Daphnie+Deas

In Topeka,kansas a class action suit was filed against the board of education by thirteen parents for their twenty children, in 1951. The dispute took place in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas. The suit came to surface because of the school policy of racial segregation. Topeka Board of Education was in charge of seperate elementary schools.Under an 1879 Kansas law, in which permitted, but did not require, districts to maintain separate elementary school facilities, for black and white students in twelve communities with populations over 15,000.The plaintiffs (parents), had been recruited by the leadership of the Topeka NAACP. One of the African American plantiffs, Oliver L. Brown, was a parent and, a welder in the shops of the Santa Fe Railroad, and assistant pastor at his local church.Brown was convinced to join the lawsuit by his childhood friend, Scott. Brown's daughter Linda was only a third grader, and had to walk six blocks to her segregated black school school bus stop to ride to Monroe Elementary, one mile (1.6 km) away, while Sumner Elementary, a white school, was seven blocks from her house.As directed by the NAACP leadership, the parents each attempted to enroll their children in the closest neighborhood school in the fall of 1951. They were each refused enrollment and directed to the segregated schools. As the NAACP leadership directed, the parents each attempted to enroll their children in the closest neighborhood school in the fall of 1951. They were each refused enrollment and directed to the segregated schools.