Volume 2, No. 2 (Winter 1998) -- Black History Month Issue

This country is resplendent with ordinary people engaged in extraordinary work on behalf of their communities, states and nation. But often, when these happenings reach the light of day, the true story behind the deeds remains a mystery. Such is the case with one of this nations most heralded milestones, the landmark U. S. Supreme Court decision in Oliver Brown et. al. v. The Board of Education of Topeka. Oliver Brown was my father, who died in 1961 at the age of 42. For my family, the significance of his passing was intensely personal yet profoundly public. In addition to his physical death, we also lost an opportunity to learn his views about the famous case which bears his name.

Within the last 20 years, we have lost both attorneys and plaintiffs involved in the five cases that comprise Brown, including Charles Scott and John Scott, two of the four NAACP attorneys in Topeka who conceived the local strategy employed against the Board of Education. Thurgood Marshall's death seemed to signal the end of an era. The loss of this living history heightened the need to research and preserve their work for the benefit of future generations.

In January of 1988, I sat visiting with a young man new to the Topeka community. His name was Jerry Jones and he would have an unparalleled effect on my life and the lives of my family. As he and I prepared to attend one of the many observances of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Jerry asked a seemingly innocent question - What is being done to commemorate anniversaries of Brown v. The Board of Education? My response of "not much" both shocked and challenged him.

That visit and subsequent conversations developed into a personal mission for us to resurrect and share the Brown story. The task would not be simple, because we were up against several decades of media reports on this history. It became painfully clear that the media-created version of Brown had eclipsed the facts. One soon understands that both the electronic and print media thrive on simplicity, sometimes omitting what is not convenient to the story they want to put forth.

We discovered that not only were anniversaries of this decision passing unnoted, history classes were only giving cursory mention to Brown. Like so many other communities that have a historic legacy of national significance or where historic battles have taken place, Topeka, Kansas was more interested in burying this aspect of its past then boasting of any involvement. 1950s America had left its mark and its residue of racial mistrust. Our challenge became how to commemorate and interpret this history, not only for school children but the general public.

The climate in Topeka dictated that any organization we might create had to go beyond commemorating dates and places, and include the untold stories of many individuals who had been on the front line of this school integration struggle. The mission now involved using public history to heal old wounds created by historic omissions and inaccuracies. Some local citizens believed the Brown case negatively stigmatized the city. Our success would require organizing volunteers from various backgrounds in order to uncover historic connections across the community and the communities of the remaining four cases that comprise Brown. This meant reaching out to individuals in Delaware, Virginia, South Carolina and Washington, D.C.

Out of our work and creativity came the Brown Foundation for Educational Equity, Excellence and Research. We believed this organization should continue the quest for educational equity initiated by the Brown decision. The Brown Foundation is a Kansas based non-profit with a mission and purpose designed to further educational equity and multicultural understanding in order to improve the quality of life for individuals and strengthen our overall sense of community. The Foundation sponsors:

• scholarships for minority students in teacher education,
• programs with emphasis on racial/ethnic diversity, and
• historic research and related educational activities.