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