The Foundation’s public history work is based on a belief that education programs that step out of the modality of text books play a critical role in helping the public develop a better awareness and understanding of history. For example, exhibits that can travel from place to place provide a vehicle for sharing photos and narrative that personalize historic events. Often curricular resources available are one dimensional in their perspective and leave out substance with respect to who, what, when, where, why and how.

In 1993 the Foundation unveiled its traveling exhibit entitled "In Pursuit of Freedom and Equality." This exciting visual presentation examines the historical record before, during and after the Brown decision. The exhibit uses photos, quotes, maps, newspaper headlines and short narratives to interpret the history of segretion in education. This project was funded in part by the Kansas Humanities Council, in consultation with humanities scholars from the fields of history, jurisprudence and minority studies. This integrated humanities approach made it possible to present a thorough examination and discussion of the complexities and the role of the Brown case in American educational history.

Few people realize that as early as 1849 African Americans fought the system of education in this country that mandat.ed separate schools for their children based solely on race. Kansas attempted eleven legal challenges for school integration before Brown. Our approach focuses attention on how Brown provided the legal framework which enhanced the development of crucial activities of the civil rights movement.

The traveling exhibit is a 12-panel display mounted on a Nimlock system. The mounting is a series of six two-sided exhibit boards measuring 3' x 4' attached to 8' poles. When on display, space must be provided for viewers to walk freely on both sides of the exhibit. The Foundation produced three sets of this exhibit, one of which is on permanent display at the Washburn University Law Library. The attorneys for the Topeka case received their law degrees from this institution. The remaining sets are traveling displays. One set travels only in Kansas and the other nation.wide.

Some of the issues illustrated by the exhibit are:

• Education as a first act of freedom for African Americans.
• The exodust from the post-Civil War South.
• Seeking equal educational opportunity.
• Early legal challenges to segregated schools.
• African American parent-teacher or.gani.zations.
• Achievement under segregation.
• The continued struggle for liberty and equal opportunity.

The Brown Foundation’s experience with creating resources to document and interpret public history is one example of a local initiative to preserve a community legacy. Without such initiatives, events in America’s past that are not recounted in history books would remain unknown.