mr. Sudduth’s brother-in-law, H. L. Burnett, was president of the Topeka chapter of the NAACP when the case was filed. Mr. Sudduth passed away on September 9, 1995; the rest of the Sudduthes still reside in Topeka.

Alberta Temple
Born in Topeka, Kansas, on November 27, 1913, Alberta Temple is the third child of John and Pearl Temple, and the sister of James, Jeanette, and Frederick. Her parents, both of whom were born in Tennessee, supported the family from the earnings of Mr. John Temple’s employment as a mail carrier for the Topeka Post Office. Mr. Temple died in 1968, and Mrs. Temple passed away in 1970; both are buried at Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Topeka.
Like her siblings, Alberta received her public school education at Monroe School and Topeka High School. While attending college during the 1930’s, she served on the staff of the Phyllis Wheatley Bureau, a Topeka social service agency for African Americans. In 1938, she received a B.A. from Washburn University, and later joined the faculty at Kansas Technical School, where her sister, Jeanette, once taught. After earning a M.S. degree in Home Economics from the University of Iowa, she left Topeka to pursue teaching career at the college level.
For more than a decade she served on the faculties of two African American colleges, which include Bishop and Prairie View in Texas, and Kentucky State College in Frankfort, Kentucky. She returned to Topeka around 1959 to care for her parents. From the 1960’s until her retirement in the early 1980’s, she successfully pursued a career in nutrition at St. Francis Hospital and the Shawnee County Health Department in Topeka. Alberta still resides in Topeka.

Frederick Temple
Frederick Temple, the youngest of four children of Mr. John and Mrs. Pearl Temple, was born in Topeka in 1922. The brother of interviewees Alberta Temple and Jeanette (Temple) Dandridge, he attended Topeka Public Schools, which included Monroe Elementary School during the late 1920’s and early 1930’s and Topeka High School.
After serving in World War II, Frederick Temple completed his undergraduate studies in economics at the University of Wisconsin in 1947. He also earned a M.S. degree (1948) and a Ph.D. degree (1958) in agricultural economics from the University of Wisconsin. He began his teaching career by serving on the faculty of several historically Black colleges. In 1950, he joined the teaching faculty at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and continued to serve on the faculty until his retirement during the 1980’s.
Upon his marriage to Ray Helen Richard (born on November 11, 1929, in Rougon, Louisiana) in 1951 in Baton Rouge, he became an active member of the Catholic Church. He and his wife, who retired in 1981 from a career as a teacher and counselor for the Baton Rouge public schools, have two children, Doyle and Myra. Mr. Temple is a member of the Omega Phi Psi Fraternity and continues to reside in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Joe Thompson
Joe Thompson was born on November 2, 1906, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Fannie (Sims) Thompson, his mother, was born in Winnsboro, South Carolina, and his father, William Thompson, was born in Garnett, Kansas. Joe is one of six children. On both sides of the family, his grandparents had been slaves; one of his grandfathers was the spiritual leader of the slaves on the plantation he was on, and when he was freed, he declared himself a Baptist and started a church. The Thompsons moved to Topeka, Kansas, in 1907. Mr. Thompson’s parents are buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery.
Joe Thompson went to school at integrated Highland Park; it was an elementary school, junior high, and high school, all in one. The school had always been integrated. He graduated from Washburn University in 1948, after spending time in the army, and received a master’s degree from Chicago University in 1950. He is an ordained Episcopalian minister. Over the years Mr. Thompson has worked at a varied of jobs in a variety of occupations: the Post Office, Santa Fe Railway, and as a florist. He was the first African American probation officer in Shawnee County, Kansas.
Mr. Thompson married Tracy Harvey of Eudora, Kansas. The couple was married in Claremore, Oklahoma. Mrs. Thompson passed away in 1956; she is buried in Eudora. Joe Thompson is very active in the Topeka community. In the Boy Scouts, he has been a scoutmaster and council commissioner; he is currently the council advancement chairman. He also volunteers at the Cancer Society and the Red Cross. His hobbies include cabinet making, photography, and carpentry. Mr. Thompson still lives in Topeka.

Linda Brown Thompson
Linda Brown Thompson was born February 20, 1942, in Topeka, Kansas. The family grew to include two other girls, Terry born in 1947 and Cheryl born in 1950. Her mother Leola Brown was born in Arkansas and moved to Topeka at the age of two. Her father Oliver Brown was a Topeka native.
The Brown family found themselves involved in a class action suit to bring about integration in Topeka’s elementary schools. Mr. Brown was among the parents recruited by NAACP attorney Charles Scott. This group would comprise the roster of plaintiffs once their case was filed. During the NAACP work to organize a legal challenge, Linda and Terry, one of her sisters, attended segregated Monroe Elementary School. Had it not been for segregation, the girls would have attended Sumner, an elementary school closer to their home. In spite of the public stance taken by Mr. Brown on behalf of his children, Linda’s world did not change.
The family lived in an integrated neighborhood where children of all races spent their free time playing together. However, because of school segregation policies they could not attend the same school. In 1953 Oliver Brown became the pastor of St. Mark’s AME Church, and the family moved to another integrated neighborhood in North Topeka. It would be one year later that the NAACP case, ironically bearing Mr. Brown’s name, would be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. By that time Linda was in junior high school. Secondary schools were integrated. In 1959 Rev. Brown was assigned to Benton Avenue AME Church in Springfield, Missouri.
Linda graduated from Springfield’s Central High School in 1961. Oliver Brown died in June of 1961, and Mrs. Brown moved the family back to Topeka. For a short time Linda attended Washburn University and took classes at Kansas State University. She married Charles Smith in 1963. Later she divorced Smith and married Leonard Buckner, who died in the late 1980’s. In 1996 she married William Thompson. Linda still resides in Topeka, along with her mother, sisters, children and grandchildren.

Alvin and Lucinda Todd
Lucinda Todd was born in 1903 into the farm life of rural Kansas. Her childhood community was a small town called Litchfield. Her parents had been part of the post Civil War exodus from the South into Kansas. Mr. Slaughter, Lucinda’s grandfather, moved the entire family from southern Alabama. Already married, her parents joined the move. Lucinda’s mother Estella was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and her father, C.R. Wilson, was born in Georgia.
Since the Wilson family lived and farmed in a small, second-class city, by population, the community’s public schools were integrated. As a result, the twelve Wilson children were educated in a one-room elementary school attended by both African American and white children. Kansas law of that era only permitted segregated elementary schools in first class cities of fifteen thousand or more residents.
When Lucinda reached fifth grade, the family moved to Girard, Kansas, because in Litchfield there was no junior high or high school. After high school graduation she went on to Pittsburg State University in nearby Pittsburg, Kansas. Four years later with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education, her career began in a one-room school in southeast Kansas. In the late 1920’s she moved to the capitol city, Topeka. She was soon hired to teach at Buchanan, one of the city’s four segregated elementary schools for African American children. In 1935, she married Alvin Todd and resigned her teaching post in compliance with school district policy prohibiting the employment of married female teachers.
Alvin Todd was born on October 12, 1928, in Oskaloosa, Kansas. His parents were from Missouri. His grandmother raised him in Lawrence; his mother died when he was nine years old. After high school, he attended Washburn University for two years. Once he married Lucinda he went to work for the Menninger Foundation.
Mrs. Todd went on to become the secretary of the Topeka Chapter of the NAACP. She became the first to volunteer to serve as a plaintiff on behalf of her daughter, Nancy, in the organizations planned school integration case. Lucinda worked along side the attorneys for the Topeka Chapter. As chapter secretary, her home was the site of a strategy meeting that set the wheels in motion for the Brown case. After the U.S. Supreme Court decision of 1954 ending legal segregation in public schools, Mrs. Todd returned to teaching. She retired in 1965. Mrs. Todd passed away on July 17, 1996.

Ruby Brown Walker
Ruby Brown Walker is the only living sibling of the late Oliver L. Brown, for whom Brown v. Board of Education is named. She was born in Topeka on July 14, 1911, one of ten children in the Brown family. The family was deeply rooted in Topeka, beginning with their mother, Lutie Bass Brown, born in 1883, and their father, Francis "Frank” Brown, born in 1871. They are both buried in Mt. Hope Cemetery.
Ruby’s parents worked hard to provide for their growing family. Her mother was a domestic worker who cooked, ironed, and cleaned in several homes. Her father worked a short time in the coal mines of Burlingame, Kansas, from there to the Topeka Transport Company, and finally as a custodian for the Santa Fe. Her parents divorced, and her father left Kansas and moved to Butte, Montana. He died at the age of 58 in California.
The Brown children attended segregated Buchanan Elementary School, one year of Boswell Junior High, and went to Topeka High School. Ruby graduated in 1930. By 1938 she had completed her vocational pursuit and became a Board certified beautician. In 1940, she opened her own shop in Topeka. After she married Carl Harris in 1943, the couple moved to Kansas City, Missouri, in 1945. Ruby again opened her own shop in Kansas City and spent her spare time helping her husband with his tavern.
She divorced Mr. Harris in 1958, and by the early 1960’s she had returned to Topeka to care for her ailing mother. Back in the city, she worked as a nurse’s aide for St. Francis Hospital. It was also at this time, 1961, her youngest brother Oliver died at the age of 42. Ruby was not living in Topeka at the time the NAACP case, bearing her brother’s name, was being organized. In 1970 she married Claude Walker; the couple divorced in 1979. Ruby Brown Walker still resides in Topeka.

Lacy Ward
Lacy Ward was born February 9, 1961, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As a youngster he was sent to his parents’ hometown of Farmville, Virginia, to attend school. He lived in that rural community with his Aunt Flossie Hudson. Ms. Hudson taught school and was known in the area for her quick response during attempts by local African American students to integrate the schools in Farmville.
In the spring of 1951, local African American teens staged a strike at their high school to protest the poor facilities. By summer, the teens had secured the services of an NAACP attorney and their case was being heard in Federal District Court. Once the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Brown case, county officials closed all the public schools in Farmville, disregarding the integration ruling. Lacy’s aunt, Flossie Hudson, opened a community school for African American students in her home to keep them in school during the four-year school closure.
As an adult Lacy Ward joined the staff of Congressman Paine; Farmville was part of his Congressional district. Prior to Paine’s retirement in 1996, Lacy assisted a local group, the Martha E. Forester Women’s Club, with efforts to preserve and interpret Farmville’s school integration history. The court case, which emanated from their community, was eventually part of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. Lacy continued his efforts under the newly elected Congressman Goode. Lacy Ward’s mother was elected, in 1996, to the infamous Board of County Supervisors, the group responsible for the 4-year school closure. Lacy along with his wife and two children reside in Roanoke, Virginia.

Vadeth Whiteside
Vadeth Whiteside was born in Perry, Kansas, on March 6, 1913. Her parents were also Kansans. She is the daughter of Isabella (Bella) Rosella Bland of Jefferson County (died ca. 1962) and Moses Jones (died ca. 1923) of Oskaloosa. Her fraternal grandfather had been enslaved in Kentucky. He escaped with his family and found his way to a farm located between Perry and Oskaloosa. Vadeth was the third youngest of nine children. The Jones children attended integrated country elementary schools in Jefferson County and Perry High School. In her late teens she lived with her older sister and attended Topeka High School.
At the age of 17 she married and moved to Denver where she found work in a hat repair shop. After returning to Topeka, she worked in retail prior to 17 years of employment at the Menninger Foundation. Vadeth Whiteside has been married three times. Her first marriage was to Paul Bryant of Perry, Kansas. The second marriage was to Harold Hearst of Ozawkie, Kansas, and her third and final husband was James Whiteside of Independence, Missouri. She had two children, Barbara and Dean Bryant.
Her children attended Washington Elementary, one of Topeka’s four segregated schools for African American children. In the summer of 1950 Vadeth was asked to participate in the NAACP legal challenge to school segregation. Although she did not accept the NAACP offer, once her daughter graduated from Washington School, Vadeth enrolled her son in private school to escape segregated public schools. She believed he would receive a better education.
Her sister was married to McKinley Burnett, President of the Topeka NAACP. Vadeth was a member of the organization, but unlike her sister she was not actively involved. Vadeth Whiteside now resides in Phoenix, Arizona.

Carl Williams, Jr.
Carl Williams, Jr., was born in Topeka on March 21, 1920. His parents too were Kansas natives. Geneva Jackson Williams, his mother, was born in Columbus and Carl Williams, Sr., his father, was born in Eskridge. The family included Carl and one brother Claude. In 1948 he married Wanda, a young woman from Wabaunsee, Kansas. The couple has three children.
Carl was raised in an integrated neighborhood in South Topeka. He graduated the 8th grade from Monroe Elementary, a segregated school for African American children. He attended 9th grade at Crane Junior High School and graduated from Topeka High School in 1938. Both schools had integrated student bodies. During high school, Carl played basketball on the segregated school team, the Ramblers. He was the first African American student to be in the Topeka High School Acapella Singers Club. His education beyond high school includes an associate degree in corrections from Washburn University. He began his career in the National Youth Corps.
In 1943 he became a mechanic in the Santa Fe Railway Shops in Topeka. It was during this time that he met and worked with Oliver Brown. For a short time he also worked at the Santa Fe Shops in Needles, CA. He returned to Topeka and was drafted during WWII into the Army. His military service ended in 1946. He returned to work at the Santa Fe Shops; from there he was a charge aide at the Topeka State Hospital for 23 years. After attending Washburn he became a tax examiner for the State of Kansas. His final employment prior to retirement was as a lieutenant with the Kansas Department of Corrections. He has been and remains very active in African American organizations, and civic clubs. Carl Williams and his second wife still reside in Topeka, along with one daughter and her family. His other daughters live in Massachusetts and North Carolina.

J. Samuel Williams Jr.
James Samuel Williams, Jr. was born in New York City in 1933, but when he was six months old his parents separated and then divorced, so his mother moved back to Farmville, North Carolina. His parents were originally from there; he lived with his maternal grandparents. The three major influences in his life were his sixth grade teacher, Arthur Jordon; Professor Hall who taught African American history at his grade school; and the third person, George Watson, was his high school football coach.
Mr. Williams attended Robert R. Morton Elementary School (now Marion Grant Elementary School) for grades first thru seventh. There was no junior high; high school was eighth thru twelfth grade. Outside of school activities, he was active in the Boy Scouts and the First Baptist Church. While in high school, J. Samuel Williams took part in the student strike; he has always been somewhat of a leader, and in 1951 he was the senior class president. He had also become dissatisfied with the conditions at the high school compared to those at the white high school. During the strike, the students walked downtown and met with the superintendent of schools, they discussed the situation amongst themselves, and had a mass meeting at the First Baptist Church. Representatives from the NAACP were at the church meeting. His mother, who was teaching at Cumberland, was very supportive of the student strike; she understood what it was they were trying to accomplish.
After high school, Mr. Williams served in the army. In 1960 he was a student at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina. He graduated in 1962 and enrolled in the School of Religion in Union, North Carolina, in 1963. He graduated from there in 1967 after leaving to work and teach school for a few years. He took part in the seven demonstrations that the students held there, during which SNIC was formed. He was the chairman of the Stirring Committee as well as taking part in the demonstrations. In 1963 he took part in the demonstration in Farmville that lead to the desegregation of the theater and the hiring of African American workers at Safeway. He also took part in the demonstration to integrate the Farmville Baptist Church; he was arrested for that.
Mr. Williams was ordained as a minister on January 1, 1961, at the First Baptist Church of Farmville. After getting his degree from the School of Religion, he went to Buffalo, New York, where he was the supervisor for community development at Settlement House. At the same time, he was also the director of the social service department for the Council of Churches for Buffalo and Erie County, New York. He was also the fiscal director for the Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), the states side counterpart of the Peace Corps. The Williamses moved back to Farmville in 1977 and still reside there.

Frank Wilson
Frank Wilson was born in the small southeast Kansas town of Moran. After high school he attended 2 years of junior college in Iowa. He returned to Kansas and taught in a rural elementary school while taking classes toward a degree at Pittsburg State University. His master’s degree was obtained from Colorado State University and his Ph.D. from the University of Kansas.
Frank Wilson began his teaching career in a one-room school in Eureka, Kansas, and also taught in two other Kansas communities, Augusta and Manhattan. He arrived in Topeka in 1947, and served as principal of Sumner Elementary, a segregated school for white children. His tenure there was from 1947 to 1951. In the fall of 1950, the Topeka NAACP was in the midst of a plan to challenge segregation in public schools. Sumner was among the schools targeted by the organization. Frank Wilson was in his office when Oliver Brown attempted to enroll his daughter at Sumner as part of the NAACP strategy.
In 1951 Wilson was assigned for one year as principal of State Street Elementary, another segregated school for white children. From there he served for 25 years as principal of Whitson Elementary, which was also a segregated school. While at Whitson he witnessed the change, after the Brown decision, to integrated public schools. The last five years of his career were spent as principal of McCarter Elementary School. Frank Wilson and his wife still reside in Topeka.

Harriet Wilson
Harriet (Stephens) Wilson was born May 6, 1917 in Topeka, Kansas. Her father Harry T. Stephens was a Topeka native and her mother Senah Ramsey Stephens was from El Dorado Springs, Missouri. The Stephens family included three girls and one boy.
Harriet attended Topeka Public Schools including Lowman Hill Elementary, Boswell Junior High and Topeka High School. She graduated from the newly constructed high school as part of the class of 1936. Her post secondary education took place at the University of Kansas. She graduated from college in 1940 with a degree in English. Her degree was followed by one year of graduate work.
Harriet met Paul Wilson while attending the University of Kansas. After graduation they married in 1941 at the home of her parents in Topeka. Over the years the couple started a family, which eventually included four children: three daughters and a son. Throughout her life Harriet Wilson worked as a substitute teacher. She also supported and advised her husband Paul as he began his career as an attorney.
In 1950 they found themselves in the midst of a history-making journey. By that time Paul Wilson had joined the staff of the Kansas attorney general. He was immediately assigned to represent the state in a class action case against Topeka Public Schools. The case also named the state of Kansas as a defendant. Little did they know that Paul would find himself arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court, in Brown v. the Board of Education. Harriet Wilson considers herself an amateur historian. She still resides in Lawrence, Kansas.

Paul E. Wilson
Paul E. Wilson was born on November 11, 1913, in Quenemo, Kansas, to Clara (Jacobs) and Dale Wilson. His mother was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on March 14, 1891, and died in 1963. His father was born in Lucas, Kansas, and died in 1973. Both are buried in Quenemo. Another son, Morris, resides in Overbrook, Kansas.
Mr. Wilson is noted for his role as the attorney of record for the State of Kansas in the Brown Case. In 1951 it was his responsibility to defend the state statute that permitted segregated public schools. Mr. Wilson was born on a farm near the small rural community of Quenemo, Kansas. Quenemo, 40 miles southwest of Lawrence, is where he made his home. Until his recent death, he was semi-retired from a professorship at the University of Kansas Law School.
Mr. Wilson graduated from high school in 1930; he was a member of a small rural senior class of only 50 students. Even as a high school student his leadership skills were evident through positions as both class president and valedictorian. He arrived at his first day of school in a horse drawn buggy driven by his mother. From then on he walked the four-mile round-trip to and from school. The one-room school he attended all grades in shaped his commitment to education and led to his eventually seeking a college degree. Paul Wilson was a third generation Kansan. In the 1870’s his paternal grandparents migrated to Kansas from Indiana. Years later, his maternal grandmother migrated to the state after living in both Illinois and Missouri. His parents, like his grandparents before them, made their living from the land. The multitude of farm chores helped to shape Paul’s commitment to hard work.
Although his father had not completed grade school, Paul set high standards for himself. He decided while in high school that after graduation he would study to become a lawyer. However, the Great Depression and poor economic conditions in Kansas delayed his plans to attend college for three years. By 1933 he had worked and saved enough money to afford college tuition. That same year, he enrolled at the University of Kansas (KU). He received an undergraduate degree in political science in 1937, a graduate degree in 1938 from KU, and his law degree from Washburn in 1940.
Like so many young men of his day, Mr. Wilson was called on to serve his country during World War II. He was in the military for nearly four years. After military service he returned to home in Lyndon, Kansas, joining his new wife Harriet Stephen. She was born on May 6, 1917, in Topeka; the couple was married on June 18, 1941, in Topeka. Four children were born to the union: three daughters and a son. An ongoing interest in government led Mr. Wilson to seek elective office. He served two terms as county attorney, resigning during his second term. That same year he moved to Topeka to become an attorney for the Department of Social Welfare.
In December 1951, he joined the staff of the State Attorney General’s Office. The first case he was assigned to was Oliver L. Brown et. al. v. The Board of Education of Topeka. His role in his appeal was to represent the state’s interest during the Supreme Court proceedings. In 1957 he joined the faculty of the University of Kansas Law School. He semi-retired from KU in 1981, keeping part time office hours until his death and published his memoirs in a book called A Time to Lose. Mr. Wilson passed away on April 22, 2001, in Lawrence, Kansas.

8.2 Appendix B: Indexes to Individual Interviews

Jack Alexander (Kansas)
No index available.

Vera Jones Allen
No index available.

“Anonymous”
No index available.

Charles Baston (Kansas)
No index available.

Eliza Briggs (South Carolina)
No index available.

Onan C. Burnett (Kansas)
No index available.

Broadus O. “B. O.” Butler, Sr. (South Carolina)
No index available.

Judge Robert Carter (New York)
No index available.

Geraldine Crumpler (Delaware)
No index available.

Deborah L. Dandridge (Kansas)
No index available.

Jeanette Dandridge (Kansas)
Page Topics
6 Black national anthem
15 Girl reserves
16 Girl reserves, Negro Literary Society
21 Interactions with white students
23 Wheatley Girls, Incident at Monroe school
28 Girl Reserves, Dunbar Society, Miss Ansell, Russell Davis, National Honor Society

Jeanette Dandridge (continued)
Page Topics
29 National Honor Society, lunch in high school, white friends in high school
30 High school curriculum
31 Guidance counseling in high school, social activities in high school
32 High school prom, emphasis on education
33 Parents’ educational experiences, Helen McClury, Miss Harvey, Grandpa Thompson: Attended Harrison school, Haskell Indian School
35 Experiences at Washburn University, Financial challenges
36 Experiences at Washburn University, Miss Mamie Williams, sorority, Ivy
37 Sorority, social life in college, Pastor Warren
38 Teaching experiences at Kansas Vocational School, Jean Smith, Dean Sellen, Washburn University, Teaching in Hugoton
39 Teaching experiences in Topeka, Joe Douglas
41 Teaching experiences at Monroe, Miss Montgomery (Monroe teacher)
42 Kansas University, Teaching experiences at Kansas Vocational School
45 Reasons for leaving home
46 Skin Color, reason to keep daughter (Deborah Dandridge) in Washington School, black teachers and jobs

Maurita Burnett Davis (Kansas)
No index available.

Joe Douglas (Kansas)
No index available.

Claude Emerson (Kansas)
Page Topics
1 BG, BP, DOB, Parents: Margerite Harris and George Emerson
2 Siblings: George Emerson, Jr.; Wife: Florence Nicholson Emerson; Children:
Stephanie Emerson, Stacie, Adaira, Darriae, Stacey, Nicole, and Melissa
3 Ethnicity: African American and Blackfoot Indian; Education: Buchanan, Boswell Junior High and Topeka High School; Lowman Elementary School; Played with white children in neighborhood; Busing
4 Flood of 1951, Classrooms, Brown controversy, Junior High School, Transition to high school, segregation
5 Social activities, sports, curriculum
6 Buchanan, Boswell, Topeka H, Church affiliation: New Mount Zion, Margerite Emerson’s involvement in Brown case, school conditions – crowded, Ms. McBriar, curriculum, black history and black heroes
7 Reasons for segregation, church, junior high school, high school, Highland Park
Claude Emerson (Kansas)
Page Topics
8 Walked to school, church involvement, social life, baseball, basketball, relations across neighborhoods
9 Buchanan neighborhood, black and white, Linda Brown, Knights of Columbus, Margerite Emerson
10 Margerite Emerson, segregated public facilities, Ritz Theatre, Grand Theatre, restaurants
11 Public restrooms, white only signs in Kansas, Sports Street, A&P grocery store
12 Pelletiers, Hanna’s, Margerite Emerson, Brown’s Shoes, Crosby, Oliver Brown, race relations

Annie V. Gibson (South Carolina)
Page Topics
1 St. Paul and Spring Hill Elementary Schools, and Scotch Branch High School, Reverend Delany, petition, equality for blacks
2 Walking to school, buses, cafeteria, gym, Discrimination because of involvement in case, 1964 decision, tenant farming
3 Tenant farming, Discrimination because of involvement in case, Summerton Motel, Hearing in Charleston, conditions in schools
4 Textbooks, Topeka, Kansas, South Carolina, Clarenton County, BP, Black and White ethnicity, Hilton
5 Farming, education, memories of school as a child, black history
6 Siblings, children
7 Conditions after integration, private schools, segregated public facilities, Summerton Diner
8 Boycott of stores, Piggly Wiggly, Black businesses, transportation
9 Summerton, AME, social clubs
10 PTAs, church involvement

Barbara Gibson (Kansas)
Page Topics
1 BG: Barbara Caldwell Gibson, BP, BOB; Parents: Margerite Mallory Caldwell,
2 Hiram O’Neal Caldwell; Siblings: Annette Caldwell Jones; Spouse: William Gibson
3 Married in Washington, DC, Children Jon Gibson
4 Passing as white
5 Ethnicity of grandmother: Indian, Irish and English, Gladys, Bowsers, Mr. Johnson
6 Lucille, Connie Felks, Carpers
7 Leola Brown, Rosa Parks, Monroe School
8 Monroe, Van Buren, Polk, Percy Smith, Joan Smith, Psi – Omega

Barbara Gibson (continued)
Page Topics
9 Permissive law, Topeka High School, Separate parties, Harrison Caldwell, Monroe, Crane
10 Crane- integrated, Roosevelt, Topeka High School, Washburn, Gertrude McFarland, McFarland’s Restaurant, Kay McFarland
11 Separation, Univac computers
12 Howard University, adjustment to Howard, teachers at Topeka High School, Julia Etta Parks, Betty Jean Long Wilkerson, social clubs
13 Social clubs, Howard, Washburn, Faulks
14 Employment, graduate work
15 Jon Gibson, St. John’s AME
16 Religion, Calvary Baptist Church
17 Oliver Brown, Grandma Brown
18 Norma Jean Wheeler Pottison, Shirley Pottison, Barbara Lee, clubs, Mattie Richardson
19 Topeka High School, Ramblers, Margaret Bullock, Merrill Webster, Billy Harris, Ida Price, Jimmy Gilbert, James Parks, Oliver Brown
20 Hobbies: Tennis, bowling, reading, Important or significant events
21 Census worker, Department of the Army, David Taylor Model Basin, Applied Mathematics Laboratory
22 Applied Mathematics, Topeka, Brown case, Supreme Court
23 Sacramento State College, Oliver Brown
24 Oliver Brown

Dr. George Goebel (Kansas)
Page Topics
1 BG; Education; Emporia State; teacher one-room school; Jetmore and Hanson, Kansas; Wife: Maudine Goebel, teacher and principal - Randolph, State Street, Oakland, Quinton Heights, Kenneth McFarland, General Motors, Wendell --, Harold Goldman, Jim Gray
2 Topeka Country Club, Avondale School, desegregation, Central Park, Monroe, Wanda Scott, Lewis Wood, Sharon Woodson
3 Ms. North, Beverly Thompson, slave background, feeling inferior, Catherine King, Bill Bridges, transition to integrate school, riots on Kansas Avenue
4 Wanda Scott, Jim Woodson, Sharon Woodson, Summerfield scholars, transition to integrated schools, changes in Topeka after Brown, Stout School, Catherine King
5 Stout School, black teachers, Linn, Jetmore, Kansas, Nelson Moore, Kenneth McFarland
6 McFarland, Wendell Godwin, Frank Wilson, Quinton Heights, Integration, role of principals
Jack Greenberg (NAACP Attorney)
Page Topics
1 NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Topeka, education of blacks, Segregation in Topeka, Columbia Law School
2 NAACP LDF staff: Thurgood Marshall, Constance Baker, Frank Williams, Bob Carter, NAACP, Lisa Howe, Schools in Topeka –conditions, The Menninger Clinic, Delaware and Kansas, Supreme Court, apartheid
3 Ghetto school, NAACP cases, capital punishment, segregation on trains and buses, Esther Brown

L. L. Hall (Virginia)
Page Topics
1 BG, BP, DOB, Longwood Industrial School (St. Paul College), New York University, Physical education, Virginia State University, NAACP, Farmville, Snell
2 Farmville, boys reform school, Mr. Layton, Robert Morton High School
3 Robert Morton High School, teacher, Prospect, private white academy
4 Longwood College, school organization, school funding
5 Robert R. Morton High School, Mary E. Branch, Farmville Elementary School,
Council of Colored Women
6 Changes in schools, Dr. Henry, curriculum, teachers, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Washington, St. Paul, Winston-Salem Teachers College, Minor Teachers College
7 Teachers qualifications and employment opportunities, Mrs. Johns, Alabama, Virginia State University, Washington, girl’s chorus, school experiences, Prince Edward County, strike
8 Strike, Robert S. Morton High School, Mr. Jones, John Stokes, Rev. Griffin, cross burnings
9 Strike, Description of school – tarpaper shacks, First Baptist Church, Barbara
10 Closing of schools, meetings, retaliation for participation, Dr. Crawford, Mr. Putney, Dr. Lancaster, Longwood College, Mrs. Wright, First Baptist Church, Rev. Griffin, non-violent, Quakers, Society of Friends, sent children to school in Kentucky and North Carolina, Negro Methodist church schools, Murray Branch 2
11 School closing, Chet Huntley, David Brinkley, Robert Russell Morton High School, black teachers, Ms. Rawlings, Charlottesville, Betty Jean, James A, Wright School
12 Mr. Hall, Charlottesville, Snell, Boston, South Carolina, Tennessee, black teachers, school board, Cumberland County, tax money

Chris Hansen (American Civil Liberties Union)
Page Topics
1 Involvement in the 1980s, Richard Larsen, Richard Jones, Charles Scott, Sr., Charles Scott, Jr., and Joe Johnson, Compliance with S.C. order in Topeka

Chris Hansen (continued)
Page Topics
2 Desegregation-School Board’s opinion, Judge Rogers, Court of Appeals, TBOE’s
definition of desegregation, student attendance rules, school construction, school closings, transfer policies, transportation policies, faculty attendance rules, faculty assignment rules, faculty hiring rules, test scores, perceptions of schools
3 Public opinion survey, Kansas standardized test scores, college entrance test scores, Kansas’s segregation law
4 Patterns, teacher assignments, student assignments, student tracking, Linda Brown, HEW in 1976
5 HEW, Topeka school district, black community, re-opening of case, District Court, Court of Appeals, Supreme Court, U.S.D. 501
6 Annexation, Brown case, Atlanta, Freeman v. Pitts, Supreme Court, school desegregation cases in 1990s, conservativism of courts
7 Resegregation, neighborhood school plans, bussing plans, residential patterns, school board actions, geographic boundary system
8 Belvoir, west side schools, ratio, Local attorneys, Legal Defense Fund, ACLU, lead counsel
9 Legal strategies, Linda Brown, Elisha Scott, Charles Scott, Sr., Charles Scott,
Jr.
10 Hugh Speer, Lucinda Todd, local NAACP chapter, Life in Topeka during the 1950s,
internal segregation, Supreme Court, Richard Kluger, Arthur Benson
11 Arthur Benson, Kansas City case, Brown case, children’s rights litigation, foster care, Judge Clark, Topeka, Monroe
12 Racism in Topeka, Simple Justice, Thurgood Marshall, social change
13 Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, Brown v. Board of Education, Exodusters and Blacks in Topeka, Kansas

Cheryl Brown Henderson (Kansas)
Page Topics
1 BG, DOB, BP, Husband: Larry Dean Henderson, Children: Christopher Dean Henderson, St. John’s AME Church, education, Grant Elementary, Springfield, Missouri, Boyd Elementary, Topeka, Oliver Brown’s death
2 Sumner, integrated schools, Roosevelt Junior High School, Potwin, Governor Docking, Menninger, Topeka High School, Highland Park Hugh School
3 Linda Brown, Terry Brown, Roosevelt Junior High, religious home, isolation, Sherman Parks, cheerleader, pep club, plays, friendships
4 Black teachers, Ann Garvin, Vance Williams, Topeka High School, Highland Park High School, Brown legacy, Baker, CORE
5 Oliver Brown, civil rights, desegregation, history, news reporters, Charles Kuralt, Harry Reasoner, Linda Brown, Leola Brown, Missouri, Kansas, Baker
Cheryl Brown Henderson (continued)
Page Topics
6 Baker, Civil Rights Movement, 1968-1972, interracial dating, black student union,
campus marches
7 Roommate assignments, Baker dean of students, cheerleaders, discrimination on campus
8 Dorm incident, Edgerton, Baldwin, KKK, racial incident in Edgerton, racial slurs
9 Football games, white sororities’ rush, black sorority, Life in Topeka early 1960s
10 Education at Baker, high school guidance counseling, elementary education major
11 Teaching, employment options for African American women in early 1960s, journalism, guidance counseling, Emporia State University, Larry Dean Henderson, Washburn
12 Marines, Vietnam, teaching Civil Rights Movement, Interim Periods, Topeka High School walkout, racism and civil rights activities, Connie Menninger, teaching
13 Sumner Elementary, Monroe Elementary, teaching experience
14 Resources, Mrs. Holland, J. B. Holland, Linda Brown, Sandy Lassiter, Monroe, school climate, black parents
15 Black students and parents, hostile attitude, respect of teachers, white teacher
attitudes
16 Civil Rights Act of 1964, in-service training for teachers, experiences teaching in a white school
17 experiences teaching in a white school, counseling experiences
18 Experiences as an elementary school counselor in Topeka, teacher contract negotiations in Topeka
19 Reasons for leaving teaching, Employment with State Department of Education, Awareness of Brown, Brown & Brown Associates, Linda Brown
20 Brown & Brown Associates, attitudes in Topeka, Linda Brown, educational consulting business, New York, Good Morning America, NAACP, Night Watch
21 Brown & Brown Associates, Linda Brown, Brown Foundation for Educational Equity, Jerry Jones
22 Life Magazine, Brown Foundation for Educational Equity, Coors, National Park Service
23 Brown Foundation for Educational Equity, Bi-racial, Multi-racial
24 African-American, Afro-centric curriculum, multicultural, unassimilated diversity
25 Topeka in 1991, racial acceptance, Brown Foundation for Educational Equity
26 Racism, integration, gang activity
27 Brown Foundation for Educational Equity, racism, black community, Fourteenth Amendment
28 Linda Brown, desegregation, changes in black community

Zelma Henderson (Kansas)
Page Topics
1 BG; BP, DOB, Parents: Pansy Belle Hurst and Thomas L. Hurst
2 Siblings: Kermit Hurst, Mary Catherine Hauns, Elver Hurst, Faith Scroggins, Leland Hurst; Colby, Kansas; Spouse: Andrew Henderson
3 Andrew Henderson; Children: Donald Henderson, Vicky Henderson; Ethnicity: Indian, Irish, Dutch
4 Homesteaders, Oakley, Kansas, One-room school in Thomas County,
5 Oakley, Kansas; Migrants (Exodusters); occupational experience; Topeka, Kansas; Vocational School
6 Beautician, religion, St. John AME, Baptists, Oakley
7 Changing denominations, Baptists, Methodists, Charles Bell, Beautician’s Sorority, Beta Zi Epsilon, Alpha Ki Phi Omega, La Senoritas, Back Home Topekan, Diane Jackson, painting
8 Important event – Brown v. Board of Education, Life in Thomas County,
9 Oakley, experience in one room school
10 Moving to Oakley, experiences in Oakley
11 Black community in Oakley, High school
12 Oakley, Topeka in the 1940s – employment experiences
13 Racial incident near Colby, Ramseys, support from whites
14 Department stores, brothers’ experiences on football team
15 Experiences homesteading in Thomas County
16 Black community in Oakley, employment - farming and railroad
17 Segregation in Topeka, Brown v. Board of Education, social life, social clubs, Pearl Max’s, La Senoritas
18 La Senoritas, Josephine Bryce, Hallmark, domestic work
19 State Hospital, skating nights, the Bottoms
20 Segregated theatres, Andrew Henderson, Berdyne Scott
21 La Senoritas, La Polamas, Bachelor Boys, Gay Nineties, Pleasure Mirrors, St. John’s AME
22 Skin color
23 War time – employment, Morrells, Goodyear, McKinley, Graham case
24 McKinley, Mamie Williams, Ethel Barber, Involvement in Brown, Charles Scott, Sr.
25 Charles Scott, Sr., John Scott, Berdyne Scott, La Senoritas, NAACP, Mr. Burnett
26 Involvement in NAACP, Mr. Burnett, Lena Burnett, Alvin Todd
27 NAACP, Kansas Vocational Institute, Dr. G. Robert Cotton, Ida Norman, Mrs. Alberta Parks, Girl Scouts
28 Alberta Parks, Fanny Brown, Kansas Vocational Institute
29 Flood of 1951, small black business, beauty shop
30 Mr. Burnett, Alvin Todd, McKinley, educational conditions in Topeka, early 1950s, textbooks and equipment, Oliver Brown
Zelma Henderson (continued)
Page Topics
31 NAACP’s admission attempts – test run
32 Soliciting of plaintiffs, State Hospital, opposition from white and black community
33 Black teachers, female plaintiffs, Oliver Brown
34 Oliver Brown, NAACP, Harrison Caldwell
35 Harrison Caldwell, Brown case, perceptions of, Charles Scott, Sr. and John Scott
36 Charles Scott, Sr. and John Scott, Changes in Topeka after case, integration of
public facilities, The Dunbar, impact on black businesses
37 Girl Scouts, Ida Norman
38 Monroe, Girl Scouts, Ida Norman
39 Girl Scouts, Ida Norman

Barbara Henry (Delaware)
Page Topics
1 BG, BP, DOB, segregated hospitals, Memorial Hospital, Nallwood, Hickman Road, Worth Steel, Father
2 Mother, Reason parents came to Delaware, domestic work (day work), Union
3 State Line School – one room school, Mrs. Dyson, knee babies, Claymont High
School, experiences in school, Bethel AME, Baptist, Twin Oaks, CME
4 Claymont High School, State Line School, Mrs. Dyson, experiences in one room school
5 Experiences at Claymont High School, Mr. Phillips
6 Experience in North Carolina, Racial incidents at Claymont, teachers
7 Dr. Weber, racism, black student teacher from Delaware State College, curriculum, guidance counselors, University of Delaware, Zelda Trotter, Howard University, Mrs. Dyson, Chaney, domestics, blue collar workers
8 Wanted to be a teacher, Brown case, desegregation, Spencer’s mother, Louise, Ms. Dyson, integration
9 Integration, Claymont High School, State Line School, Mr. And Mrs. Stall
10 Claymont High School, Hagley’s Museum, Mrs. Dyson. Aunt Lena, Spencer
11 Beulah Stamp, Lois Mae, Mamie, Claymont High School, significance of integration efforts
12 Martha, Spencer, Merle, Mr. Stall, Belton case, Judge Sites
13 Louis Redding, NAACP, Beulah, original plaintiffs, Aunt Lena
14 NAACP, Mrs., Dyson, Aunt Lena, Bethel AME, elite church, Worth Steel, Mr. Caufield, teacher salaries
15 Ms. Dyson, Claymont High School, Ms. Lohr
16 Warner School, experiences with integration

Rev. E. B. Hicks (Kansas)
Page Topics
1 BG, BP, DOB, Parents: Carrie Smith Hicks, Daniel Henry Hicks, Siblings
2 Spouse: Effie Mae Hicks (1st), Roena Sayers
3 Children: Rosemarie Sanderson, Milton Thaddeus, Dan Trevor and E. B., Jr.; McKinley School, Quincy Junior High, Topeka High School (dropped out), experiences in school
4 Walking to school, Grant School, integrated neighborhood, Quincy, facilities – differences
5 Teachers, Second Baptist Church, Pace Milling Company, domestic worker
6 Wichita, Salida, Colorado, Salt Lake City, Utah, Skinner’s Nursery, Santa Fe shops, Washburn
7 Degrees: Bachelor of Theology, Master of Divinity, A. B. and D. D.; Santa Fe lay-offs; depression
8 Work during the Depression, Penney Outlet Shoe Store, Topeka Dairy, Morrell
Packing Company
9 Morrell Packing Company, Feliz, preacher at First Baptist Church in Paxico, Holton, Horton
10 Horton, Faribault, Minnesota, Duluth, Minnesota
11 Preacher at Duluth, Minnesota, First Baptist Christian Church of Duluth Rev. Pennington, chaplainry
12 Army Reserves, St. Paul, First Lieutenant in the Chaplains Corp in the Army, WW2, Fort Wachooga, Alabama, 25th Infantry Regiment, Tucson, Arizona
13 Fort Ell in Massachusetts, bombings on east coast, job as Chaplain
14 job as Chaplain, segregation at Camp Ayr
15 Atlantic Defense Zone, racial problems in the military - 93rd Division
16 USO – black and white, treatment on black officers
17 Arizona, Topeka after WW2
18 Executive Secretary and Missionary, Washburn, Wife worked at Sears, American Baptist, National Baptist
19 American Baptist Home Missions Society, Dr. Weis, Missionary Baptist Convention, Kansas Baptist Convention
20 Executive Secretary and Missionary, Home Missions Society
21 Job on National Staff of Home Missions Society
22 Home Missions Society
23 Home Missions Society, Regional Executive Minister for the American Baptist Churches of the South
24 Regional Executive Minister for the American Baptist Churches of the South, Atlanta, Georgia, Citizens’ Bank (black bank in Atlanta), Ebenezer Baptist Church, Home Missions Society, Baptist Board of Education and Public Issues, American Baptist Foreign Missions Society, Minister’s Missionary Benefit Corp
Rev. E. B. Hicks (continued)
Page Topics
25 Regional Executive Minister for the American Baptist Churches of the South, 1971-1976
26 Minister of Quality Relationships, Grandville, Ohio
27 Minister of Quality Relationships, Grandville, Ohio, Central Seminary in Kansas City
28 Dr. Fred Young, Interdenominational Ministries and Brown
29 Interdenominational Ministries, Oliver Brown, Rev, Faust of St. John AME, Rev. P. H. Hill of Shiloh Church, Rev. E. Barnard Herd of Calvary Church
30 Topeka High School, Topeka Junior High School, Oliver Brown, St. Mark AME Church
31 Influence of Brown – positive and negative impacts, black teachers

Charles “Chuck” Hill (Delaware)
Page Topics
1 BG, BP, DOB, Concord, Delaware, Sussex County, WW1, PGH Philadelphia General, DuPonts, Claymont School, community nurse
2 Claymont School, community and school nurse, Claymont community, PTA
3 Churches: Episcopal, Methodist, Baptist and Catholic, movie theatre, adult fraternal organizations – Red Man, community service organizations – Lion’s Club, Masonic Lodge, Knights of Columbus, police, volunteer fire department, employment – Wilmington, DuPont Company, Atlas, Hercules, Steel Mill, segregated company housing for steel mill
4 Sports, desegregation, Mr. Stall, Mrs., Dyson, State Line School, Judge Seitz, Brown v. Board, acceptance
5 Perceptions of integration, Mr. Stall, Martha Trotter, Claymont School, busing, Brown v. Board of Education, Life Magazine
6 Preservation of Claymont School
7 Arden, Claymont School, Mrs. Dyson
8 Mrs. Dyson, State Line School

Oliver Hill (Virginia/Attorney)
Page Topics
1 BG, BP, DOB, Roanoke, VA, Richmond, _______ Academy, Petersburg _______ Academy, St. Paul, segregation, WW1, Washington, _________ school
2 Decision to attend law school, Howard University, Mordecai Johnson, Charles Hamilton Houston, Thurgood Marshall
3 Tucker, Richmond, Slaughters, Virginia bar exam
4 Roanoke, Richmond, Minor Normal (wife attended), Depression, Washington, Fordham College
5 Black waiter union, CIO, AFL, Dr. Ransom, Richmond, law practice
Oliver Hill (continued)
Page Topics
6 Army, OCS, England, France, Ft. Mead, Alexandria, VA, Louisiana, Camp Claburn, army experiences
7 army experiences, England, North Wales, Prince Edward County, Charles Hamilton, George Hays, Garland Fund, NAACP Thurgood Marshall
8 Civil rights, Thurgood Marshall, Supreme Court, 1902 Constitutional Convention in Virginia, segregation, transportation, streetcar strike, Chief Justice Fuller, Dean v. City of Richmond, Warrick v. City of Louisville, Republican Party, Democratic party, West v.__________
9 Teachers’ salaries and education, restrictions on teachers, early suit for teacher salaries, Mandy Morrison
10 Mary Morgan, Morgan v. Virginia, Spotswood Robinson, Montgomery County
11 Busing in Virginia, Corbin case, Bobbie Jones, school strike, NAACP
12 Farmville
13 Conditions at Farmville school, lawsuits in Virginia, Richmond Citizens Association
14 _________ Powell, Richmond Citizens Association, incidences of racism

Christina Jackson (Kansas)
Page Topics
1 BG; BP; DOB; Mother: Georgia Edwards; Father: Jess Edwards
2 Husband: Enoch Jackson; Children: Jennifer, Richard, Gary, Enoch, Theada, Craig, Arthelee, Jesse; Educational experiences
3 Paraprofessional work experiences, Kansas Motor Vehicle Department, AME, Eastern Star, Women’s Political Caucus, PTA, Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts, Volunteer Action Center, Ramona Hood Award, Community Resource Council
4 Eastern Star, Important Life Events, Life in Topeka in late 1940s, early 1950s, Neighborhood, East Topeka
5 Washington, skating rink, bus and walking, Depression
6 Father worked at Santa Fe, raising chickens, picking greens, Washington school, music, Mr. Ridley (principal), Health Room
7 Washington, black teachers, Monroe, black and white teachers, Mrs. O’Dell, Miss Jones, Miss Hicks, Miss Bradshaw, Miss Benton, Topeka High
8 Field day, Chandler field, interaction of teachers between schools, Washington School, Mr. Ridley, black history, Marcus Garvey, Washington school film, Back Home Topeka, Henry Burton
9 Monroe School, Brown case meetings, Oliver Brown, Jennifer, Gary and Richard, State Street School, Children’s transition from Monroe to State Street, Mr. Barkley
10 Children’s experiences at State Street, Holiday, Oakland, Racial slurs
11 Racial Slurs, Gage Park pool, Ridley Park, Topeka High, guidance counseling,
Gary, Richard, Jennifer
Christina Jackson (continued)
Page Topics
12 Jennifer, Junior, Meetings after Brown, Richard Jones, Oliver Brown, Gary, Kansas University
13 Gary – fired, Arthur Lee, special education, church
14 Social events at Ridley Park, East Topeka, experiences with integration
15 Topeka High School boycott, furnishing of textbooks, State Street school integration, teachers at State Street
16 State Street teachers, feelings about being black, friendships with whites
17 Gary at Kansas University

Eugene Johnson (Kansas)
Page Topics
1 BG, BP, DOB, Aunt Essie Mason, Mother - Theota Lee
2 Father: Johnny Johnson; Wife: Charline Hoard
3 Monroe School, Crane Junior High School, Topeka High, CCC camp, Army, Employment: Jean’s Sandwich Shop, Santa Fe Railroad, Motive Power
4 Reserves, Supply Depot, Winter Jones Veteran’s Hospital, Post Office, Bowser Funeral Home, Religion: Lane’s Chapel, Mount Carmel Baptist Church, St. John’s Methodist Church (Mason), Calvary Baptist
5 Mount Carmel Baptist, Jordan Patterson Post American Legion, Masonics, Number 18, Back Home Reunion – founder, Charles Scott, Carl Williams
6 Boris Slaughter, Boy Scouts, Gil Thompson, Jayhawk Hotel, Charles Scott, Jack Alexander, Tommy Jackson
7 Back Home Reunion, Bessie Wilson
8 Back Home Reunion, hobbies, important events, Essie Mason
9 Essie Mason, Charles Scott, GI Bill, Kansas Vocational School. Military
10 Texas military experiences, Ft. Riley, Calvary School, Jackie Robinson, Saddle and Harness Making, Korea, Topeka in 1920s
11 Topeka in 1920s, Monroe School, Grant Cushinberry’s Park, Euclid Park, Gage Park, South Topeka neighborhood, Trip Around the World
12 Trip Around the World, predominantly black neighborhood, segregation, Pitch’s Drugstore
13 Euclid Park, Jobs: packing house, Santa Fe, bellhops, janitors, Highland Lords, club in North Topeka
14 Black businesses, Mudtown, T. L. Moons hairdressers, restaurants, hotel, Hooverton, barber shops, Betty Evans, Maude Gray
15 Monroe, Phyllis Wheatley Building, Gil Thompson, Experiences at Monroe
16 Experiences at Monroe, Fred Rountree, Lula Higgins (cooked for Monroe)

Eugene Johnson (continued)
Page Topics
17 Monroe teachers: Miss Bradshaw, Mrs. Eagleton, Miss Cook, Miss Walker, Miss
Palmer, Miss Myrtle Storns, Mrs. Montgomery, Mrs. Abbey, Mr. Turner, Mr. Burton, Ellis Turner (principal), strict teachers, Experiences at Monroe
18 Miss Graves, Tracy Mitchell, Joe Thompson, scout troop Camp Nash
19 Phyllis Wheatley boy scout troop, Girl Scouts, Tennessee Town, sports activities
20 Monroe, Buchanan, McKinley, Washington, Crane Junior High School, white specialist teachers: Miss Kittle (penmanship), Miss McNair (drawing), Mrs. Burnett (music)
21 Mr. Dennimore (physical education), Open House at Monroe, Purell College
22 Purell College, childhood experiences in Topeka in the 1930s, Topeka High School
23 Monroe, experiences at Crane Junior High School
24 Integrated sports at Crane, segregated sports at Topeka High School, transition
from Crane to Topeka High School, City Park, Marling Hornets
25 Marling Hornets, Ed Marling’s Furniture Store, Transition from Crane to Topeka, Booker T. Washington Club, Phyllis Wheatley Club, Ramblers, Jim Parks, Julia Parks
26 Second Floor gathering place (Room 200), Booker T. Washington Club, integrated choir, William Knight, Chandler Field, integrated intramural teams
27 Topeka High, Wendell Drew, Arthur Caperton, Charles Scott, Roosevelt Junior High, black community’s feelings about segregated athletic teams
28 Track, Harry Carper, segregated parties, Highland Park (more liberal – integrated football and basketball, black king and white queen, 1950s)
29 Joe Thompson, Edward Thompson, academics at Topeka High School, Miss Woolcot, Miss Fuller, Miss Culbert, Miss Bishop, Mr. Snyder
30 Mr. Hayes, experiences as student at Topeka High, Mr. Van Slyke (principal), Mr. Edwards (assistant principal), Depression, Boy Scouts
31 Boy Scouts, Gay Knights club, Charles Scott, Tennessee Town, Stella Puellas (sister club), Pals of Pleasure
32 Social clubs and parties, the Owl Club, Pleasure Mirrors, Bachelor Boys, Gay Knights
33 Dropping out of high school, Tuskegee Institute, John Henry Johnson, Gil Mary, Emporia State, Washburn, Ike Brady, Art Fletcher
34 Washburn, Art Fletcher, Owl Club, Bachelor Boys, Gay Knights, Masonics, Elks, color,
35 Color, Burnetts, Miss Bowser, Nuke Bowser, St. John’s church
36 Charles Scott, Topeka, Freddy Rogers, passing as white
37 Freddy Rogers, sacks for coloreds and Mexicans
38 Social life, Max’s Tavern, City Park, Ritz Theatre, Mrs. Cooper, Henrietta Shepard
39 Apex Theatre, Grand Theatre, Jayhawk Theatre, Farina
Eugene Johnson (continued)
Page Topics
40 Herb Jeffries, “Rhythm on the Range” Dunbar Hotel, Joe Louis, Kansas City,
Emporia, Manhattan, Salina, Por’ E Richards
41 Por’ E Richards, Fidells, military, blind the passenger car,
42 Army, Camp Funston, ROTC, boiler men, Fort Riley, San Antonio
43 Thayer Phillips, John Neal, Alonzo Rogers, Charles Scott
44 Pearl Harbor, Ninth Calvary, Mudtown, 92nd (Buffalo Soldiers), Fort Wachooga, John Neal, Thayer Phillips
45 Europe, Italy, Jackie Robinson, Officer Candidate School, Jimmie Stevens, Kansas Vocational School, UCLA, Joe Louis, Kansas City Monarchs
46 Fort Riley, 28th Calvary, 27th Calvary, Kansas City Monarchs, Negro Baseball League, Indianapolis Clowns, Baltimore Rays, Tennessee
47 House of David’s, Satchel Paige, Kansas City Monarchs, Gillis Red
48 Gillis Red, Kansas City Monarchs, Topeka after WW2, Baldwin’s skating rink
49 Fifteenth Street area, Jay Mack Sham, Metropolitan Hall, Duke Ellington, Gene Calloway
50 Fifteenth Street area, Meadow Acres, Metropolitan Hall, Nat King Cole, Santa Fe, Army Reserves, Iron Horsemen
51 Motive Power Building (ran elevators), Iron Horsemen, Kenneth Graham, Oliver Brown, Charles Scott, John Scott, Berdyne Gwen, Brown family, Brown Foundation
52 Brown case, Post Office, Scroggins, Brown family, Burnett, Berdyne Scott, Leola
Brown Montgomery
53 Reaction to integration, loss of black teachers
54 Gage Park swimming pool, Harrison Caldwell, Vance Williams, Kansas Vocational School, Topeka High School
55 Bottoms, Topeka in the mid-1950s, Santa Fe, packing house, Veteran’s Hospital, Barbeque Place
56 Experiences in Topeka, Kansas City

Lois May Johnson (Delaware)
Page Topics
1 BG, BP, DOB, experiences growing up in Hockessin
2 Sister: Lorraine, Neighborhood, Claymont, Hockessin Supply (coal and lumber), mushrooms, Hockessin School
3 Hockessin School, Mrs. Bujon, Mrs. Russell, teachers, conditions in school
4 Chippy Chapel, parents, NAACP, Shirley
5 Experiences with integration, Mrs. Chaney, Redbook, Hockessin school on the hill, Mrs. Margaret Moore (principal and teacher)
6 Letter from white parent, Margaret Moore, Ernie Thompson, Leroy Peterson
7 Bus, mother’s involvement in the case, Howard School, Absalom Jones School
Lois May Johnson (continued)
Page Topics
8 Absalom Jones School, Conrad School, GED
9 Quitting school, Shirley Belton, Retaliation for participation in suit, Peterson boys, Louis L. Redding
10 Louis Redding, , Retaliation for participation in suit, Changes in Hockessin, Kelleys, Gromleys, Mrs. Thompson, racial slurs
11 White attitudes, segregated conditions in Richmond, Va., Girl Scouts
12 Incident at Rose Bud restaurant, 107 colored school reunion group

Katherine King (Kansas)
Page Topics
1 BG, BP, DOB, Mother - Bessie Hicks King
2 Father - Richard Leonard King, Sr., Paternal grandfather: Richard Leonard King
3 Paternal grandmother - Eliza Brewer
4 Father worked for Santa Fe (electric crane operator)
5 Childhood experiences growing up in Topeka
6 Childhood experiences growing up in Topeka, Golden Valley, information about sister and brother-in-law
7 Washburn, information about sister and brother-in-law
8 Information about sister and brother-in-law, Elisha Scott, E. B. Hicks, Pentagon secretarial jobs in 1940s
9 Phyrn King, Clay School, Buchanan School
10 Forced to go to Buchanan instead of Clay beginning 6th grade year, walked to school, St. John’s AME Church, Thomas, Oakland, State Street Topeka High
11 Teachers at Topeka High School
12 Integrated cafeteria at Topeka High School, High School tuition in 1930s, Crosby Brothers, Ward and M. Crosby, Payne Shoe Store, Depression, Santa Fe, Printon’s Grocery, Washburn, Kansas University
13 Information about brothers and sisters
14 Teaching job in Topeka, Mother’s catering business
15 PTA, plays, operettas, mother’s health, Central Topeka
16 Information about family, decision to become a teacher, Washburn, State of Kansas Certificate in teaching
17 Life Certificate, Degree Life Certificate, Hugoton, Kansas, one room school, teaching
18 Teaching experiences, Information about family
19 Teacher coursework at Emporia, teacher for 44 years
20 Teaching experiences, Topeka Public Schools Playground, Mr. Kellogg
21 Mr. Diddimore, her health, Oliver Brown Ruby Walker Brown

John Land III (South Carolina)
Page Topics
1 BG, BP, Chairman of Democratic Party, Member of South Carolina Highway Commission, Manning , SC, Forester, SC
2 Slavery, migration to the North, University of Florida Forest Ranger School, law career, South Carolina House of Representatives, Manning, SC
3 Manning Training School, Manning High School, segregated education, Briggs case, NAACP
4 Selling of fuel oil to blacks during attempts to desegregate, racism
5 Opposition to integration, Department of Social Services, Progress in Clarenton County in 1995, progress in race relations, 1968-1990, Reversal in racism,
1992-1995, Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Republican, Carroll Campbell
6 Wedge process, South Carolina demographics, Summerton Apparel Company

Rev. Maurice J. Lang, III (Kansas)
Page Topics
1 BG, BP, DOB, Mother: Ruth Juanita Sterling, Father: Maurice Joseph Lang, Jr.
2 Siblings: David Lewis Lang, Laura Lang Richardson, Joe E. Lang, Children: Maurice Joseph Lang, IV, Robert Dean Lang, Sr., Jonathan E. Lang and Linda Sue Dickey
3 Ethnicity: Indian and Irish, Oakland Elementary School, Sumner Elementary
4 Grant Elementary, Curtis Junior High, Mexicans allowed to attend Grant, racially mixed neighborhood, Quincy, Monroe, Father employed as carpenter/real estate
5 Highland Park High School, Topeka High School, integrated school
6 Curriculum in high school, Foursquare Gospel, L.I.F.E. (Lighthouse of the International Foursquare Evangelism) Bible College
7 Aimee Semple McPherson, studies at L.I.F.E. Bible College
8 American Bible College, Tried to organize a black Foursquare Gospel Church in Topeka, open air meeting, “Blacks and Mexican served in a sack”, Kresge, Woolworth’s
9 Army, Korean Conflict, Germany
10 Zercher Photo, Willard church pastorship, played piano
11 Oliver Brown, Community paper, Pictorial, religious films, St. Mark’s AME Church
12 Martin Luther King, Jr., Oliver Brown
13 Manhattan: pastor of AME church, Springfield, Missouri, Oliver Brown,
14 Oliver Brown’s death
16 Florida, Christian Evangelistic Association, Inc.
17 Experiences at L.I.F.E. Bible College
18 Experiences at L.I.F.E. Bible College, U.S. Roosevelt, Jonathan Lang
19 Childhood stories
20 Martin Luther King, Jr.
Henry Lawson (South Carolina)
Page Topics
1 BG, BP, DOB, Crawford County, St. Paul, Summerton, Scotch Branch School, St. Mark Church, school burned down
2 PTA meetings, Joe Kaney, Scotch Branch School, Bobby Elliot, Julia Kaney, length of school year, farm work
3 Bud Ross, Henry Ross, fieldwork, Walk to school, Liberty Hill Road, Liberty Hill
Church, life in country
4 Field work, childhood experiences, Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt, School lunch
5 School lunch, description of school, County Superintendent McCord, electricity
6 School classrooms, school supplies, conditions of white school, Scotch Branch high school, St. Paul high school
7 Black teachers, Professor Anderson (principal), Miss Finch, college training of teachers, examinations, report cards
8 Parent’s education level, school classrooms
9 White schools, Work experiences, Lincoln College?, Discrimination in stores,
Briggs case, ______ Wells
10 Meeting at church about integration (mock faculty meeting), Principal disapproved, Rev. Lane, (AME minister, principal at Spring Hill School), _________ George, conditions in school
11 Mock faculty meeting, Robert __________, Reverend Lane, Supreme Court, NAACP, Meetings, Levy, Briggs case
12 Alabama, Reverend Lane, retaliation against Rev. Lane, Changes in Clarendon County
13 Need for economic efforts, NAACP, Time as a school board member, white private school, white citizen’s council, closing of high school
14 NAACP, meeting to keep high school open, B. O. Butler, resignation of white school board, John McDonald, appointed school board
15 School board resignation in 1971, black political power

Clara Ligon (Virginia)
No index available.

Dr. Ernest Manheim (Kansas)
Page Topics
1 Class and blacks of African descent, Chicago, segregated restaurants, Atlantic City, 1937
2 Kansas City and race relations, 1938, Admission of black law student to Kansas City University

Dr. Ernest Manheim (continued)
Page Topics
3 Admission of black law student to Kansas City University, integration of swimming pool, racism, caste system
4 Race relations and psychology
5 Differences between American racial attitudes and European attitudes
6 Cultural differences in Europe, Cultural superiority
7 Immigration in Europe after WW2, Austrian-Hungarian monarchy, Russian
nationalism
8 Russian nationalism, Russian language differences, Yugoslavia, Serbian nationalisms, Croatians and Serbians
9 Croatians and Serbians—economic differences, sociology
10 Austrian monarchy, Karl Manheim, KCU, 1938-68, Parent’s cultural attitudes
11 Info about parents, Involvement as an expert witness in Brown, Hugh Spear, Plessey v. Ferguson, segregated education
12 Desegregation, Supreme Court, consequences of Brown decision, integration
13 Southwest school in Kansas City, assimilation, class problems, integration of Kansas City neighborhood (Spruce and Fourteenth), Neighborhood integration in
California
14 Brown case, NAACP, levels of racism, residual of caste system

Clementine Martin (Kansas)
Page Topics
1 BG, BP, DOB, Mother - Eva Bradshaw, Father - C. James Phelps
2 Grandparents lived in Jetmore, Sibling - Dorothy
3 Siblings: C. Kermit Phelps; Husband: Eugene Martin
4 Children: Eva Louise Blythe
5 Grandfather Bradshaw was Justice of Peace in Emporia, Educational experiences: attended school in Chillicothe, IL., St. Louis, Springfield, MO., Tulsa
6 Washburn, 1940-41, left college when she married, Episcopalian, Grace Cathedral
7 Kansas Association of Colored Women, American Legion’s Auxiliary, Mr. Mitchell, T. P. Martin
8 Newton, Kansas, Father was railroad cook
9 Integrated school in Illinois, Segregated school in St. Louis, Santa Fe and Frisco
10 Sumner High School (St. Louis), Lincoln High School (Springfield, MO),
11 Black teachers, black community, segregated public facilities, integrated neighborhood in Springfield, segregated education
12 Black business in Springfield, drugstore, Fourth Street in Topeka, Black communities in Springfield: Westport, Eastlawn, The Hollow
13 The Hollow, Moving to Topeka, Black community in Topeka – Fourth Street area.

Clementine Martin (continued)
Page Topics
14 Dr. Martin and Dr. Jackson, Metropolitan Hall, Scrinopsky’s, Elisha Scott’s law office
15 Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity party, Leonetta and Vivian
16 Moving to Topeka, Juanita Walker, Aunt Lizzie Mallory, worked as cateress
17 Lizzie Mallory, Catered white parties
18 Light skin, passing as white, Dr. Martin, Potenger, McCrod, Mr. Lydel
19 Charlie Lydel, white Negroes, Elisha Scott, Alexanders, Hatches, Pages, social clubs, Richardson’s, Pearl Bowser
20 Pleasure Mirrors, Pearl Bowser, catering experiences, light-skin
21 Mallory’s Catering, Westboro, Clevengers, Husseys, Deans, Eugene Martin
22 Eugene Martin joined police force, 1939, Mr. Lydel, Kinney
23 Charlie Lydel, Al Potenger, Harry McCrod, Floyd Williams, Jake (Mexican), Ed. Holford
24 Black policemen worked in North Topeka, Patrolled the Bottoms
25 The Bottoms, Robbie’s Chili, Fifteenth business area, Ballard Skating Hall
26 Fifteenth, Doc Washington’s Drugstore, Foxes, Eureka Dance Hall, Mudtown, joints in Mudtown
27 Eugene Martin – Navy - WW2, initially registers in the military as white, California, Shore patrolman
28 Washburn in 1941- segregated socially
29 Joe Thompson, public segregation after WW2, theatres
30 Signs- “Negroes and Mexicans served in a sack”, theatres
31 Employment with sister-in-law, Lucille Phelps catering service, Burnett and NAACP
32 McKinley Burnett, white Negroes, Scotts (Elisha, John and Charles), Martins
33 Brown, Oliver “Popcorn” Brown, First reader: The Little Red Hen
34 Rev. Burton, AME church, Asbury M. E. Church, St, Mark AME, Calvary, St. John, Second Baptist
35 Holiness Church, St. Simon’s Episcopal, Grace Cathedral
36 Integration in the 1950s, Integration and the Episcopal church
37 Impact of Brown
38 Impact of Brown

Connie Menninger (Kansas)
Page Topics
1 BD, DOB, BP, Mother: Marian Arnold Price, Father: Henry Alexander Libbey, Brother: John Prince Libbey, Husband: William Walter Menninger
2 Stanford University, The Stanford Daily, Children: Fritz, John, Liza, Marian, Will, David, Ethnicity: Scotch, Irish, English, Educational Experiences: Pittsburg, TX, Boston
Connie Menninger (continued)
Page Topics
3 Boston, Harvard, Wellesley, Newton High School, Windsor School
4 Vassar, Smith, Holyoke, Radcliff, Bryn Mawr, Stanford, Kansa University, Cornell Medical School, Occupational Experiences: National Broadcasting Company, Program Analyst
5 Show of Shows, The Today Show, Boston City, First Presbyterian Church, St.
Francis Hospital, Robert Wood Johnson grant, Bill Roy, Bob Jacoby
6 Kansas University, Donald McCoy, Kansas Historical Society, Joe Snell, Bob Richmond
7 Santa Fe records, First Presbyterian Church, Congregational Church, Red Cross, Community Resources Council, Mulvane Board, Topeka Board of Education, Great Books program
8 Great Books program in TUSD 501 east side schools, hobbies and interests, Topeka Board of Education, Walt Menninger, Time magazine, Menninger Clinic, Topeka in 1940s and 1950s
9 PTA, Topeka in the 1958, Brown Supreme Court decision, Ike Eisenhower, NBC, segregation, integration, childhood in Texas
10 Kansas and the Civil War, Stanford, John Brown, awareness of blacks, Randolph
Elementary School, work on school board, black teachers, Boswell Junior High School, Topeka High School, Tennessee Town, racial attitudes
11 Gage Park pool integration – 1957-58, white neighborhood (15th and Plass), Menninger Foundation, Federal reformatory on El Reno, Washington, D.C., Peace Corps
12 Topeka, 1964, ethnic communities, Catholic, Oakland community (Mexican), Santa Fe Railroad workers
13 Power brokers in Topeka: Dave Neiswanger, Laird Dean, Charlie Clevenger
14 Potwin, economic impact of Brown decision
15 First Presbyterian Church, Andy Chandler, Santa Fe, Topeka during Civil Rights Movement
16 Topeka during Civil Rights Movement, Integration of police and fire departments
17 Integration of police and fire departments, School board election, Isabelle Neiswanger
18 Cathy Menninger, Ham Abrams, School board election, Menninger Foundation, Buchanan and McKinley neighborhoods
19 Brown, Rockefeller Republican, Goldwater Republican, Independent Republican, U.s. Commission on Civil Rights - Kansas Committee, Project Assurance Schools
20 Project Assurance Schools, Attitudes of educators, school board member, National Convention on the Causes and Prevention of Violence
21 School visitations, Merle Bolton, Neighborhood school concept

Connie Menninger (continued)
Page Topics
22 Brown case, school performance, test scores, distribution of dollars –1969-1973,
Jimmy Woodson
23 State Board of Education, Topeka Board of Education
24 Fred Rousch, school board make-up, private Catholic Schools, Private Lutheran
School, Topeka Collegiate, Topeka West
25 Topeka West, Woodson and the black community, Gray Ladies (volunteers at Veteran’s Hospital), appointment of black member
26 Woodson, visitation of schools, protests in Topeka, conditions in schools – 1970s
27 Conditions in schools – 1970s, changes in Topeka, protests in Topeka
28 protests in Topeka, Cathy Menninger, UNICEF, Topekans for Equal Opportunity (TEO)
29 Cathy Menninger, Highland Park High School, Topeka High School, Student protest at Highland Park High School
30 Walk-out at Highland Park High School and Topeka High, crisis meetings of school board, walk-out by Mexican students, school board’s reaction
31 Walk-out at Highland Park High School and Topeka High, crisis meetings of school board, Woodson, Black community
32 Student leaders, Larry Lindsey, Woodson, school board’s response to walkout

William Mitchell, Jr. (Kansas)
Page Topics
1 BG, BP, DOB, Mother: Vivian Anderson Mitchell
2 Father: W. A. Mitchell
3 Siblings: Edwin Warren Mitchell, Cecil Anderson Mitchell, Genevieve Irene Mitchell, Thaddeus Paul Mitchell
4 Sister: Opal Louise Mitchell
5 Spouse: Lucille Mitchell
6 Antioch Baptist Church
8 Ethnicity: part Indian
9 Education: Dropped out of school in 10th grade, the Avenue, shoe shiner, cleaning press, John Vaulis the Greek, Topeka Shining Parlor, waiter at Jayhawk and Kansas Hotel
10 State House, Santa Fe office, Pelletier’s
11 Women’s Club, Mr. (Leo?) Norman,
12 Georgia Neese Gray, Secretary of the Treasury
13 Educational experiences: Washington Elementary School, Sumner Grade School – all black
14 Black school in Pierce Addition, Ramey, Leona Florid, Chicks Florid, Peter Florid, and Kind Florid
William Mitchell, Jr. (continued)
Page Topics
15 Transferred from Sumner to Buchanan
16 Crane Junior High School, Jim Parks
17 Parks family
18 David Staton
19 Joe Louis, Jackie Robinson, Fort Riley, C.C. Camp
21 Ike Brady, Lincoln, NE
22 Bruce Tatum, Bullet Rogue, Satchel Paige
24 Antioch Baptist Church, American Legion, the Elks, the Masons
26 North Star Supper Club
27 Important events: most highly recognized waiter, Holiday Inn, Stormont Vail, Mason, The Blue Lodge, the Elks
28 C.C. Camp, Lawrence
29 C.C. Camp, Leavenworth, St. Paul MN, Crookston, skin color
30 C.C. Camp, Crookston, Clear Creek
31 C.C. Camp
32 C.C. Camp, Duluth
33 C.C. Camp, Crookston, MN, Rooming house in Clear River
34 C.C. Camp
36 The Apex, The Ritz
37 Neighborhoods: East Topeka (Mudtown), West Topeka (Tennessee Town), North Topeka (Sandtown)
38 Topeka in 1925, Experience in white theatre, Delaney brothers, Zelda Simon, Ham Brooks, passing as white
39 Segregated public facilities, Signs-“Negroes and Mexicans served in sacks only”
40 Black businesses: Carbon Brothers café, Apex theater, barbershops, Al Alexander
43 Segregated athletic teams at Topeka High School, Arthur Capleton, Tennessee Town
44 Jimmy Parks, Highlights
45 East Topeka (Mudtown), race relations in 1930s, Depression, Washington School, Miss Barker, Bill Green (janitor), Sumner
46 Mr. Stout, Incident at swimming pool, Dr. Wickstein, Mexicans and blacks relationships
47 Interracial marriage (Mexican and black), transfer to Buchanan from Sumner, Lawyer Guy (black attorney like Scott)
48 Professor Wade, Monroe, Professor Fred Roundtree, Topeka High School, McKinley, Buchanan, Washington
49 Experiences at Crane Junior High School, Mrs. Wise, Mr. Anderson, Lincoln Junior High
50 Topeka High School, job selling papers, Mr. Kessler, Kessler’s Appliance Store
William Mitchell, Jr. (continued)
Page Topics
51 Loans, Mr. Hoover, Joe Nickel, Harry Amos, John Vaulis
52 David G. Algerswood, experiences selling newspapers
53 All black football team, Chandler Field
54 Kansas Vocational School, Christian School, club sports, UCLA, Forrester Slaughter
55 Mr. Slaughter’s combo
56 Mr. Slaughter’s combo, Willie Too Sweet Bennett, black musicians
58 Owl Club, The Ambassadors, Pleasure Mirrors, Esquire
59 Pleasure Mirrors. Class, St. John’s Church
60 Class in black community – education, clothes
61 Skin color, class in black community, Tracy Mitchell
63 The Bottoms, Russell Davis, Kansas Hotel, Washington, Chicago, Isaiah Edwards, Seattle, Washington, Ulysses Homershine, Raymond Davis, Russell Davis
64 The Bottoms, Willie’s Place, Little Slats, violence in the Bottoms, southern Negroes
65 Southern Negroes, Black Sam, Sam Coleman
67 Phillips family
68 Phillips family
69 Phillips family, military service, changes in Topeka after WW2
70 Changes in Topeka after WW2, Veteran’s Administration, Menninger, Floyd Black, Art Fletcher
71 Mamie and Ethel Williams
72 Williams family, Mamie and Ethel Williams
73 Sawyers, DeMalls, Eugene Sawyer, Brown case, John and Charles Scott
74 John Scott, Brown case
75 Impact of Brown case on Topeka, Civil Rights Movement
76 Fifteenth Street area, Ballard’s Skating Rink
77 Ballard’s Skating Rink
78 Ballard’s Skating Rink, Overton Hotel, Nash’s cleaning place
79 Overton’s grocery store in Mudtown and North Topeka, southern Negro, Nick Wright’s grocery store
80 Harrison Caldwell, McFarland
81 Harrison Caldwell, Larson School, Dale Sharp, Henry Bow
82 Mr. Deats, North Star, Impact of Brown case, Impact of Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King, Jr.
83 Protests during 1940-1950, Segregated conditions
84 Integration and Myron Green’s restaurant
87 Impact of Brown on black community, Interactions with white community
88 Interactions with white community, W. O. Anderson, Anderson’s Produce House, North Star, Bob Brown
William Mitchell, Jr. (continued)
Page Topics
89 North Star, Bob Brown

Leola Brown Montgomery (Kansas)
Page Topics
1 BG, BP, DOB, Mother: Carrie Cole, Father: Edward Williams, Santa Fe shops
2 Brother: Robert Williams, Spouses: Oliver Brown, Thirkield Montgomery, Children: Linda Brown Buckner, Terry Tyler, Cheryl Brown Henderson, Maternal Grandmother: Priscilla Gays (Irish and Black)
3 Paternal Grandfather: John Williams, Educational experiences: Monroe Elementary, Lincoln Junior High, Topeka High School, Work experiences: J.C. Penney’s, Merchants National Bank, Religion: St. John’s AME Church, St. Mark’s AME Church
4 Springfield, MO., Benson Avenue AME Church, Organizations: NAACP, AARP, Pals of Pleasure, Fleur de Leis Art and Charity Club, Knee Plus Ultra, Hobbies
5 Important event: Schooling, Brown Foundation, Childhood experiences in Topeka
6 Santa Fe shops, Willie Cole and Andrew Harmon, Childhood experiences in Topeka, The Bottoms,
7 The Bottoms, New Mount Zion Baptist Church, Oliver Brown, St. John’s
8 Mixed neighborhood: white, black, Hispanic, Indian, Santa Fe shops, Monroe school
9 Monroe School, bus, Mr. Bryant (bus driver), Teachers at Monroe in the late 1920s
10 Monroe school, Students: Gene Johnson, Paul Williams, Georgie and Viola Hill, Lois Goddard, Howard Hardy, Arthur Cauckman, Buchanan, Washington, McKinley, Myrtle Graves (teacher), Ellis Turner (principal),
11 Henry Burton (teacher), Emma Cooper (teacher), Miss Tracy Mitchell (teacher), Monroe school
12 Monroe school: atmosphere and teachers, Preparation for integrated high school, Sumner Elementary
13 Sumner, Monroe, Lincoln Junior High, Differences between Monroe and Lincoln
14 Integrated social activities at Lincoln, Depression, Santa Fe shops
15 Work experiences, Klan activities, neighborhood experiences
16 Transition to Topeka High School, segregated social and extracurricular activities, Phyllis Wheatley Girl Reserve, Sunlights, Forest Slaw
17 Sunlights, Mary McLeod Bethune, Phyllis Wheatley Girl Reserve, Room 200, integrated National Honor Society
18 National Honor Society, John Paul Jones, Queen of school party for blacks, Bernice Fuller
19 Bernice Fuller, Arthur Caperton, King and Queens would go to each other’s party

Leola Brown Montgomery (continued)
Page Topics
20 Social life in Topeka, Metropolitan Hall, Max’ Tavern, Rich Jailer, Grand Theatre, peanut heaven, Ritz Theatre
21 Max’s Tavern, Gay Knights, Pals of Pleasure
22 Pals of Pleasure, La Senoritas, Chick ‘n Chat, White Lakes, Dunbar Hotel, Max’s Tavern, segregated Public facilities, Woolworth’s
23 Woolworth’s, passing as white, Glen Moth, Topeka High
24 Topeka High School racial incident with teacher, Home Economics
25 National Honor Society, Oliver Brown, Topeka High School, Jayhawk Hotel, Bowser’s Mortuary, Elk’s Club
26 Oliver Brown, Buchanan, black communities perceptions of black schools, City Park, Merrill Hawks (baseball team)
27 City Park, Marshall Band, swimming pool
28 Phyllis Wheatley, Oliver Brown, Bremerton, Washington, military service, Santa Fe shops, Linda Brown, Fort Riley, Osage City
29 Santa Fe shops, Flying Horsemen’s Club
30 Conditions in Topeka during WW2, Rationing during the war, Linda Brown, Transportation to Monroe
31 Transportation to White schools, Immigrants in Topeka
32 Immigrants in Topeka, Pals of Pleasure, Oliver Brown, Max’s, Ritz
33 Metropolitan Hall, Elizabeth Carrington Moore, Marlene and Richard King, Back Home Reunion, Margaret Robinson, Dorothy Dixon, Linda Brown, NAACP, Oliver Brown
34 NAACP, integration of schools, Oliver Brown, Golden Gloves
35 Oliver Brown, Golden Gloves, City Auditorium wrestling matches, Duke Ellington, Fats Wilder, Father Hines, Erskine Hawkins
36 NAACP. Integration of schools, Oliver Brown’s attempt to enroll Linda Brown
37 Reasons for integration, Sumner and Monroe, quality of education, Linda Brown, distance and safety
38 Test runs on schools, Oliver Brown
39 St. John’s, New Mount Zion, Oliver Brown
40 Oliver Brown and the ministry, Integration of schools, NAACP
41 Charles Scott, Test runs on schools, NAACP
42 NAACP, McKinley Burnett, Charles Scott, John Scott, Elisha Scott, Charles Bledsoe, Legal progression of suit
43 Brown case, Responses from white and black community, Oliver Brown, debates in black community
44 Debates in black community, Oliver Brown
45 Naming of case, Oliver Brown, McKinley Burnett, Malcolm, Marita, Maxine

Leola Brown Montgomery (continued)
Page Topics
46 McKinley Burnett, Mrs. Todd, NAACP
47 Vivian Scales, Mrs. Carper, Shirley Hodgson, Mrs. Emmanuel, Mrs. Lewis, Maude Lawton, NAACP, Oliver Brown’s leadership role
48 Oliver Brown, Thurgood Marshall, Meeting at historical society building
49 Charles Scott, Thurgood Marshall, Oliver Brown, Brown decision
50 Brown decision, celebration at Monroe school, NAACP, response from black community, response from white community
51 Linda Brown, integration of schools, Grant Elementary, Monroe, McKinley, Buchanan, Marshall, Washington, closing of black schools
52 Cheryl Brown Henderson, Changes in Topeka, Civil Rights Act of 1964, Integration of pool at Gage Park
53 Changes in Topeka, Oliver Brown
54 Black community’s perception of Brown’s role in case, class, skin color,
55 Social class, La Senoritas, Pals of Pleasure, La Paloma, St. John’s AME
56 Social class, Oliver Brown, St. John’s AME
57 Changes in schooling, counseling in high school, social class
58 Springfield, MO. Oliver Brown and Chamber of Commerce, Maurice Lang
59 Maurice Lang, Oliver Brown
60 Brown Foundation, Cheryl Henderson Brown, Jerry Jones, Black community’s attitude toward the Brown Foundation
61 Black community’s attitude toward the Brown Foundation

Constance Baker Motley (NAACP LDF Attorney)
No index available.

Ida Norman (Kansas)
Page Topics
1 BG, BP, DOB, Parents: Mary Sheffield and William Sheffield
2 Siblings: Will, Mary, John, Barbara, Harold, Ruth, Husband: Leo Norman
3 Daughter: Norma Jean Norman
4 Mary Pheifer Sheffield, John Roundtree, Rosa Roundtree, Mother was part Mohawk, Educational experiences: nursing, Dr. Harold Phipps
5 Hot Springs, Arkansas, Depression, AME Church, nursing, Douglas Hospital in Kansas City, KS
6 Nursing school: Kansas City, Emporia, Kansas Vo-tech School in Topeka, Leo Norman, Puget Sound Navy Yard
7 Nurse at Puget Sound, WW2, Seattle, Washington, Sinclair Heights, Port Arthur
8 Saratoga, job as liaison between military and families, St. John’s AME
9 CME, Young Women Voters, YWCA, Mamie Williams (teacher), Our Gang
Ida Norman (continued)
Page Topics
10 Hobbies and interests, Important life events, Mrs. Washington
11 Lena Hall, Mike Delano, Ida Norman, Kansas Vo-Tech, Hillhaven, Professor Herman T. Jones
12 Job as nurse, Hospital at Kansas Vo-Tech School, Dr. Martin
13 KVS, Dr. Martin
14 KVS, Topeka
15 St. John’s AME, Mr. And Mrs. Payne, Baptist Church, social class among black community
16 Social class among black community, Madge Harris, Taylor, Fourth Street, black business area
17 Fourth Street, School nurse, Dumas, Washington school, Mr. Ross, social class among black community, Nurse’s Association
18 Nurse’s Association (integrated), Chocolate Shop, racial incident with owner of Chocolate Shop
19 Madge Taylor, Leo Norman, Seattle
20 Return to Topeka, Harrison Caldwell, Dr. Scott, Ruth Scott, North Topeka, experience with in-laws
21 Dr. Scott, Ruth Scott, Our Gang, bridge club, Dr. Ross, Bill Scott
22 Bill Scott, Ruth Scott, Harrison, Caldwell, Nashville, TN, Washington School, McFarland, school nurse job, Bert Parks, Fort Wachooga, Leo Norman, navy
23 Bert Parks, Harrison Caldwell, job as school nurse, Ruth Ferrin
24 Nurse at black schools, Harrison Caldwell, Merrill Ross, Velaela Harrison
25 Our Gang, Baptist, social class in black community, Harrison Caldwell, Mr. Dittamore, Ruth Ferrin, school nurse job
26 Harrison Caldwell, school nurse, Clinton Grove, nurse at white school after desegregation
27 Nurse at white schools after desegregation, Clinton Groves, McKinley, Monroe, Pierce Addition, Washington School, Polk School, East Avondale, Mr. Ross
28 Nurse’s duties, Crane Junior High School, differences between black and white principals
29 Incident with black principal at Buchanan
30 Nurse’s duties, Head Start
31 Head Start, quality of education prior to Brown, Topeka High School
32 Black teachers, Katherine King, Mrs. Vance, Mr. Holland, Mamie Williams, YWCA
33 Mamie Williams, Ethel Williams (teacher and principal – McKinley and Buchanan), Integration of schools, St. John’s Church, Oliver Brown, Linda Brown
34 NAACP meetings, Integration of schools, Oliver Brown, Iron Horseman’s Club, Santa Fe shops

Ida Norman (continued)
Page Topics
35 Monroe School, Crane Junior High, Lucinda Todd, Zelma Henderson,
Washington, Brownie Scouts, Master Scouts
36 Zelma Henderson, Topeka West, French, parent teacher organizations
37 PTA meetings, Stout, home visits
38 Home visits, NAACP meetings
39 East Topeka, black teachers opinion about integration effort
40 Mamie Williams, experiences as school nurse, East Avondale, Polk School
41 Harrison Caldwell, Polk School
42 Diddimore Quinton Groves, Donald Ross (principal at East Avondale School), Mr. Cook, Head Start
43 Iron Horseman’s Club, Leo Norman, Bill Thompson, Women’s Auxiliary to Iron Horseman’s Club
44 Iron Horseman’s Club, Brownie Scouts
45 Brownie Scout troop, Rev. Haus, Mr. Moden
46 Brownie Scout troop

James Parks (Kansas) [Interviewed with Julia Etta Parks]
Page Topics
2 Mother: Rosa Anna Drame
3 Father: James A. Parks, maitre de at Jayhawk Hotel
4 How family got to Topeka
7 Educational experiences: Washington School, Sumner School, Roosevelt Junior High School, Topeka High School, military service in Navy, Specialist First Class, Great Lakes
8 Work Experiences: Wholesale drug salesman
10 Member of St. John’s AME
11 Story of how they met, Softball team, Kansas Vocational School
13 Organizations: Omega Psi Phi
14 Topeka Shawnee County Planning Commission
15 Topeka Shawnee County Planning Commission, Topeka Housing Authority, Lana Barbara
16 Volunteer Action Center, Mobile Meals, Bob Cowans International, House of Representatives, doorkeeper
17 Bob Cowans International, House of Representatives, doorkeeper
19 Educational experiences, Sumner School
20 Experiences at Sumner, Change to segregated schools in Topeka
21 Change to segregated schools in Topeka, Clay School, Buchanan School,
22 Change to segregated schools in Topeka, Washington School, Curriculum at Sumner; Clay School, Potwin School, Catholics Schools
James Parks (continued)
Page Topics
23 Neighborhood, segregated education
28 Segregated social activities at Topeka High, athletics, black basketball team
29 Integration of Topeka High basketball team – 1957, Clayton Beist, Jr., Dillard’s, Thomas Thompson
30 Coach Hadley, Sumner School, separate social activities
31 Separate social activities
33 Integrated gym class
34 Jewish grocery store, The Metropolitan, black Masons, Army Navy Store, White pool hall, doctor’s offices, George E. Lee, Benny Moton, Twelve Pals of Joy, Franklin Hayes, Jim McShan
35 Social activities in Topeka, Max Tavern, The Dunbar, Dizzie Jasper, Cab Calloway, Jayhawk Theatre, Jayhawk Hotel, Dickinson, Grand,
36 Louie Jordan, Oliver Brown, Brown case, Buchanan School, Boswell, Mose Woodson
37 Mose Woodson, Lowman Hill, Board of Education
38 Mose Woodson, Topeka State Journal, Roosevelt teacher retirement, Potwin, Clay and Sumner
39 Lowman Hill
40 Impact of integration on black teachers
41 Buchanan and Lowman Hill, Cheryl Brown Henderson, Sherman Parks, Jr.

Dr. Julia Etta Park (Kansas) [Interviewed with James Parks]
Page Topics
1 BG, BP, DOB, Mother: Idella Johnson Long, Father: Hays Long
2 Sister: Betty Jean Wilkerson, Spouse James Parks, Son: James Pace
4 Mother was Black and Indian
5 Educational experiences: Addox, KS (Kansas City, KS), Christmas Addox, Monroe Elementary School, Crane Junior High School, Topeka High School, Washburn (BA and MA), University of Kansas (PhD)
9 Work experiences: Ladies Dress Shop, Menninger Foundation, teacher at Lowman Hill School
10 Taught at Washburn, Member of St. John’s AME
11 Story of how they met
12 Organizations: Alpha Kappa Alpha, Topeka Chapter of Links, International Reading Association, Kansas Reading Association, Delta Kappa Gamma Women’s Sorority, the Sigma Chapter; Associate’s Board of the Topeka Performing Arts Center
13 PTA, reading instruction
17 Educational Experiences – teachers, curriculum
18 Educational experiences, black teachers, teacher’s meetings
Dr. Julia Etta Park (continued)
Page Topics
19 Black teachers, black history, Langston Hughes
23 Differences between segregated and integrated schools
24 Same textbooks, Crane Junior High School, Topeka High School, Sumner High
School in Kansas City
25 Sumner High School in Kansas City, Rosedale, KU Medical Center, Topeka High School, teachers at Topeka High School
26 Topeka High School, Elizabeth Culver, Miss Fuller, Washburn, National Honor Society
27 Elizabeth Culver, white student government at Topeka High School
30 Separate social activities
31 Separate social activities
33 Friendships across race, Integrated gym class
34 Apex Theatre, The Ritz, Grand Theatre, black businesses, Jewish grocery store, Max Tavern, The Metropolitan, Count Basie
35 Max Tavern, Dunbar Hotel, Jayhawk Theatre
36 Jimmy Lunsford, Cab Calloway, Oliver Brown, Leola Brown, Brown case
37 Boswell and Topeka High, Mose Woodson (Superintendent of Schools)
38 Teaching at Lowman Hill, Integration at Lowman Hill
39 Impact of integration on black teachers, Lowman Hill

Ferdinand Pearson (South Carolina)
Page Topics
1 BG, BP, One Room School, Bob Johnson School, school conditions
2 Farming, length of school year, tenant farming and sharecropping, Differences between Clarenton County and Summerton, black land ownership
3 Black land ownership, slavery, siblings
4 Lawsuit for transportation, Mount Zion, Scotch Branch in Summerton, meeting at church, school bus, Joe Delane, NAACP, Jordan, NAACP, discrimination against participants
5 Credit system, Bennie Pearson, Rev. Delane, Summerton area, Bob Johnson School, Transfer of Rev. Delane
6 Shootings, cross burnings, Briggs case, NAACP, Changes after Briggs
7 Integration

Thayer Brown Phillips (Kansas) [Interviewed with William Mitchell, Jr.]
Page Topics
1 BG, BP, DOB, Mother: Madia Brown
2 Father: Jessie Roberts Phillips
4 Brother: Gregory Wendell Phillips, Talayah Corinne Miller
Thayer Brown Phillips (continued)
Page Topics
5 Spouse: Barbara Jean Sheffield, Harold Sheffield
6 Child: Jesse Roberts Phillips, Ethnicity-mother- black, father – black and Indian
7 Fort Smith, Santa Fe Railroad, Bank of America, Jessie Roberts Phillips
8 Depression
13 Educational experiences: Crane Junior High, Elementary in Alameda, CA., segregated education in Topeka, Jimmy Parks
15 Oliver Brown
17 Crane Junior High, Topeka High, Fort Riley, blinding the train, Chicago, Kankakee, Illinois
18 Blinding the train, Camp Funston, Ninth United States Calvary, Gene Johnson, David Staton, Lonzo Rogers, Hank Jackson
19 Buffalo soldiers, Fort Riley, Camp Funston, Jackie Robinson, employment at Morrell’s Packing House
20 Morrell’s Packing House, Goodyear, Baby Johnson, Lloyd Johnson, Washburn, G. I. Bill
21 Art Fletcher, Onan Burnett, Donald Redman, Eugene Brooks
22 Ike Brady, VA Hospital, Sherman and Sheraton Parks, New York University Graduate School of Business, Air Force, Port of Newark
23 Informal segregation at Washburn
24 Employment with Veteran’s Administration, Washburn, Kansas University, M. S. W., Youth Center
25 Second Baptist, American Legion, Omega Psi Phi, Midwest Elks, Back Home Reunion, National Association of Social Work
26 Hobbies – sports, important events, graduation from Washburn, Kansas University
28 First Chief Social Worker, field faculty at Kansas University, Menninger Foundation
34 Differences between Topeka and Alameda, California in 1933, segregation
35 Topeka in 1930s, segregated theatres, peanut heaven
36 The Apex, neighborhoods (1930s)
37 Neighborhoods: South Topeka, North Topeka (Sandtown or Jordan Town)
39 Segregated public facilities
41 Experiences at Crane Junior High School
42 Experiences at Crane Junior High School, Topeka High School, segregated social activities, Arthur Capleton
43 Ramblers
44 Merrill Ross, Jimmy Parks, all black experience, community
52 Ramblers
53 Bowser’s Ghosts (basketball team), all black football team, Chandler Field, Topeka High, Johnny Escavel (Esquival), Mike

Thayer Brown Phillips (continued)
Page Topics
54 Kansas Vocational School, Lawrence black football team, UCLA, Forrester
Slaughter, NCAA
55 Mr. Slaughter’s combo
56 Girl’s social clubs: Stella Puellas, Back Home Reunion, Ambassadors
59 Class, St. John’s Church
60 Class in black community
61 Skin color, class in black community
62 Class in the black community, Tennessee Town, Elmhurst, Lowman Hill
63 The Bottoms
65 Whole line families, the Sawyers
66 Mikie and Liz Hayes, Todds, Frankie and Glennis Hayes, Stable Parks
67 Jessie Roberts Phillips
69 Changes in Topeka after WW2
70 Changes in Topeka after WW2, Goodyear, VA hospital, supply depot, Art Fletcher, Brown case
71 Scott, Oliver and Leola Brown, Mamie Williams, black teachers
72 Emporia State, black teachers, teacher’s group, Mamie and Ethel Williams
74 Black teachers
75 Brown case, impact on Topeka, Civil Rights Movement
76 Fifteenth Street area, Ballard’s Skating Rink
77 Ballard’s Skating Rink
78 Ballard’s Skating Rink
79 Overton Hotel
80 McFarland, General Motors
81 Harrison Caldwell
83 Protests during 1940-1950
85 Integration in Topeka, Jessie Roberts Phillips – school experiences at Monroe Elementary, Crane Junior High and Topeka High School
86 Impact of Brown on black community, Interactions with white community

Jean Price (Kansas)
Page Topics
1 BG, BP, DOB, Mother: Mamie Richardson Scott, Father: Glover Scott
2 Siblings: Nellie Scott, John Albert Scott. Marian Scott McDonald, Husband: Gratz Price, Daughter: Pamela Price Long
3 Wichita Schools, Kansas City – segregated, Sumner High School, Japanese internment, California, North High in Wichita
4 Baptist church in Los Angeles, Wichita University, Neighborhood in Wichita

Jean Price (continued)
Page Topics
5 Experiences in Wichita Schools, white teachers
6 Religious education, religion, Glover Scott
7 Glover Scott, childhood experiences
8 Domestic work, North High, Wichita University, Baptist church
11 Teacher in Wichita, Lowman Hill School (Topeka), Advocacy for Aging, Kansas
Teaching Center
10 State Hospital, emotionally disturbed children, Kansas University, Parkdale School, Lowman Hill
11 Teaching experiences
12 Taught 3rd, 4th, all grades, Experiences as black teacher in white school
13 Incident with principal
14 Relationships with white teachers, teaching experiences, Washburn, Mr. Chipman
15 Teaching experiences, Emporia State University, summer trips to England and Germany
16 Impact of Brown
17 Links, Retired Teachers Association, Volunteer at Quinton Heights, language tutor at Washburn
18 The Eagle. Language tutor at Washburn, Kansas City Call, Social life, Furr’s
19 Safeway, Holiday Inn, Ramada Inn
20 Gratz Price, Santa Fe shops

Fred Rausch, Jr. (Kansas)
Page Topics
1 Experiences as Topeka City School Board member (1957-1977), integration of teachers, opposition from white community, opposition from black community, change in school district – 1961
2 Attitudes toward integration, neighborhood school concept, reopening of Brown
3 Busing in Topeka, election to school board, Southwest, Crestview, McClure
4 Topeka High School. Topeka West High School, experiences as board member, Educational experiences in Topeka in 1930s/1940s, Parkdale Elementary School, Lincoln Junior High School, East Topeka Junior High School, Topeka High School
5 Mudtown, Santa Fe Railroad, Information about parents, Beaumont, TX, Kingsbury, KS, racial incidents at Topeka High
6 Racial incidents at Topeka High, Experiences as school board member, Paul Wilson, State Attorney General’s office, Plessy v. Ferguson
7 Experiences as assistant attorney general, Brown litigation, Supreme Court, National League of Cities v. Usury, impact of integration on education
8 Impact of integration on education

Connie M. Rawlins (Virginia)
No index available.

Joseph Richburg, Sr. (South Carolina)
Page Topics
1 BG, Spring Hill area, Spring Hill Church, Scotch Branch School, conditions in schools
2 Conditions in schools, Scotch Branch School, Scotch Branch High School, Morris College (Baptist school), Sumpter, Rev. J. _________, E. E. Richburg (pastor and secretary of NAACP), Liberty Hill church, Lawrence Rivers (president of NAACP), Briggs case, Charleston, equal transportation and equal facilities
3 Integration, economic pressure from white community, NAACP, Governor, Supreme Court, Judge Delaney, Thurgood Marshall, superintendent, firing of teachers, Mr. McCord, H. Betchman, Veteran’s Administration, barber shop
4 Left South Carolina between 1957-1967, wife returned to teaching, St. Paul, Spring Hill
5 Prevented from employment, credit, fuel oil, NAACP, Sunbeam Corp., Amalgamated Meatcutters Union, barbershop, Mason, District Deputy of 7th Masonic District
6 Segregated Masons, Prince Hall (black) and Ancient ______ (white), Mother Lodge of England, Revolutionary War, History of black lodges, wife’s work experiences: teaching and domestic work, Morris College
7 Baltimore, children’s’ educational experience, Baltimore Technical Institute, AT&T, General Motors, Johnson C. Smith, Morehouse College, Emory Law School, Harvard Law School, African Methodist, Liberty Hill, Spring Hill
8 Changes in Summerton – 1967, Scotch Springs School, Manning, School board
9 Experiences as school board member, Scotch Branch Elementary, St. Paul
Primary, St. Paul High School, Old Scotch Branch
10 Liberty Hill School, St. Paul, Scotch Branch, Spring Hill, segregated theatres, Kimberly Akins

Frances Ridley (Kansas)
Page Topics
1 BG
2 DOB, BP, Mother: Regina L. Grant Price, Father: King Cleo Price
3 Santa Fe
5 King Cleo Price, Holdrege, NE Bell Hotel, Charleston, SC, Southernville, Bremerton, WA, Santa Fe
8 Educational experiences in Holdrege, NE, Siblings: Kingsley Price and Marie Price
13 Black families, Employment at Menninger as activity therapist
14 Menninger as activity therapist
Frances Ridley (continued)
Page Topics
19 Merrill Ross and the Ramblers
23 Teresa Counts, Montgomery Ward’s
24 Onan and Norma Burnett
26 Restrictive covenants on deeds
31 Black education, Emporia State
32 Barbara Davis

Richard Ridley (Kansas)
Page Topics
1 BG, DOB, BP, Mother: Maude Brandon Ridley
2 Father: Dana J. Ridley
3 Children: Richard Ridley, II, Robert Guy, Teresa Lynn, Santa Fe, South Topeka, Pierce Addition, Washburn Rural High School (on campus of Washburn College), Santa Fe strike - 1922
4 Santa Fe strike – 1922, Santa Fe shops – salaries, Dana J. Ridley, Spanish-American neighborhood
5 Santa Fe, Morrell’s, Flood of 1951, Depression, WPA, Franklin D. Roosevelt, CCC Camp, Uncle Ezekiel, George Washington Carver
6 Hortense Ridley Tate (teacher), Washburn University, Kansas Historical Museum, Uncle Ezekiel, George Washington Carver, Venola Ridley (teacher), Ruth Ridley (teacher), Kansas State University
7 Teachers, Washburn University, Merrill Ross, Uncle Zeke, Washburn Law School, Skyler Jackson, Venola Ridley, black intelligentsia
8 Monroe School, black teachers, Merlin Barker
9 Experiences in Junior High school, Valedictorian, class president, George Wesley
Thompson, Diagnostic Center, Joseph Douglas, black intelligentsia, Teachers (Jean Price, Eva Montgomery, Myrtle Gray Storns, Merrill Ross) Washington School, L. S. Turner
10 L. S. Turner, Black communities attitude toward education, Myrtle Gray, Joe Douglas, University of North Carolina, University of Colorado, black teachers
11 Black communities attitude toward education, black family, University of Kansas, welfare system, matriarchy, explorer scout leader, Sunday School teacher
12 Matriarchy and patriarchy, Depression, education
13 Black society, black families, Joe Douglas, George Thompson, Don Redmond, Menninger
14 Brown decision, Washburn Law School, Kappa Alpha, Charles, John, Elisha Scott, Sam Jackson, Thurgood Marshall, civil rights, Charlie Bledsoe, Oliver and Linda Brown

Richard Ridley (continued)
Page Topics
15 Oliver Brown, black schoolteachers, J. B. Holland, Education: Washburn, Kansas University Medical School, Washburn Law School, Air Force
16 Air Force, 1953-1958, Washburn Law School, Sherman Parks, Secretary of the State, Bert Parks, Jimmy and Julia Etta
17 Sherman Parks, Kansas University (MSW), real estate, renaissance man, North Topeka, East Topeka Junior High, Samuel Charles Jackson (Assistant secretary of HUD
18 Samuel Charles Jackson, white teachers at Topeka Junior High School, class president, Crane Junior High, John B. Slaughter (Chancellor of University of Maryland), Merrill Ross, Dr. Lacey Curry (Baptist church school in Chicago), black intelligentsia
19 Dr. Lacey Curry, Merrill Ross, J. B. Holland, race relations with white community, segregated athletic teams
20 Merrill Ross and the Ramblers, racism, Tuskegee airmen, Coleman Young (mayor of Detroit), Charles Diggs, Melvin Van Peoples, pilot training in San Antonio, TX (Goodfellow AFB),
21 Integration of Air Force, racism in Air Force, Brown case, George Washington Carver, black teachers
22 Black teachers (Mrs. Odell, Mrs. King, Jeanette Temple Dandridge, Myrtle Gray Storn, Eve Montgomery (principal), Merrill Ross), Impact of Brown on quality of education, Oprah Winfrey
23 Oprah Winfrey, changes in black community, Doctor Johnson, Theresa Counts, Head Start
24 Montgomery Ward’s Hallmark, urban renewal, Teresa Counts, Head Start, George Thompson, Wilma Henderson, Onan Burnett, Donald Fred Redmond, Washburn University
25 Donald Fred Redmond, civil rights movement
26 Topeka in 1940s, restrictive covenants on deeds, conditions in Topeka in 1990s, family heritage
27 Uncle Ezekiel, Dr. James Johnson, J. B. Holland, Washburn University, Burly Reed, Washburn Law School, ghetto and athletics
28 Reginald Lewis, John Johnston, Lewis Corporation, Beatrice Foods, Johnston Enterprise, Arthur Fletcher
29 Morehouse University, George Cooper, Donald Redmond, Marty Sanderson, Henry Taylor, Tommy Hardy, Air Force
30 Guidance counseling in high school, Kansas Treatment Center, Topeka High School, Kenneth Meyers, Topeka School Board, Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Dubois

Richard Ridley (continued)
Page Topics
31 Assignment to academic tracks, Uncle Ezekiel, Depression, Santa Fe, black education
32 Washburn University, Joe Douglas, Onan Burnett, Forrest Slaughter, Theresa Counts, Phyllis and Dave Shays, Marvin Wilson, Jess Spearman, changes in the black community since Brown, Menninger, Teresa Lynn Ridley
33 Changes in the black community since Brown, Teresa Lynn Ridley, Washington, D.C., Washburn University, Kansas University, Kansas State University
34 Changes in the black community since Brown, Teresa Lynn Ridley, Bob Carp, Menninger
35 Air Force, Menninger, experiences as social worker
36 Experiences as social worker, Menninger School, Ernest Teako, mental health field, experience in real estate sales
37 Social Work, Race, class, Bill Greer and Price Cobb, “Black Rage”
38 Racism, Lacey Curry, Isaac Edwards, Merrill Ross, J. B. Holland, Ezekiel Ridley, Mrs. Wright
39 Grace Van Trees (teacher), East Topeka Junior High School, poetry, State Hospital, Nathan Ackerman, Don Jackson
40 Work experiences
41 Work experiences
42 Work experiences, experiences in Topeka
43 Work experiences, Bruno Betelheim

Willie Spencer Robinson (Delaware)
Page Topics
1 BG, BP, DOB, steel mill, Howard High School
2 State Line School, one room school, Pauline Dison, Howard High School, bus
3 Transportation to school, Howard High School, teachers, Brown Vocational School
4 Social activities, Tea House, desegregation case, Howard High, Claymont
5 Claymont, training students for experience, NAACP, _______ Conklin, Bill Daller
6 Claymont, differences between Delaware and Virginia, teachers at Claymont, curriculum
7 Differences between Howard and Claymont, teachers at Howard, Hockessin, Mr. Hopkins (janitor)
8 Mr. Hopkins (janitor), Mrs. Dison, State Line School
9 Decision to go to Claymont, graduation, U.S. Air Force,
10 U.S. Air Force, NAACP, Methodist, Ms. Dison, African American history,
11 Prejudice, African American history, segregated public facilities, military service
12 Vietnam

Barbara J. Ross (Kansas)
Page Topics
3 BG, BP, DOB Mother: Gertrude Campbell Jackson, Father: James Arthur Jackson
4 Sisters: Laura Jackson Brown and Jane Jackson Draine, Children: Karen Anita Ross Walker, Brian Victor Ross
6 Information about family
7 Information about family, Gertrude Campbell Jackson, Harper’s Ferry
8 Gertrude Campbell Jackson, James Arthur Jackson (librarian for State of West Virginia
9 James Arthur Jackson, West Virginia State, John F. Kennedy
10 John F. Kennedy, childhood neighborhood, segregated education, social and community activities
11 Howard University, black theatres, segregated public facilities, Dr. Lane, Charleston, WV
12 Experiences in Charleston, WV, First Baptist Church, Mordecai Johnson, Rev. Vernon Johns, Jamison College, Martin Luther King
13 Rev. Johns, First Baptist, Rev. P. H. Hill, Rev. Moses Newsom, Rev. Leon Sullivan
14 Rev. Leon Sullivan, Clarence Swane, Dickie Radcliff, Rev. Newsom, Fisk University, West Virginia State, civil service exam
15 Library work, Mrs. Rayford
18 University of Chicago, University of Minnesota, Casner
19 Lockburn AFB, Ohio State, War Manpower Department, Mr. Caldwell
20 Tuskegee, Mr. Beatty, marriage and teaching
21 Marriage and teaching, experiences as a teacher, The Hills, Shiloh Baptist Church, Washington School
22 Information about family
23 Information about family, James Arthur Jackson
24 James Arthur Jackson
25 Childhood experiences, James Arthur Jackson
26 Judge Hayes, James Arthur Jackson, Jimmy Thompson
27 Mose Buraski
28 Childhood experiences
29 Experiences teaching, Washington School, Deborah Dandridge, Jim Dumas, Joy Murphy, shortage of teachers in 1956
30 Teaching experiences, Washington School, attitude toward integration
31 Integration of teachers, loss of jobs (Dee and Dorothy Grant)
32 Experiences with teacher integration
33 Experiences with teacher integration
34 Experiences with teacher integration, Support of Black community
35 Harrison Caldwell
37 Experiences with integration
Barbara J. Ross (continued)
Page Topics
38 Experiences with integration, Thelma Henderson
39 Racial Attitude
40 Panel of American Women, Esther Brown
41 Shirley Norris, Nicki Stein, Elaine Schlotsky
42 Racial awareness of children
43 Racial awareness of children, teaching at Highland Park School, Norma Burnett
44 Dr. Tillman
45 Dr. Tillman, Joe Evans, Mr. Brokerite, Harold Blackburn, Washington School
51 Ray Charles
52 Teaching experiences in Topeka

Merrill Ross (Kansas)
Page Topics
1 BG, BP, DOB, Mother: Tama Patton Ross
2 Father: Richard Franklin Ross, Archie Dykes,
5 Ethnicity: African American and Cherokee, Aunt Laura, Aunt Molly, Aunt Lula, Arthur Ross
6 Information about family
7 Father and grandfather brick masons
9 John F. Kennedy
10 John F. Kennedy
11 Ferguson Theatre
13 General Motors
15 Educational experiences, Pineville, KY: Rollin Hayes High School
16 Comparison between white schools and black schools, Daniel Eugene Carner,
Alvin S. Gibson, Back Home Reunion
17 Alvin S. Gibson, Dr. Edward Wilson, Kentucky State, Pittsburgh State Teachers College, Coffeyville, Kansas, Harrison Caldwell
18 University of Chicago, University of Minnesota, Casner
19 Administrative certificate, Emporia State, Kansas University, John Goodlad
20 Tuskegee
21 Marriage and teaching, Washington School principal
22 Information about family
23 Information about family
27 Roger Miller (Executive Director of Forbes Combat Air Museum)
28 Childhood experiences
29 Shortage of teachers in 1956, Mose Whitson (Superintendent)
30 Myrtle Storns, Stout School, Whitson School, Mose Whitson, Parkdale community, protests about transferring teachers
Merrill Ross (continued)
Page Topics
31 Black teachers loss of jobs, (Dee and Dorothy Grant)
32 Black teachers loss of jobs (Flossy and Lois Alberts, Mrs. Holland, Dr. Blackburn,
Dr. Tyler, Joe Evans
33 West Avondale principal, Support of black community
34 Harrison Caldwell
35 Harrison Caldwell, segregated restaurants, Othella Oglesby, traveling teacher, Buchanan, Washington
36 Othella Oglesby, traveling teachers, Ray Beers Store (segregated section) Newberry Store, Rotary, Doctor Tillman, Joe Edmonds, Paul Brokerite
37 Dr. Tillman, Rotary
38 Experiences with integration, Warren Hummer
39 Racial attitudes
40 Boyles Joyland, Highland Park South, Panel of American Women
41 Esther Brown, Shirley Norris, Jackie Stroud, experiences as principal
42 Racial awareness of children
43 Racial awareness of children, “In His Steps”, Dr. Charles Sheldon
44 Dr. Charles Sheldon and Central Congregational Church, Miss Emma Crabb
45 Dr. Tillman
46 Military service, Burl Wyatt, Blair Cobra, Floyd McCollum, Fort Leavenworth, Fort Bragg, black artillery unit
47 Fort Bragg, OCS, Goldsboro, NC, Keesler Field, Tuskegee
48 Military training, Eglin Field, Foreign Relations Training Command, Luke Field
49 Military training
50 Seymour Johnson Field, protest to integrate officers club, Frank Griffin, Tom McGerrity, Joe Bennett
51 Ray Charles, Ebony Magazine, Gene Derricka, military career, coach of Ramblers, teaching experiences in Topeka
52 Teaching experiences in Topeka, recruited by Harrison Caldwell, Pittsburgh State, Fort Scott, Oak Plaza Junior High School, Gordon Parks, “The Learning Tree”, E. J. Hawkins
53 Sunflower Ordinance Plant, Fort Scott, Ramblers, Topeka High School

Constance Sawyer (Kansas)
Page Topics
1 BG, BP, DOB, Mother: Theata Cyrene Sawyer, Father: Daniel Smith Sawyer
2 Siblings: Daniel Smith Sawyer, III, Grace Anne Sawyer Jones, Ph.D., Cyrene Caroline Sawyer Holt, Mary Belle Sawyer DeBonnett (Miriam Hodari), Sophia
Melinda Sawyer, story about grandfather (slave), Macon County, MO

Constance Sawyer (continued)
Page Topics
3 Chilicothe, MO, Baptist Church, Sedalia, MO college for black youth, Kansas City, Madagascan hair, Clinkscale, Ghana, Nathaniel Sawyer, Drake University
4 Drake University, Charlie Clinkscale (principal at Buchanan school), Christian
Church, Topeka, Washburn Law School, Central Congregational Church school, Charles Sheldon, ‘In His Steps’, Tennessee Town
5 Topeka public schools, Grace Ann Smith, Slaughters, John Smith, Mamie Williams, Saturday Night Literary Society, Bach Bens (Bachelors and Benedicts)
6 John Ritchie, National NAACP – 1911, Topeka NAACP – 1913, Senator Arthur Capper, Nathaniel Sawyer, legislation to segregate high schools in cities of the second class
7 Buchanan, Monroe, Washington, McKinley, Extradition of Mr. Hill (Arkansas), cotton cooperative, NAACP, political activities, debates about philosophies of Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBois, Daniel Smith Sawyer, Maternal grandparents: Grace McConnell Smith, George W, Smith, Mary Carr Smith, Phoebe Carr Ackinson, Charles Carr
8 Nancy Lewis, slavery, Leavenworth, KS, Lawrence, KS, St. John’s AME, Christian Church, Presbyterian, Catholic Church, Phoebe Carr Ackinson, Mary Carr Smith, History of St. John’s AME
9 History of St. John’s AME, Sophia Murray McConnell Branford, Jeanette Temple, Alberta Temple, the Depression, Mary Carr Smith, Prince Edward Lodge, Cyrene Consistory, George W. Smith, Cyrenia Smith
10 Benjamin Pap Singleton, Exodus, walking to school, Buchanan, Lowman Hill, Transportation to school, Tennessee Town
11 Daniel Smith Sawyer, NAACP, City Water Department, Lloyd Smith, 1941 case against Topeka Board of Education, Ulysses Grant, integration of junior high schools, differences in textbooks, Segregated in 1926, David Beard, Clay School,
Buchanan
12 Ku Klux Klan, Simmer Feed, Garlinghouse, Klan activities in 1920s/1930s
13 Klan activities in 1920s/1930s, cross burnings, Marjorie Crane Schnacke, “Return to Cowles Cow Pasture”, WWI, Katherine Barker Luck, Eva Hughes. Lt. Luck, Bill Bradshaw
14 Bill Bradshaw, Legal Redress Committee of NAACP, Timken Beale, Loren Miller, Graham case, Klan activities, A. J. Stout, WW2, Kenneth McFarland, Harrison Caldwell, separate Teacher’s Organizations, firing of black teachers (Annabelle Sawyer), Mamie Williams
15 Madie Bradshaw, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Annabelle Sawyer, Edward Snead Foust, meeting about fighting segregation, Graham case, attempt to enroll in Lowman Hill School - 1942

Constance Sawyer (continued)
Page Topics
16 Attempt to enroll in Lowman Hill School – 1942, Maude Laughton, Daniel Smith Sawyer, Progressives, Henry Bubb, Warren Shaw, Ward Martin, Washburn University, St. John’s AME, Rev. Foust, Louise Foust
17 Rev. Foust, Drew Pearson, Meetings at her house, Dr. Lou and Jo Halperin, La
Traviata, Rudolph Bing Corporation, City Auditorium, Esther Brown, Todds, Mrs. M. L. Burnett, NAACP branch
18 Moved meetings from St. John’s to Church of God, Sunday afternoon forum, Mamie Williams, Shiloh Baptist Church, NAACP meeting at the Grand Army Republic in the Historical Society Building. Walter White
19 National NAACP, Robert Carter, Todds, Oliver Brown, St. Mark’s AME
20 Charles Scott, Oliver Brown, NAACP, McKinley Burnett
21 Mary McLeod Bethune, Franklin D. Roosevelt, experiences in school

Vivian M. Scales (Kansas)
Page Topics
1 BG, BP, DOB, Mother: Sarah Palmer Wilhoite, Father: James J. Wilhoite
2 Siblings: Cleo Blackwell, Fern McGaughy, Novella Patterson, Shirley, Dorthea Alexander, Thelma Jefferson, James Wilhoite, Spouse: George, Daughter: Ruth Everett, Ethnic heritage: Creole
3 Migrated to Kansas, educational experiences: Topeka High School, Work experiences: President of Kaw Valley District, Organizations: Antioch Baptist Church, Myers Chapter #5, Order of Eastern Star, Topeka Council of Colored Women Club, Black Women’s Network, Inc. of Topeka, Evangelistic Committee of the Mission Department
4 Mission of Baptist State Convention of Kansas, Santa Fe, Commerce Bank; McKinley Elementary, Curtis Junior High, and Topeka High Schools, Brown v. Board of Education, Winfield, differences between white and black schools
5 Quincy, Grant, Differences between Winfield and Topeka, bused to school, Curtis Junior High, Topeka High School
6 High school curriculum, different treatment because of race, segregated extra-curricular activities, adjustment from elementary to junior high, NAACP
7 Lucinda Todd, first meeting, Mr. Burnett, NAACP, Ruth Ann Scales, Washington and Monroe, Parkdale, Involvement in Brown case, attempt to enroll Ruth Ann Scales in white school
8 Attempt to enroll Ruth Ann Scales in white school, NAACP meetings
9 Racial incidents in North Carolina, Oliver Brown,
10 Involvement in Brown case, segregated public facilities, black owned businesses

Berdyne Scott (Kansas)
Page Topics
1 BG, BP, DOB, Mother: Beatrice Thompson Anderson, Father: Victor Anderson, grandfather was telegrapher, Siblings: William Anderson
2 Charlotte and Anna Valentine (stepsisters), Spouses: Alfonza W. Davis, John J. Scott, St. John’s Church, McClelland, Murfreesboro, TN, Ethnicity: Black, Indian
3 Educational experiences: McKinley, Sand Town, Jordan Town, Graham case, Curtis Junior High
4 Curtis Junior High, Washburn, Chanute Junior College, the Depression, Job at government printing office, Washington, DC, Howard University, John Scott, WW2, Work experiences: doctor’s office, government printing office
5 Elisha Scott (allowed girls to work there to practice office skills), Experience with racism, experiences in Washington, DC
6 Telephone company, experiences at government printing office, experiences as teacher, Charles Young School, Religious affiliation: Baptist, Asbury Methodist
7 St. John’s AME, Eladius Turner-Stevenson, Monroe School, walking to McKinley School, Andy Henderson
8 Organizations: Delta Sigma Theta, The La Senoritas, Brown case workshops, teaching experiences
9 Teaching experiences, curriculum, childhood experiences, National Youth Association
10 Vocational guidance test, Sand Town Community, Russians and Santa Fe Railroad, Santa Fe shops, childhood experiences
11 Garfield Park, mixed neighborhood, Russian community, Topeka Packing Company
12 Childhood experiences, attitudes toward Mexicans, segregated public facilities, signs: niggers and Mexicans served in sacks only, McKinley School, teachers
13 Curtis Junior High, Jay S. Honeycutt (principal), interaction with other black schools, Washington School, Buchanan School
14 Buchanan School, Depression, Fourth Street black business area, Elisha Scott
15 Quincy School, McKinley, Grant School, Efforts to get transportation
16 Efforts to get transportation, Ms. Haley, Scott family had privileges, Experiences with racism, experiences at Curtis Jr. High
17 Experiences at Curtis Jr. High, Topeka High School, Social activities, Beatrice Thompson Anderson
18 Social Clubs: La Senoritas (Ava and Alabelle Ackerman, Maxine Thompson, Nadine B. Lewis, Eladius Turner-Stevenson, _________ James), Beau Brummels (Vernon Cain, Johnnie Jordan, Marion Nicholson, Jules Moss), Victor Anderson
19 Victor Anderson, John Scott, Washington, DC, experiences at Topeka High School (second floor), curriculum
20 Experiences at Topeka High, Nadine Lewis, Mrs. Van Dyke (principal), Second Floor, Phyllis Wheatley Club, Mary McLeod Bethune, Eladius Turner, NYA
Berdyne Scott (continued)
Page Topics
21 Phyllis Wheatley Club, skin color, Topeka High, John Scott
22 Skin color, interracial dating, segregated extracurricular activities
23 Ramblers, experiences at Topeka High, protests at Topeka High School, John Slaughter (first black Chancellor at Maryland University)
24 John Slaughter, Topeka High School, Topeka High School Hall of Fame, Samuel Jackson, Brown v. Board of Education
25 Samuel Jackson, Brown v. Board of Education, John Slaughter, Elisha Scott, Charles Scott
26 Charles Scott, Dick Patterson, Topeka High School Hall of Fame, John Scott, Brown case
27 Working in Elisha Scott’s office, segregated dances at Topeka High, Varsity, experiences in Washington, DC
28 Eladius Turner, experiences in Washington, DC
29 Alfonza W. Davis, 9th Calvary, Tuskegee, Mr. Ridley, Royal Carter, Selvedge Field, Gulf of Trieste
30 Air Corps, Alfonza W. Davis, experiences in Washington, D.C., Howard University, differences between Topeka and Washington, D.C.
31 Experiences in Washington, D.C., caste, class and color, racial attitudes of blacks, Washburn University, black liberal
32 John Scott, Washburn Law School, Charles, Elisha, Jr., Scott law firm, Topeka after WW2, efforts to desegregate schools, Phil Burton, clients
33 Elmer Jackson lynching, Elisha Scott, Sr.
34 Caste and class, St. John’s, blue vein, Bottoms, John Scott, Charles Houston
35 Bottoms, Sand Town, German Town, Kansas City, Nat King Cole, Kappa’s, Brown case, Ada Sipewell
36 Ada Sipewell, Oklahoma, graduate school, McKinley Burnett, Charles Bledsoe,
NAACP, Elisha Scott, Sr., Esther Brown
37 Esther Brown, Wichita, KS, Topeka, KS, reaction of community toward Scotts, Black teachers, Harrison Caldwell, Deltas
38 Harrison Caldwell, loss of teaching jobs, workshops, Linda Brown
39 McKinley Burnett, Oliver Brown, Brown case, Legal Defense Fund, Jack Greenberg, Robert Carter
40 Brown case, opposition to Brown, black teachers
41 Black teachers, Role of National NAACP, Howard University, Loren Miller, Elisha Scott, Brown case
42 Brown case, Oliver Brown, Linda Brown, Charles Mundy
43 Significance of Brown case, Strom Thurman, Southern Manifesto, Plessy v.
Ferguson, Linda Brown, Monroe School, reaction from community

Berdyne Scott (continued)
Page Topics
44 John Scott and the Interior Department, Bob Willis, Washington, D.C., Lincoln
School
45 Brown Foundation
46 Art Fletcher, John Scott
47 Racism, Santa Fe Shops, Impact of Brown
48 Impact of Brown
49 Impact of Brown on social and economic conditions
50 Monroe monument, Cheryl Brown
51 Brown decision

Deborah Scott (Kansas)
Page Topics
1 BG, BP, DOB, Mother: Louis Crawford
2 Father: Charles Monroe Sheldon Scott, Sr., Siblings: Charles Monroe Sheldon Scott, Ethnicity: Black and Chickasaw
3 Educational experiences: Buchanan, Lowman Hill, Miss Frey (teacher), experiences at Buchanan
4 Experiences at Lowman Hill, Julia Etta Parks, Brown case, Charles Scott, Elisha Scott, Sr., Boswell Junior High School, Topeka High School
5 Childhood experiences, Charles Scott, Sr., Washburn University, Louis Crawford (teacher)
6 Elisha Scott, Sr., Scott family, experiences at Boswell Junior High, Topeka High School
7 Educational experiences, work experiences: KNI, Josten’s American Yearbook, Goodyear Tire, Army
8 Army, prejudice in military service
9 Experiences in military service, Survivor Award, neighborhood growing up
10 Mixed neighborhood, Steven Horton, Differences between Buchanan Elementary and Lowman Hill
11 Differences between Buchanan Elementary and Lowman Hill, black history, Topeka High School
12 Black history, family, Asbury Mount Olive AME Church
13 Social activities in high school, Charles Scott, Sr., racial incident in Alabama
14 Childhood experiences, American Legion, Mason, Eastern Star, Kappa fraternity, Delta sorority
15 Shriners, Moose Lodge, Back Home Reunion, Gene Johnson, Effect of integration on black community
16 Effect of integration on black community, Charles Scott, Sr., Martin Luther King,
Clarence Thomas, Thurgood Marshall
Deborah Scott (continued)
Page Topics
17 Brown case, Charles Scott, military experiences
18 Charles S. Scott, Sr., Dr. Purceric

Dorothy Scott (Kansas)
Page Topics
1 Life in Topeka, 1950s
2 Life in Topeka, 1950s, Kilmers, Washington School
3 Washburn University, experiences in Topeka in 1930s, experiences in Topeka
4 Experiences in Topeka
5 BG, BP
6 Childhood experiences, Mother: Elizabeth Jackson Robinson Lee, Great grandmother: Evie (Indian), family history
7 Family history, Grandma Udan
8 Family history, Travel
9 Travel
10 Family history
11 Kindergarten, Washington School, childhood experiences
12 Sister, Kansas City Metropolitan Spiritual Church
13 Childhood experiences, Kansas City kindergarten, Miss Webster
14 Washington School, Mrs. Hardeman, Mrs. Webster
15 Changes in Topeka during her lifetime, childhood experiences, Landons, Bill Kilmer
16 Edward A. Scott. Experiences during WW2`
17 Gardening
18 Gardening, Federated Club woman, St. John AME Church
19 Album Stars, Lincoln School, Topeka High School, friendships
20 Experiences at Washburn University, segregated public facilities
21 Segregated public facilities, the Depression, Pelletiers, Washburn University
22 Washburn University, Mayor’s Status for Women, Coalition for Teenagers, Performing Arts
23 Kansas Museum of History, Mark Hunt, teaching experiences, Pisa Sequitave
24 Reaching experiences
25 Teaching in Oklahoma, Pierce Addition
26 Highland Park, integrated schools in Topeka, Sumner, Parkdale, Washington, Lincoln, Topeka, Washburn University, Kansas University, Berkeley
27 Experiences at Berkeley, St. Louis, Bishop Williams and Aunt Helen, National Education Association
28 Dr. White, childhood experiences
29 Childhood experiences
30 Husband, teaching in Kansas City
Dorothy Scott (continued)
Page Topics
31 Husband, Porgy and Bess, Wilberforce University, teaching and marriage, teaching experiences in Missouri
32 Teaching experiences at Parkdale, salary inequities based on gender
33 Teaching experiences, Dr. Ridgeway, Kansas University
34 Master’s work on dropouts in the 1950. Topeka High School
35 Brown decision and black teachers, integration of teachers
36 Black teachers and integration, White teachers and integration
37 Quality of education at black schools
38 Music contest in Topeka, Joe Anderson, Frank Peterson
39 Teaching experiences, Monroe School, John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Edward Kennedy
40 Travels

C. E. Sonny Scroggins (Kansas)
Page Topics
1 BG, BP, DOB, Checotah, OK, Red River Bottom country, TX, Clark-Detroit-Paris area, slaves, William John Nance Garner, Teddy [Franklin] Roosevelt, Will Rogers, Edward Guest, Christopher Guest
2 Exodus movement, Edward P. McCabe, Masons, sharecropping, Baptist Church, Great Grandparents Joseph and Viola West
3 Grandmother: Hortense West, Junior NAACP, segregated education
4 Alexander Madison (first black doctor in East Oklahoma), Civil Rights Era, Malcolm X, Garvey, Bunch, Meager Evers, James Farmer, Adam Clayton Powell, involvement in NAACP
5 Involvement in NAACP, Boy Scouts, Baptist Church, Involvement in Civil Rights Movement
6 Moving to Topeka – 1965, political activism, Kansas Fever Commission, Bias
Busters of Kansas, Exoduster Awareness, Inc.
7 Differences between Oklahoma and Topeka, employment opportunities for Blacks
8 Political activism in Topeka, Monroe School National Monument, The Kansas Committee Group, Kansas Committee to Free South Africa, Cheryl Brown Henderson, Brown v. Board of Education, Elmer Jackson
9 Charles Sudduth, Cushinberry Park, Cheryl Brown Henderson, Elmer Jackson, Charles Scott. American Legion

Judge Collins J. Seitz (Delaware)
Page Topics
1 BG, DOB, BP, Family History, DuPont Company
2 Family History, Hale Boggs, Temple University, Delaware State Police, Depression
Judge Collins J. Seitz (continued)
Page Topics
3 University of Delaware, Virginia Law School, Clarence Darrow, Clarence Wilson
4 Educational experiences: St. Ann’s, Third Circuit Court of Appeals, Albert Carvell, President Lyndon B. Johnson, Delaware Supreme Court
5 Delaware Supreme Court, Sally High School, Wilmington High School, United States Supreme Court
6 Wilmington-Philadelphia Post, work with the National Youth Administration. Adult education, Americanization programs
7 Work with the National Youth Administration, work with prisoners
8 Experiences at University of Delaware, Law career
9 School desegregation cases, Hockessin, Claymont, Delaware State College
10 Delaware State College, School desegregation cases, Howard High School, Claymont High School, Mr. Stall
11 Howard High School, Awareness of segregated education growing up
12 Law practice, Secretary to the Democratic County Committee, Franklin Roosevelt, Louis Redding
13 Louis Redding, University of Delaware case, Wilmington Club, Howard High School, Claymont High School
14 Hickman Road, Worth Steel, Merle Anderson, integration of schools, Mr. Stall
15 Experiences as judge, desegregation cases
16 Delaware Supreme Court,
17 Desegregation cases, Gerard College
18 Reaction of community to decision
19 Integration of Sally

Irving Sheffel (Kansas)
Page Topics
1 Work with Dr. Karl Menninger, Employment experiences, Veteran’s Administration, Dr. Will Menninger, John Stone, Wes Roach, Dr. C.F. Menninger, YWCA, Menninger Bible Classes, Edwin Menninger
2 Will Menninger, Karl Menninger, Dr. C.F. Menninger, Mayo Clinic, Menninger Clinic, Ernest Sudduth, Saturday Night Literary Club, Topeka State Hospital, Menninger Foundation, Heritage House, Menninger Hospital, Wes Roach, John Stone
3 Work experiences at Menninger, Educational background, military service
4 Military Service, George C. S. Benson, Educational background, work experiences at Veteran’s Administration
5 Work experiences as Executive Assistant to Karl Menninger, Topeka Veteran’s Hospital
6 Robert Cotton, Cotton-O’Neil Clinic, Dr. Orr, Karl Menninger
Irving Sheffel (continued)
Page Topics
7 “The Human Mind”, “Man Against Himself”, “Love Against Hate”, Menninger Hospital, Karl Menninger, Will Menninger, Menninger Clinic
8 Menninger Clinic, Menninger Hospital, conditions in state mental hospitals, 1940s
9 Topeka State Hospital, Governor Carlson, changes in conditions of state mental hospitals, Harold Main (Walker Winslow), “If A Man Be Mad”, Albert Dutch, “Survey Graphic Magazine”, “Fortune Magazine”, Karl and Will Menninger, “Look Magazine”, Walter Cronkite
10 Sloan professors (Margaret Mead, Aldus Huxley), Truman Capote and Harper Lee, Maya Calla, experiences at Menningers
11 Psychoanalytic Institute, Karl Menninger, conditions at Topeka State Hospital
12 Conditions at Topeka State Hospital, Karl Menninger, Adlai Stevenson, Will Menninger
13 Karl Menninger, Will Menninger, Eunice Kennedy, Menninger during the 1940s/1950s, Kansas Neurological Institute, Governor Carlson, Franklin Murphy
14 Franklin Murphy, Karl Menninger, Topeka State Hospital, reforms in state hospitals
15 Reforms in state hospitals, Karl Menninger, General Hawley, life in Topeka - 1950
16 Wife’s involvement with black community, Integration of restaurants, NAACP, League of Women Voters, Robby’s, Norma’s Chicken Farm, Panel of American Women
17 Wife’s involvement: Jewish Temple, League of Women Voters, Karl Menninger’s involvement in Brown

Dr. Hugh Speer (Kansas)
Page Topics
1 Ernest Manheim
2 Recruitment of witnesses for Brown, Karl Menninger, BG, BP, DOB, Mother:
Amelia Shonehair
3 Amelia Shonehair, Father: Henry Speer
4 Siblings: William Speer, Paul Speer, Jim Speer, Spouse: Catherine Edwards
5 Experiences at American University, meeting Catherine Edwards, Children: Marcia Snook, Mary Lynn Shea, Tarkio College
6 Education: Olathe High School, Tarkio College, Parents taught at Knoxville
College, United Presbyterian Church
7 American University at Cairo, Robert McClennahan, Pat Mackelrath, Professor Spencer
8 Professor Spencer, Experiences at Tarkio, American University
9 Experiences at American University
11 Experiences at American University, Tarkio, work experiences: Teaching at
Fredonia High School, principal at Hayes, Red Cross service during WW2
Dr. Hugh Speer (continued)
Page Topics
13 Work at Veteran’s Advisement Center
14 Education at George Washington, experiences at University of Chicago, Karl Rogers, Ralph Tyler, Jim Felton, Ann Strechert
15 Experiences as Chairman of the Education Department, Esther Brown
16 Esther Brown, Elisha Scott, Charles Scott, Webb case
17 Webb case, University of Kansas City
18 Integration of University of Kansas City, Elsie Shaffer, black student teachers in white schools, Hazel Brown Williams, Gaines case
19 Gaines case, University of Missouri, Kansas City
20 University of Missouri, Kansas City, Kansas City Call, Gaines case
21 Gaines case, Involvement in Brown, Sid Lawrence, Kansas City Jewish Community Center, Esther Brown, NAACP, Kenneth McFarland, Don Garr
22 Involvement in Brown, NAACP, Dr. Buchanan, conditions in schools
23 Involvement in Brown, curriculum in schools, Robert Carter
24 Involvement in Brown, Charles and John Scott, Charles Bledsoe, Elisha Scott
25 Involvement in Brown, Robert Carter, Jack Greenberg
26 Involvement in Brown, Judge Huxman, Definition of curriculum, effects of discrimination
27 Involvement in Brown, Oliver Brown, Fleming
28 Those Who Were There, Charles Scott, Ernest Manheim, Dr. Paul Wilson, Involvement in Brown
29 Involvement in Brown, Simple Justice, Knoxville College
30 Attitudes towards blacks, McFarland
31 Supreme Court, Judge Huxman’s opinion, Jack Greenberg, Charles Scott
32 “The Case of the Century”, Gunnar Myrdahl, Martin Luther King, Jr., Jack Greenberg and Robert Carter
33 Huxman lecture series

Stanley Stalter (Kansas)
Page Topics
1 Principal at Quinton Heights, Old Central Park, Randolph, Hiring of black teacher at Randolph School – 1955. Educational work experiences, Dr. McFarland
2 Experiences as principal, segregated education, segregated public facilities, experiences in Manhattan, KS, Dr. Frank Wilson, Herbert Schroeder
3 Segregated education in Manhattan, desegregation efforts in Topeka, Frank Wilson
4 Experiences with integration of teachers, J. B. Holland (half-time at Randolph and Whitson) Wilson (principal at Whitson)
5 Reason for half-day assignments, number of black students/teachers

Stanley Stalter (continued)
Page Topics
7 Principal at New Quinton Heights, experiences as a principal – 1977, Rev. Olds, J.
B. Holland
8 Administrative meetings with black principals, Impact of Brown on education

Carrie Stokes (North Carolina)
Page Topics
1 BG, BP, Farmville area
2 Parent’s education, Baptist church
3 Educational experiences, Hampton-Sydney, Farmville
4 High school experiences, black history, debate team, Future Farmers of America, career goals, Mr. Jones
5 Barbara Johns, attended college in Atlanta
6 Attended college in Atlanta, New York University, Worked in Prairie View, TX, Involvement in NAACP, Return to Virginia, employment at St. Bell
7 Living in Virginia, living in the Justin House in New York

Charles Sudduth (Kansas)
Page Topics
1 BG, BP, DOB, Race riots in Oklahoma in 1911, Parents from Alabama
2 Mother: Dora Culpepper, moving from Oklahoma
3 Attended Dr. Charles Sheldon’s kindergarten, how school was founded, Mrs. June Chapman
4 How school was founded, Central Congregational Church, Douglas School, Professor Sawyer (principal), Duprees, Topeka High School
5 Buchanan School, Topeka High School, teachers, Mr. Bailey (teacher), experiences at Douglas School
6 First Church of God, Richard Waters, Brother: Nathan Sudduth, Langston
University
7 Humphrey Hill, childhood experiences, Experiences at Topeka High School –1920s, Maude Bishop (teacher), Ms. Hulse, racial incident at Topeka High
8 Racial incident at Topeka High, Mr. Darnell (principal), Segregated athletics, Topeka High Y (black football team), Santa Fe Mules (men’s football team), Ramblers, City Park (Russian team), played Kansas City, Wyandotte Coffeyville
9 Sumner High School (Kansas City), work at Greek shining parlor
10 Santa Fe shops, work at Firestone Tire Company (Akron, Ohio), Hardgraves Lumber Company, Spouse: Mildred Jones
11 Dibble’s Grocery, Santa Fe shops, Depression (worked for Dibble’s and Green Grocery), Work at Santa Fe shops, organization of union

Charles Sudduth (continued)
Page Topics
12 Union: Santa Fe Black Employees, Ray Clark Children: Charles, Jr., Nadine Blackwell, Elton Sudduth
13 Adopted children: Sharon, Valerie, Impact of Brown on children’s education, Washington School, McKinley Burnett, Charles Scott, Oliver Brown
14 McKinley Burnett, membership in Quartet, Experiences in Brooking, SD and Blackwell, OK
15 Membership in Quartet, Dr. Sheldon, ____________ Christian College in Pendleton, TX
16 Important events in life, Jim Slattery, Charles Sheldon family

Alberta Temple (Kansas)
Page Topics
2 BG, BP, DOB, Siblings: James William Temple, Jeanette Ruth Temple Dandridge
4 Reason family left Tennessee
5 Attended Monroe School (family school)
6 Mr. Roundtree (principal), curriculum at Monroe, Miss Tracy Mitchell, Mr. Turner
10 Teacher preparation for white world
13 Experiences at Topeka High School
18 Washburn University
19 Experiences at Washburn University, segregated eating facilities at Washburn
20 Segregated eating facilities at Washburn, Experiences at Washburn, Aunt Sally
21 Interactions with white students, Career aspirations,
22 Teaching experiences at Kansas Vocational School, teaching at Phyllis Wheatley
23 Teaching at Phyllis Wheatley, Wheatley Girls (black), Provident Association (white)
27 Miss Tracy Mitchell, Mr. Roundtree, Mr. Turner, National Honor Society
28 Lunch in high school
29 Seating in high school classes, high school curriculum
32 Black and white prom
33 Grandpa Thompson and the army
34 Grandma and Grandpa Thompson, Miss Mamie Williams, Miss Cannon, Washburn University
35 Work experiences with Miss Cannon
38 Requirements to teach in Topeka
39 Teaching experiences at KVS, Thelma MacIntosh, Experiences at Phyllis Wheatley Center
40 Experiences at Phyllis Wheatley Center, Maude Laughlin, Miss Patterson
41 Teaching experiences, Vivian Washington, University of Iowa
42 University of Iowa, Teaching experiences at Kansas Vocational School, Kentucky State
Alberta Temple (continued)
Page Topics
43 Jim Crow travel
44 Experiences in Frankfort, KY

Fredrick Temple (Kansas)
Page Topics
1 BG, BP, DOB, Mother: Pearl Thompson, Father: John William Temple
3 Spouse: Ray Helen Richard
4 Reason family left Tennessee, educational experiences: Monroe School, Quinton Heights (white school)
5 Incident between black child and teacher
6 Curriculum at Monroe, Black national anthem, experiences with white children in neighborhood
7 Experiences with white children in neighborhood, Van Buren School, Curriculum, experiences at Monroe
8 Experiences at Monroe, feelings about segregated education
9 Conditions at Monroe, extracurricular activities: Washington, Buchanan, Monroe, McKinley
10 Segregated sports, teacher preparation for white world
11 Teacher preparation for white world, St. Simon’s Episcopal Church, growing up in Quinton Heights, racial attitudes of white children, Monroe School
12 Gangs, playing with white children, Billy Price, Experiences at Crane Junior High School
13 Experiences at Crane Junior High School
14 Social activities in high school, experiences on baseball team, Claude Hays
15 Experiences with segregated sports, Negro Organization, segregated social activities
16 Difficulties getting job, racial incident with ROTC, University of Kansas, Wisconsin, Enlisted Reserve Corps
17 Enlisted Reserve Corps, Experiences at Wisconsin, Experiences at University of
Kansas, Hiawatha Railroad
18 Hiawatha Railroad, Experiences at Wisconsin
24 Experiences at Wisconsin, Kansas University, experiences in army, GI Bill
25 GI Bill, Teaching experiences at Tuskegee, Southern University, Morrell’s Science
26 Teaching experiences at Southern University

Joe Thompson (Kansas)
Page Topics
1 BG, BP, DOB, Mother: Fannie Esther Sims, Father: William E. Thompson

Joe Thompson (continued)
Page Topics
2 How parents met, Reverend Burton, Second Baptist Church, Dr. and Mrs. Martin, Siblings: Mattie Thompson Whitney, Barbara Louise Thompson, William Sims Thompson, James Sherrill Thompson, Edward E. Thompson
3 Spouse: Tracy Harvey, grandparents were slaves
4 Grandparents were slaves, Tracy Harvey’s grandmother was Indian, Educational
experience: Highland Park, Washburn University (1948), Chicago University (ABT)
5 National Training School for Boy Scout Executives, Ford Gordan Correspondence courses, The American University, Work experiences: farming, newspapers, Post Office, Santa Fe Railroad, probation officer
6 John Caster, probate judge, Menningers, Federal Civil Service (U.S. Disciplinary Barracks – Fort Leavenworth), Religious affiliation: Episcopal, Episcopal Cathedral, St. John’s Mission Church
7 Community organizations: Boy Scouts, American Cancer Society, Mental Health Boards, Housing Authority Board, Melody Brown Foundation
8 Hobbies and interests, Childhood in Topeka
9 Highland Park School, rural, integrated neighborhood, Santa Fe shops, William E. Thompson
10 William E. Thompson, Highland Park Neighborhood (Anderson, Higgins, Lusco, Fishers, Groom, Tickners, Merrill and Barbara Ross), integrated schools
11 Highland Park Addition School and Pierce Addition School, experiences in school, differences between Highland Park and Topeka High School
12 Differences between Highland Park and Topeka High School, experiences in school, Tennessee Town and Pierce Addition
13 Childhood experiences in Topeka in 1920s, black business district, Fourth Street, the Bottoms, Barney Porter’s nightclub
14 Barney Porter’s nightclub, Metropolitan Hall
15 Calvary Baptist, St. John’s AME, Shiloh, Knight Templers parade, Professor Jackson’s band, Professor Jackson
16 Professor Jackson, Professor Jackson’s band, Bigby’s band
17 Professor Jackson’s band, Perry Oskaloosa, segregation in Topeka, 1920s
18 Segregated public facilities, The Grand Theatre, peanut gallery, Jayhawk, Novelty,
treatment of Mexicans in Topeka
19 Interactions between Blacks and Mexicans, Topeka after WW1
20 Plain Daily Newspaper, Nick Chiles, Elisha Scott, Pink Rag,
21 Elisha Scott, Pink Rag, Charles Scott, Mrs. Rogers
22 Ku Klux Klan, Marcus Garvey, Booker T. Washington
23 Malcolm X, W. E. B. DuBois, Highland Park High School
24 Athletics in high school, Ted Banks, Experiences at Washburn University

Joe Thompson (continued)
Page Topics
25 Experiences at Washburn University, Bradshaw, GI Bill, Marguerite Norman Jones, Topeka during the Depression
26 Topeka during the Depression, Tracy Harvey (teacher at Washington and Buchanan)
27 Tracy Harvey, John Caster, Judge Cheney, Miss Camp, Santa Fe Hospital
28 John Caster, Experiences as probation officer
29 Experiences as probation officer, Topeka High, Topeka Ramblers, Bowser’s
Ghosts, Merrill Ross
30 Military service in WW2, American Legion
31 American Legion, Kansas Power and Light, Al Conley, Changes in Topeka after WW2
32 Experiences at Washburn after WW2, Chicago University and Kappa, Brown case, Linda Brown
33 Brown case, Charles Scott, Elisha Scott, Thurgood Marshall, Work experiences at Menninger, National Association of Social Workers
34 University of Chicago, Integration of Gage Park, City Park swimming pool, Lakewood Park
35 Lakewood Park, Harry Snyder, Quality of life in Topeka in 1950s,
36 Changes in Topeka, changes in black community
37 Changes in black community, Iron Horsemen, Santa Fe Glee Club (black)
38 Knights Templers, High Y, Black YMCA, Santa Fe YMCA
39 Santa Fe YMCA

Linda Brown Thompson (Kansas)
Page Topics
1 BG, BP, DOB, Children: Charles D. Smith II, Kimberly Ann Smith
2 Childhood experiences, Siblings: Terry and Cheryl Brown, Monroe School, Oliver Brown, St. Mark’s AME, McKinley School, St. John AME Church, New Mount Zion Baptist Church
3 Childhood experiences, Grandmother Williams, St. Mark AME
4 Childhood experiences, Oliver Brown
5 Childhood experiences, differences between Monroe and McKinley Schools,
teachers, Mamie Williams, Ethel Barber (Mamie’s sister and principal at McKinley)
6 Childhood experiences, Neighborhood
7 Experiences at McKinley, Curtis Junior High, Topeka High School, experiences with integration, Central High School (Springfield, MO), integrated social activities, Gray Y
8 Experiences at Central High School, Washburn University,
9 Southwest Missouri State, Drury College
Linda Brown Thompson (continued)
Page Topics
10 Work experiences: Motor Vehicle Department, teacher, Impact of Brown case on life
11 Brown case, attempt to enroll at Sumner
12 Attempt to enroll at Sumner
13 Childhood experiences, Impact of Brown case on life
14 Impact of Brown case on life, Black education
15 Black education

Alvin Todd (Kansas)
No index available.

Lucinda Todd (Kansas)
No index available.

Ruby J. Walker (Kansas)
Page Topics
1 BG, BP, BP, Mother: Lutie Idabell Bass Brown, Father: Francis Brown
2 Information about Francis Brown
3 Siblings: Opal Frances Brown, Meralb Maxwell Brown, Beryl Brown, Charles Sheldon Brown, Clarence Albert Brown, Jennie Brown, Mae Brown, Mary Louise Brown, William Lyle Brown, Oliver Leon Brown
4 Beauty School, Meralb Maxwell Brown
5 William Lyle Brown, Opal Frances Brown
6 Spouses: Carl Watkins Harris, Claude Walker, slaves, skin color, Info about Lutie Idabell Bass Brown
7 Info about Lutie Idabell Bass Brown, Francis Brown’s work at Capper’s Publications, childhood experiences
8 Info about Lutie Idabell Bass Brown, Clay School, Buchanan School Topeka High School. Mixed schools, educational experiences
9 Francis Brown’s education, Francis Brown’s work experiences, family information
10 Family information, information about Francis Brown
11 Info about Lutie Idabell Bass Brown
12 Work experiences: beauty shop
13 Experiences at Buchanan School, Miss DePriest (teacher), Miss Sent, Mr. Lattimore, Westlawn Park
14 Experiences at Buchanan School, Miss DePriest, Mamie Williams, Miss Allen, Miss Bradskill, Miss McBrierm Mr. Wade (principal), Mr. Richardson (janitor), Whites, Topeka High school teachers: Mrs. Huff, Miss MacMillan, Miss Bishop, Mr. Darnell (principal), WIBW radio station
Ruby J. Walker (continued)
Page Topics
15 Social activities: Girls Reserve, differences between segregated and integrated schools, childhood experiences
16 Childhood experiences, beauty shop, St. John AME Church
17 St. John AME Church, Oliver Brown, Reverend Lang, Brown case
18 Brown case, NAACP, Elisha Scott, Oliver Brown’s involvement in desegregation case, Ku Klux Klan
19 Civil rights movement, Martin Luther King, race relations
20 Race relations

Lacy B. Ward, Jr. (Virginia)
No index available.

Vadeth Whiteside (Kansas)
Page Topics
1 BG, BP, DOB, Mother: Isabella Della Bland (Husband: Cortin Jones Riley)
2 Father: Moses Jones; Siblings; Spouses: Paul Brian, Harold Hearst, James Whiteside
3 Children: Barbara Rose and Dean Bryant; Ethnicity: Black, White and Indian; slavery
4 Grandfather was a runaway slaves,
5 Grew up on a farm, Educational experiences: Perry High School and Topeka High School, skin color
7 Work experiences, social activities, Church of God
8 Children attended Washington School, Holy Name School, curriculum at
9 Differences between Washington and Holy Name, teachers, Brown case, McKinley Burnett
10 Experiences in neighborhood, Children attended Topeka High School, Deborah Dandridge
11 Deborah Dandridge
12 NAACP, McKinley Burnett, KBS
13 Rice School, textbooks, McKinley Burnett, NAACP

Carl A. Williams, Jr. (Kansas)
Page Topics
1 BG, BP, DOB, Mother: Geneva Jackson, Father: Carl Williams,
2 Brother: Claude Williams, Spouse: Wanda, Children: Bonnie Jean Harper, Sonja McLaughlin
3 Children: Tanya Vann, Ethnicity: Black and Indian, Educational Experiences: Topeka High School (1938), Washburn University
Carl A. Williams, Jr. (continued)
Page Topics
4 Work experiences: Topeka State Hospital, State of Kansas, Santa Fe Railroad,
Member of St. John’s AME Church, Organizations: Elks, American Legion, Forty and Eight, People Back Home Reunion, Sunset Optimists
5 South Topeka, childhood experiences
6 Childhood experiences, neighborhood: Black and White, Shimer’s Park, Experiences at Monroe School – 1920s/1930s, Mr. Roundtree (principal)
7 Mr. L. S. Turner (principal), Mr. Burton (principal), Tracy Mitchell (teacher), teachers at Monroe
8 Differences between segregated and integrated education, Crane Junior High, differences in teachers, Topeka during the Depression
9 Athletics, Topeka High School, Boys Glee Club and Acapella Club (first black member), WDAF radio
10 Racial incident at Bluebird Restaurant, Mr. Glecker, Ramblers, Topeka Trojans
11 Jimmy Parks, social activities in high school, City Park
12 Experiences with Works Projects Administration
13 Experiences at Topeka High School, segregated social events
14 Experiences in National Youth Association at Wheatley Provident Center
15 Mrs. Whitfield, St. John’s AME Church
16 Street trolleys, social life in Topeka, social clubs: Gay Knights, Stella Puellas, Pleasure Mirrors
17 Social clubs, Black business district on Fourth, Dunbar Hotel, Overton Hotel, Ritz Theatre. Powers Barber Shop, Tennessee Town
18 Doc Washington’s Drugstore, Max tavern, Fifteenth Street, Meadow Acres
19 Members of Gay Knights (Charles Scott, Merrill Lewis, Richard King, Jack King, Freddy Malone, Anderson Pryor, Anderson Taylor, Eugene Johnson), Work at
Phyllis Wheatley Center, Work at Santa Fe, Iron Horseman’s Club
20 Iron Horseman’s Club, Work at Santa Fe, segregated public facilities
21 Work at Santa Fe, military service, Changes in Topeka after WW2
22 Military service, Changes in Topeka after WW2
23 Bonnie Jean Williams Harper attended Monroe, Crane and Topeka High, Brown case, Charles Scott, Oliver Brown
24 Oliver Brown, Santa Fe, awareness of desegregation case
25 Awareness of desegregation case, teachers at Monroe, Miss Patton, Mr. Burton, Mamie Williams
26 Daughter’s transition to Crane Junior High School, Charles Scott, attitudes about schools
27 Integration of Gage Park, Perceptions about integration
28 Perceptions about integration, St. John’s AME Church
29 Wanda Williams (Lane Chapel CME Church), class differences
Carl A. Williams, Jr. (continued)
Page Topics
30 St. John’s and class differences
31 St. John’s and class differences, experiences at Washburn University
32 Charles Scott, Forrester Slaughter, class differences, Skin color
33 Class differences and skin color, Kansas Vocational School
34 Experiences at Kansas Vocational School (1947-1951) - integrated
35 Experiences at Kansas Vocational School (1947-1951), Mr. McDowell, Mr. Jackson, Mr. Simmons, Mr. Wilkerson, Mr. Redmond
36 Incident with Ku Klux Klan
37 Eugene Johnson

J. Samuel Williams, Jr. (Virginia)
Page Topics
1 BG, BP, DOB, Farmville, Educational experiences in Farmville: Robert Morton Elementary School, Arthur Edward Jordon (teacher), Appomattox Training School, Professor Hall (teacher), black history
2 Mr. George Watson (teacher), Professor Hall, Involvement in Boy Scouts and First Baptist Church, sports
3 Experiences in high school, M. Boyd Jones (principal), black history, football, St. Emmons Military Academy, Fine Institute, Covington, Clifton Forge, Involvement in strike in high school, conditions of school
4 Involvement in strike in high school, Barbara Jones, Vera Abbott, Meetings at First Baptist Church, NAACP, Reverend Griffith
5 Involvement in strike in high school, other efforts to improve conditions
6 Civil rights movement, Shaw University, SNIC, Carmichael, King, Demonstrations, Demonstration in Farmville in 1963, Non-violent
demonstrations
7 Involvement in SNIC, MacDonald Iverson, SCLC, Prince Edward County Christian Association, NAACP
8 Demonstration in 1960s, freedom riots, demonstrations in Farmville, Experiences as pastor at First Baptist Church, NAACP, Reverend Griffith
9 Work experiences, Martin Luther King, Jr., Returning to Farmville, Impact of participation in strike, childhood experiences, experiences with family
10 Childhood experiences

Frank Wilson (Kansas)
Page Topics
1 Educational work experiences, Kenneth McFarland, Principal at Sumner, attempt to enroll Linda Brown

Frank Wilson (continued)
Page Topics
2 McFarland, attempt to enroll Linda Brown, Oliver Brown, reaction of Oliver Brown, Experience at Woodrow Wilson School (Manhattan)
3 Experience at Woodrow Wilson School (Manhattan), experiences in Augusta and Eureka, efforts to desegregate, Integration of teachers (Whitson)
4 Integration of teachers, J. B. Holland, reaction of parents, St. Vincent’s Catholic Orphanage
5 Integration of schools, administrative meetings, teaching experiences of Alice Wilson (spouse), Attended Pittsburg
6 Colorado (Masters), Kansas University (Ph.D.), childhood experiences, Kenneth McFarland
7 Firing of Kenneth McFarland, Topeka Daily Capital, Topeka State Journal, experiences in Topeka Unified School District
8 Sons experiences in school: Lowman Hill, Impact of Brown

Harriet S. Wilson (Kansas)
Page Topics
1 BD, BP, DOB, Mother: Siena Ramsey Stephens; Father: Harry T. Stephens; Siblings: Bonnie Jean Stephens (spouse: Tom Mix), Lois Stephens, Paul Stephens
2 Ethnicity: Scottish and English; Educational experiences: Topeka High School (1936), Lowman Hill, Boswell Junior High, Kansas University (1940)
3 Work experiences; Organizations: Westerners, Lawrence Preservation Alliance, Kansas Historical Society
4 Important events, Experiences during WW2,
5 Childhood experiences in Lowman Hill School, Lena Davis (principal), perceptions of segregated education
7 Social activities in high school, description of her neighborhood, Tennessee
Town
7 Perceptions of black students, Domestic workers (Mrs. Gentry and Mrs. Graham), Tennessee Town, Husband’s involvement in Brown case
8 Husband’s involvement in Brown case, Interaction between races in Topeka in 1930s, attendance at Klan rally
9 Klan rally at airfield (near present day Westboro) – 1920s, anti-Catholic, Gage Park
10 Gage Park

Paul E. Wilson (Kansas)
Page Topics
1 BG, BP, Educational Experiences,
2 Work experiences, Family’s migration to Kansas
3 Family’s migration to Kansas, childhood experiences
Paul E. Wilson (continued)
Page Topics
4 Childhood experiences, attending one-room school – Lone Elm School
5 Attending one-room school – Lone Elm School,
6 Experiences in high school, attending one-room school – Lone Elm School, description of racial composition of community
7 Description of racial composition of community, Federated Church
8 Tom Rankin, Agricultural Adjustment Administration, Work at chicken farm
9 Work at chicken farm, experiences at Kansa University, Dr. Sandelius
10 Work experiences, experiences in WW2, law practice in Ashland, KS
11 Law practice in Lyndon, KS, Experiences as county attorney, experiences in Office of the Attorney General
12 Brown case, experiences in Office of the Attorney General
13 Brown case, experiences in Office of the Attorney General, Topeka Board of Education
14 Brown case, experiences in Office of the Attorney General
15 Brown case, experiences in Office of the Attorney General, admission to Bar of Supreme Court
16 Brown case, experiences in Office of the Attorney General, admission to Bar of Supreme Court
17 Brown case, experiences in Office of the Attorney General, Travel to Washington, DC, Thurgood Marshall and John Davis, Carlton Hotel
18 Brown case, experiences in Office of the Attorney General, Robert Carter, Spottswood Robinson, Jack Greenberg, Redding, T. Justin Moore
19 Brown case, experiences in Office of the Attorney General, filing of brief
20 United States Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall and John Davis
21 Thurgood Marshall and John Davis, Justice Frankfurter
22 Brown case, experiences in Office of the Attorney General
23 Brown case, experiences in Office of the Attorney General, Experiences at Kansas University Law School
24 Experiences at Kansas University Law School

8.3 Appendix C: Individual Case Information

8.3.a Legal Teams
Brown, et. al. v. Board of Education, Topeka, et. al.
(NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc.)
Walter F. White (NAACP Executive Secretary)
Robert Carter William H. Hastie Thurgood Marshall
George E. C. Hayes William T. Coleman Charles H. Houston
Jack Greenberg James M. Nabritt, Jr. Frank D. Reeves
Brown, et. al. v. Board of Education, Topeka, et. al. (continued)
U. Simpson Tate Franklin H. Williams

Belton v. Gebhart (Bulah v. Gebhart) - Delaware
Louis L. Redding

Bolling, et. al. v. C. Melvin Sharpe, et. al. - Washington. D. C.
Charles H. Houston James M. Nabritt, Jr.
Gardner Bishop (Case Strategist)

Briggs v. R. W. Elliot - South Carolina
Harold Boulware Thurgood Marshall
Rev. J. A. DeLane (Case Strategist)

Brown, et. al. v. Board of Education, Topeka - Kansas
Charles Bledsoe Charles Scott
John Scott McKinley L. Burnett (Case Strategist)

Davis, et. al. v. Prince Edward County Board of Supervisors - Virginia
Oliver Hill Spottswood W. Robinson, III
Rev. Francis Griffin (Case Strategist)

8.3.b Plaintiffs
Bolling, et. al. v. C. Melvin Sharpe, et. al. - Washington. D. C.
Spottswood Bolling Wanamaker Bolling
Sarah Briscol Adrian Jennings
Barbara Jennings

Briggs v. R. W. Elliot - South Carolina
Harry Briggs Eliza Briggs Harry Briggs, Jr.
Thomas L. Briggs Katherine Briggs Mary L. Bennett
Lillian Bennett Onatha Bennett Hercules Bennett
Eilton Bennett William Bennett Henry Brown
Thelma Brown Vera Brown Beatrice Brown
Willie Brown Marian Brown Ethel Mae Brown
Howard Brown Thomas Brown Euralia Brown
Joe M. Brown Esther Fludds F. Singleton Fludds
Janie Fludds Thomas Gamble Willie M. Gardenia
Willie M. Gardenia, Jr. William Gibson Annie Gibson
William Gibson, Jr. Maxine Gibson Harold Gibson
Robert C. Georgia Charlie Georgia Jarvine Georgia
Briggs v. R. W. Elliot - South Carolina (continued)
Gladys Hilton Joseph Hilton Gussie Hilton
Roosevelt Hilton Lila Mae Huggins Celestine Huggins
Juanita Huggins Thomas Johnson Blanche E. Johnson
Lillie Eva Johnson Rubie Lee Johnson Betty J. Johnson
Hobby M. Johnson Preston Johnson Lee Johnson
Bessie Johnson Morgan Johnson Samuel G. Johnson
Mary O. Lawson Francis Lawson Benie Lee Lawson
Susan Lawson Raymond Lawson Eddie Lee Lawson
Susan Ann Lawson Frederick Oliver Willie Oliver
Mary Oliver Mary Oliver Daisy Oliver
Louis Oliver, Jr. Bennie Pearson, Jr. Plummie Pearson
Celestine Pearson Edward Ragin Sara Ragin
Shirley Ragin Deloris Ragin Hazel Ragin
Zelia Ragin Sarah Ellen Ragin Rebecca Ragin
Mable Ragin William Ragin Glen Ragin
Luchrisher Richardson Elone Richardson Emamual Richardson
Lee Richardson James Richardson Charles Richardson
Annie L. Richardson Dorothy Richardson Jackson Richardson
Rebecca Richburg Rebecca I. Richburg E. E. Richburg
Albert Richburg Henry Scott Mary Scott
Irene Scott Louis Stukes James Theola
Gabriel Tindal Annie Tindal

Brown, et. al. v. Board of Education, Topeka - Kansas
Darlene Brown on behalf of her daughter Saudria D. Brown
Oliver Brown on behalf of his daughter Linda C. Brown
Lena Carper on behalf of her daughter Katherine L. Carper
Sadie Emmanuel on behalf of her son James M. Emmanuel
Marguerite Emmerson on behalf of her sons Claud A. and George R. Emmerson
Shirla Fleming on behalf of her sons Duane D. and Silas H. Fleming
Mrs. Andrew Henderson on behalf of her children Vicki A. and Donald A. Henderson
Shirley Hodison on behalf of her son Charles Hodison
Mrs. Richard Lawton on behalf of her daughters Victoria J. and Carol K. Lawton
Alma Lewis on behalf of her children Theron, Arthur, Martha, and Frances Lewis
Iona Richardson on behalf of her son Ronald D. Richardson
Vivian Scales on behalf of her daughter Ruth Ann Scales
Lucinda Todd on behalf of her daughter Nancy J. Todd

Davis, et. al. v. Prince Edward County Board of Supervisors - Virginia
John Davis on behalf of his daughters Dorothy E., Bertha M., and Inez D. Davis
Leslie Wooldridge on behalf of his children Andrew L., Wilbert A., and Aubrey L. Wooldridge
Amanda Goode on behalf of her children Robert A. and Mariam O. Goode
Inez Hicks on behalf of her son Roosevelt O. Hicks
Katie H. Bigger on behalf of her son Alphonzo S. Bigger
Emma H. Morton (guardian) on behalf of Joy A. Cabarrus
Carrie Brown on behalf of her children Grace E. and Walter N. Brown
Rosa Bell Davis on behalf of her sons Warren L. and Willie H. Davis
Harry S. Hall on behalf of his daughter Mary R. Hall
Frankie L. Berkeley on behalf of her daughter Dorothy E. Berkeley
Louise Willis on behalf of her children Lottie C., Daisy M., and Robert A. Willis

8.4 Appendix D: Court Cases in Prelude to Brown, 1849–1949

For more than a century African-Americans sought to ensure access to equal educational opportunity. Religion, education and community have proven to be the cornerstone of self-determination on the part of African-Americans. One of the most prominent examples of this cornerstone concept can be found in the early and unrelenting legal challenges to segregate public schools. These school cases typify the ongoing struggle for civil rights, social equality and racial justice in the United States.
Parents from ordinary walks of life were willing to step forward and bear the consequences of legal action in the hopes of achieving educational equality for their children. Individuals or small groups of parents appear to have acted on their own in the earliest cases. In later cases state and national strategies of the NAACP clearly were at work. Slowly the actions of attorneys representing parents and school children chipped away at legal segregation in schools. Court decisions began to provide some measure of protection for the idea of equality even in the bleakest of times for African-Americans.

8.4.a Massachusetts Case
Roberts v. the City of Boston, (1849)
By the late 1700’s in Massachusetts slavery had been abolished. As a result of this action Boston schools were not segregated. However, African-Americans felt they were at a disadvantage because white teachers and students in the integrated schools harassed and mistreated African-American children. In the face of this discrimination, parents petitioned for special schools for their children. Their efforts to have a segregated school were denied by the state legislature. Consequently, the first segregated school for African-American children was privately established in 1798.
By 1840, there was growing concern about the prejudice fostered by separate schools. Two years later African-American parents began publicly expressing resentment because they were taxed to support schools they were not allowed to send their children to. These parents began petition drives to close down their segregated schools. They petitioned in 1845 again in 1846 and 1848 without favor. The final effort was undertaken in 1849. Under the legal leadership of attorneys Charles Sumner, who went on to become a United States Senator, and Robert Morris, an African-American activist who shared the title abolitionist with his colleagues. Although this was a joint community action, the lead plaintiff was Benjamin Roberts.
The case became known as Roberts v. The City of Boston. In their petition to the Massachusetts Supreme Court, attorneys for the African American parents outlined the circumstances believed to be unlawful. Parents explained how their children had been denied enrollment in all Boston schools except the segregated Smith School. However a state statute existed that allowed any student unlawfully excluded from public school to recover damages. The Roberts case was unsuccessful because authorities reasoned that special provisions had been made for “colored” students to have a school.
Support for their cause finally came from city officials when in April 1855; a bill was presented and passed by the Massachusetts legislature. This action provided that no distinction based on color, race or religion should be made for any student applying for admission to any public school in the state.

8.4.b The Kansas Cases
Before Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka became part of the national legal landscape, African-American parents in Kansas had initiated eleven court challenges to segregated public schools. For a span of nearly seventy years from 1881 to 1949 the Kansas Supreme Court became the venue for the constitutional question of public schools and segregation.
Why did desegregation cases arise in Kansas? The free state heritage, central geographical location, and makeup of its population positioned Kansas to play a central role in the major questions of educational freedom and equality. Kansas law at first had little to say on the subject of school segregation. In 1868, the law allowed, but did not require, separate schools. Some schools admitted children without discrimination and one of the first superintendents of public instruction, Peter McVicar vocally, opposed segregated schools.
The increase in the African-American population with the arrival of the “Exodusters” from the South in the 1870s, however, hardened attitudes in Kansas. Some schools began to separate children by race. In 1879, the Kansas Legislature passed a statue specifically allowing first class cities (those with populations of 15,000 or more) to conduct separate primary schools. This law remained in effect into the 1950s. With the exception of Wyandotte, high schools were not segregated in Kansas.

Elijah Tinnon v. the Board of Education of Ottawa (1881)
[KS Appellate Court Case No. “unnumbered” /Franklin County District Court Case No. 2699]
Elijah Tinnon was a determined man. This African-American parent spoke and acted for equal educational opportunity in Kansas before this concept had a name. Tinnon, listed in the census as a laborer born in Arkansas before the Civil War, addressed the Ottawa Board of Education in 1876. He and six other parents questioned the placing of their children in a separate room within the Central School and the qualifications of the teacher assigned to this room. The Board’s committee looking into the matter contended that most African American parents were in favor of the black teacher whose certification to teach the board belatedly checked into.
The protesting parents were not deterred. The superintendent of schools William Wheeler advised the school board that Tinnon and other parents “demanded admission for their children into the proper grades of the public school.” The board then voted “that the colored class lately taught by Mr. Wade be discontinued, and the pupils in attendance there be assigned to the various rooms in graded school.” The Board obtained the teacher’s resignation and paid him one month’s wage of $40.00.
Equal access to education in Ottawa appeared to have been decided. However, less than four years later Tinnon was again at odds with Board policies. The Board opened a one-room school for black children, grades one to six, in a frame building across the street from the brick Central School. Tinnon’s demand that his seven-year-old son Leslie be assigned to the brick school, which was nearest, his home was refused.
Represented by local white lawyers, Tinnon took his case to the courts. He was the first of more than a dozen little known African American parents to challenge school segregation through the highest Kansas court. The 1881 Tinnon case was first tried in District Court in Franklin County, Kansas. Judge Nelson D. Stephens cited the fourteenth amendment to the United States Constitution guaranteeing individual rights of citizenship among his reasons for deciding for Tinnon. The Ottawa School Board appealed the decision to the Kansas Supreme Court. In words anticipating school decisions to come, Judge Daniel M. Valentine wrote in upholding Tinnon “is it not better for the aggregate of human society as well as for individuals that all children should mingle together and learn to know each other?”
This case had elements of the first desegregation case in Boston, Massachusetts, and of later court challenges in Kansas: 1) the challenge became known by one name although several parents were often involved; 2) the victory of one year often disappeared the next; 3) the jobs of black teachers were at risk; 4) high schools, with one exception, were open to all 5) the courts offered the best avenue for equal access to education.

Buford Crawford v. the Board of Education of Fort Scott (1887)
[KS Appellate Court Case No. 4,844]
C. F. Drake started the first school in Fort Scott in 1859. The school consisted of four rooms in the local hospital. The following year, the city organized School District 55, the only district in the city for some time, with A. F. Cravens as the superintendent. The school system was shut down during the Civil War, but quickly started back up after the war. Central School, the first true school built in Fort Scott, was completed in 1871.
Plaza, Washington, and Logan Schools were set up for African-American children to attend. Ten-year-old Buford Crawford and his parents lived 450 feet from the Wilson School, while the Plaza School was across town. On October 17, 1887, his father, Robert Crawford, went to Wilson and applied for Buford’s admission to it. Buford met the age and residency qualifications to attend the school and would have been admitted if he were a white child. When Buford’s admission was rejected, Mr. Crawford filed for a Writ of Mandamus against the Fort Scott Board of Education in court.
The Board of Education claimed that the prominent African-American citizens of Fort Scott wanted one central school instead of one on the East and West side of town. This centrally located school was the Plaza School Buford Crawford had been assigned to attend. Statistics provided by the Board of Education showed that in October 1887 there were 1445 white and 283 African-American students below the high school level. The teacher–student ratio for whites was 1 teacher to every 6 students (48 total students). The teacher–student ratio for African-Americans was also 1 teacher to every 6 students (47 total students). Furthermore, they claimed that when Crawford applied for admittance at Wilson, there were already 51 students and only 48 seats, while at the Plaza School, there were 46 seats and only 41 students with an average attendance of 38. Additionally, on October 10, 1887, 14 students at the Wilson School were sent to other schools to relieve the overcrowding.
On November 15, 1887, the Kansas Supreme Court issued a writ of mandamus for Robert Crawford. The court found that the Board of Education “assigned him [Buford Crawford] to a separate school for colored children, created by illegal rules and regulations of the Board of Education, and situated in a remote part of the city from his residence.” Buford, the court said, was entitled to attend the school close to his home, and it was the duty of the Fort Scott Board of education to admit him as such because the Board of Education and its agents did not act under their duty when they refused his admittance because he was “colored.” The court also found that the Board of Education’s “…rules and regulations are unpublished and beyond the power of the Board of Education and in violation of the laws of Kansas, the Constitution of Kansas, and the Constitution of the United States.” Ultimately, the court said, the refusal was a great wrong and injury to Buford Crawford.
In 1880, the population of Fort Scott was 12,000, making it a city of the second-class and unlawful for segregated schools. Between 1880 and 1887, the population grew at a rate of 1,000 residents per year. By 1888 Fort Scott was a city of the first class, therefore allowing it to establish separate schools for white and African-American children. In 1889, 2,698 students were enrolled in the schools at Fort Scott.

Knox v. the Board of Education of Independence (1891)
[KS Appellate Court Case No. “unnumbered”]
Jordan Knox of Independence found himself in a situation similar to Elijah Tinnon. Knox’s daughters, eight and ten years old Bertha and Lilly, passed by one primary school to reach the Fourth Ward School to which they were assigned. In 1890, their father informed the Board of Education that he wanted his daughters to attend the school close to their home. He argued the Second Ward School had room for additional children. As the Independence Board had established separate classes for African-American children within one of their four primary schools, the superintendent refused to enroll Bertha and Lilly in the school near their home.
Knox sought legal help to compel the Board to honor his request. When this case was decided in the Kansas Supreme Court in 1891, the judges cited the Tinnon case and found no authority for the second-class city of Independence "to exclude from the schools established for white children, the colored children.” Knox and four other parents, who joined as plaintiffs, won their case and were awarded court costs.

Reynolds v. the Board of Education of Topeka (1903)
[KS Appellate Court Case No. 13,140]
Decisions affecting other larger cities were mixed. William Reynolds lost his 1903 case against the Topeka Board of Education. All children had attended the same building in the Lowman Hill District until it burned in 1900. The Board purchased a new site and erected a two-story brick building. Black pupils were assigned to the older Douglas building, which was moved to the area.
Reynolds, a tailor, demanded admission of his eight-year-old son Raoul to the new school. In an extensive review of the laws, the Kansas Supreme Court held for the Topeka Board on the basis that first class cities were allowed to operate separate elementary schools. The court also argued that the fourteenth amendment to the United States Constitution did not supercede Kansas’s law.

Special Legislation for Kansas City, Kansas (1905)
Mamie Richardson brought suit against the Board of Education of Kansas City in 1906 after she was not allowed to attend the Morning High School to which white students had been assigned. This singular case came about after a fatal incident at the integrated high school influenced the Kansas Legislature of 1905 to pass a special act permitting this city to operate separate high schools. The School Board lost no time in instigating separation by dividing each day into two sessions based on race, even as a new building, Wyandotte High School, was under construction. In ruling against Richardson the Kansas Supreme Court also upheld the constitutionality of this special legislation.

Cartwright v. the Board of Education of Coffeyville (1906)
[KS Appellate Court Case No. 14,249]
In Coffeyville, the school board maintained racially separate grades within Lincoln School. African American students were assigned to one classroom. Eva Cartwright, an African American sixth grader, accompanied by her mother tried to enroll in an all white sixth grade class taught by a white teacher. Eva was turned away and sent to the classroom reserved for African American students. Bud Cartwright demanded that his daughter Eva be admitted to the regular classroom for her grade level. One of his attorneys was James A. Guy, an African American lawyer who moved to Kansas from Ohio.
In 1906, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled for Cartwright based on Kansas law governing schools in second-class cities. The legal issue in second-class cities seemed to be settled. The court’s decision stated that the Board of Education has no power to exclude African-American students from schools established for white children in the absence of a law that authorizes such power in cities of the second class.

Rowles v. the Board of Education of Wichita (1907)
[KS Appellate Court Case No. 15,281]
In 1907, Sallie Rowles in Wichita won the case for her daughter Fannie to attend Emerson School near her home, but within three years the situation drastically changed. Despite the fact that early schools in Wichita had not practiced educational discrimination, by 1906, the Wichita board passed a resolution stating "the separation of white and colored children is more in keeping with the ideals and wishes of a majority of patrons.”
Black patrons objected at a school board meeting, but official support had disappeared. In 1905, the Kansas State Superintendent of Public Instruction in the 15th Biennial Report sought to justify segregation of the races in public schools. In 1909, the Kansas Legislature repealed an earlier law governing Wichita Schools, which had not permitted segregation. L’Ouventure and Douglass Schools were built exclusively for elementary education of black children in the first class city of Wichita.

Williams v. the Board of Education of Parsons (1908)
[KS Appellate Court Case No. 16,181]
In the first class City of Parsons, D.A. Williams won a narrowly based case on the issue of safety. In 1908, when the Parsons Board assigned all African American children to one of the four elementary schools, Williams, whose four children had attended school near their home, refused to have the children cross seven, dangerous Railway tracks to reach the designated school. He was informed that his children and other African-American students were required to attend a school designated for them. The School was located more than a mile from the children’s home and in an area surrounded by various Railway-switching yards.
The School was plagued by Railway traffic and train noises that disrupted the classroom. Mr. Williams filed legal action to remove his children from Lincoln School because of the dangers associated with travel to the school. The court found that on the facts presented, Williams was entitled to relief, but left the door open for other separate school arrangements.

Woolridge v. the Board of Education of Galena (1916)
[KS Appellate Court Case No. 20,378]
Classrooms at East Galena Elementary School were integrated in grades one through six. Because the school was overcrowded, the Board of Education called a meeting to develop a plan to reduce class size. The solution chosen was to hire an African-American teacher, who would teach only African-American children in one multi-grade class. To carry out this plan representatives from Galena tried but failed to persuade the Kansas Legislature to allow second-class cities to operate segregated schools. African American parents strongly objected to this change and filed suit to halt the Boards plans.
Local opinion was so inflamed against the demand of black parents in Galena that their children continue to attend mixed schools that they asked that the trial be moved to another county. Despite vocal intolerance, W. E. Woolridge and other parents won this 1916 case against the Board of Education as the Kansas Supreme Court found that racial separation “was without authority of law” in the second-class city of Galena.

Thurman-Watts v. the Board of Education of Coffeyville (1924)
[KS Appellate Court Case No. 25,305]
African-American attorneys and organizations factored in the 1924 challenge from Coffeyville, which had become a first class city that legally operated separate elementary schools. Elisha Scott and R. M. Vandyne, African-American attorneys from Topeka, represented Celia Thurman-Watts, whose daughter Victoria was denied admission to Roosevelt Junior High. Washington admitted both African-American and white students while only African-American students attended Cleveland and only White students were designated to attend Roosevelt.
In questioning during depositions, Scott probed the allegiance of school board members to the Ku Klux Klan. The President of the School Board admitted membership and another testified to past membership. Other questions established that the Coffeyville chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People supported this suit. As a result, Scott argued the broad issue of prejudice and the practical grounds of overcrowding in the black schools. He won on the narrower grounds that the ninth grade was part of high school and separate high school education was not allowed except in the single case of Kansas City, Kansas.

Wright v. the Board of Education of Topeka (1929)
[KS Appellate Court Case No. 29,324]
Topeka’s Buchanan School figured in the Wright case of 1929. Wilhemina Wright, an African-American student at Randolph School, which was reserved for white students, was transferred to Buchanan School twenty blocks away. Eugene S. Quinton of Topeka represented her father, George Wright, in his case. While it was agreed that Buchanan was as good a school as Randolph, the inconvenience and danger of a child walking to a school far form home did not allow equal access to education. The decision came to rest on school busing. Wright lost this case as the Board provided bus transportation. In addition Topeka as a First Class city could operate separate elementary schools based on race.

Graham v. the Board of Education of Topeka (1941)
[KS Appellate Court Case No. 34,791]
The Graham case focused on the issue of whether seventh grade was part of high school. White children attended six grades in elementary schools then three years in junior high schools. Black pupils continued to attend elementary schools for seventh and eight grades, then transferred to Boswell or Roosevelt Junior High for ninth grade. Tinkham Veale and William M. Bradshaw, representing Ulysses Graham’s parent, argued that the junior high schools were part of high school and that by not providing similar education for blacks these children were denied rights under the U.S. and Kansas constitutions. The Court found that the refusal to permit twelve-year-old Ulysses Graham to enroll in a junior high school was “discriminatory.”

Webb v School District No. 90, South Park, Johnson County (1949)
[KS Appellate Court Case No. 37,427. On microfilm reel MF 5005]
Population growth after World War II prompted construction of a new $90,000 South Park Elementary school near Merriam, Kansas. The district school board unlawfully established Walker School for African-American children. The School was inferior compared to other schools, outdated, and dilapidated. The African-American children were denied admittance to South Park School solely based on race and color. When their children were turned away from the new South Park School, Webb and other parents took thirty-nine children out of the poorly maintained, ninety-year-old Walker school, hired teacher Corinthian Nutter and opened a home school. Willingly risking further employment in the public schools, Nutter taught these children for over a year.
African-American parents found a staunch ally in Esther Brown who supported and assisted them in their case. Through her urging, attorney Elijah Scott took the lead in bringing about the Webb case. After the Kansas Supreme Court in 1949 ruled that equal facilities must be provided for all children, the board admitted black children to South Park School. The issue of segregation per se was not part of the ruling as facilities were so clearly unequal.