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Brown v. Board of Education
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View of the front of Monroe Elementary School.

In 1954, segregated schools in several areas of the country were the impetus for significant change to the civil rights laws of the United States. Key events surrounding students at the Monroe Elementary School in Topeka helped to overturn the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling, which had sanctioned public school segregation. |

Following the landmark Oliver L. Brown et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, public schools could no longer segregate students using racial categories or ethnic backgrounds. In 1992, the events surrounding the Brown et al. civil rights litigation became the basis for the creation of the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site (BRVB) that includes the Monroe Elementary School.

However, between the 1860s and 1926 the Monroe School neighborhood was an active, working-class African-American community with numerous houses, outbuildings, and the late-19th-century Monroe School. This period might tell us much about that which followed, but the historic record of this neighborhood prior to the Civil Rights period does not offer many details about daily and civic life.

The Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site will unveil the Monroe Elementary School as its visitor’s center in May 2004. Prior to opening the new center, substantial rehabilitation work was necessary for the entire school building. From 1999 to 2003 the Midwest Archeological Center (MWAC) conducted several archeological projects related to the rehabilitation of the Monroe Elementary School.

These projects have revealed detailed information about the history of the earlier Monroe School neighborhood. This information will help archaeologists answer questions about larger cultural issues, such as how people in the neighborhood lived and how they integrated themselves into local, regional, and national socio-economic spheres.

This web site presents a synthesis of the archeological projects undertaken by the Midwest Archeological Center and provides an overview of the historical and archeological records relating to the earlier Monroe School neighborhood. NEXT >>

Text by Jay T. Sturdevant (National Park Service, Midwest Archeological Center)

Links: Brown v. Board Sites of Interest

1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling

U.S. Supreme Court

Oliver Brown, et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka

Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site

1862 Homestead Act

Nicodemus NHS

Central High School

Library of Congress exhibit

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