Prudence Crandall ~ Elk Falls, KS
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 37° 22.361 W 096° 12.013
14S E 747918 N 4139894
"On May 24, 1833, the Connecticut legislature passed the "Black Law", which prohibited a school with African American students from outside the state without the town's permission" ~ Wikipedia
Waymark Code: WMNGFF
Location: Kansas, United States
Date Posted: 03/12/2015
Views: 2
County of Memorial: Elk County
Location of memorial: US 160 & Osage St., roadside park, Elk Falls
Memorial erected by: Kansas Historical Society and Kansas Department of Transportation
Marker text:
PRUDENCE CRANDALL
In 1831, Prudence Crandall, educator, emancipator, and human rights advocate, established a school which in 1833, became the first black female academy in New England at Canterbury, Connecticut. This later action resulted in her arrest and imprisonment for violating the "Black Law".
Although she was later released on a technicality, the school was forced to close after being harassed and attacked by a mob. She moved with her husband Calvin Philleo to Illinois.
After her husband died in 1874, she and her brother moved to a farm near Elk Falls. Prudence taught throughout her long life and was an outspoken champion for equality for education and the rights of women. In 1886, supported by Mark Twain and others, an annuity was granted to her by the Connecticut Legislature. She purchased a house in Elk Falls where she died January 27, 1890.
Over a hundred years later, legal arguments used by her trial attorneys were submitted to the Supreme Court during their consideration of the historic civil rights case of Brown vs Topeka Board of Education.
A more detailed account can be found on Wikipedia and you can check out the TV movie She Stood Alone released in 1991