Standing Up for Their Rights - Topeka, KS
Posted by: 
bluesnote
N 39° 02.291 W 095° 40.567
15S E 268377 N 4324421
One of many historical markers at the place where the road to desegregation began.
Waymark Code: WMPA9K
Location: Kansas, United States
Date Posted: 07/28/2015
Views: 3
The plaque says, "The Topeka chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) recruited 13 African American parents to file a lawsuit contesting the state law that allowed cities like Topeka to segregate students in elementary grades. Although the NAACP lost the case in US District Court in 1951, they appealed to the US Supreme Court and joined four other lawsuits from three other states and the District of Columbia challenging legal segregation in the nation's public schools.
The Topeka families who stood together in the early 1950s are remembered today for their part in the legal decision that outlawed segregation in public education and which set a precedent for ending other forms of segregation.
As a child I went through an integrated school [system in Oakley, Kansas]... I had good friends... There was no problem. but when I came to Topeka my children had to go to a separate school for black students clear across town... And I resented that. I knew that's where they learned to play and understand and meet the other races - all races. They get to know one another before they're taught otherwise. And that's why I was happy to be a plaintiff in Brown versus Board of Education.
- Zelma Henderson, pictured here with other plaintiffs, standing to the far left behind her two children, Vicki and Donald"
Marker Name: Standing up for Their Rights
Marker Type: Roadside
Marker text:
The Topeka chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) recruited 13 African American parents to file a lawsuit contesting the state law that allowed cities like Topeka to segregate students in elementary grades. Although the NAACP lost the case in US District Court in 1951, they appealed to the US Supreme Court and joined four other lawsuits from three other states and the District of Columbia challenging legal segregation in the nation's public schools.
The Topeka families who stood together in the early 1950s are remembered today for their part in the legal decision that outlawed segregation in public education and which set a precedent for ending other forms of segregation.
As a child I went through an integrated school [system in Oakley, Kansas]... I had good friends... There was no problem. but when I came to Topeka my children had to go to a separate school for black students clear across town... And I resented that. I knew that's where they learned to play and understand and meet the other races - all races. They get to know one another before they're taught otherwise. And that's why I was happy to be a plaintiff in Brown versus Board of Education.
- Zelma Henderson, pictured here with other plaintiffs, standing to the far left behind her two children, Vicki and Donald
Marker Location: Shawnee
Year Marker Placed: 01/01/2014
Name of agency setting marker: Other (Please identify in marker text)
Official Marker Number: Not listed
Marker Web Address: Not listed
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Visit Instructions:
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