The state of Kansas, situated in the American heartland, has played a central role in this nation's struggles with race relations. In the years preceding the Civil War, "Bleeding Kansas" was a battleground in the debate over slavery, as pro-slavery and abolitionist forces fought to determine whether Kansas would enter the Union as a free state or a slave state. Nearly one hundred years later, Kansas was again in the national spotlight as a group of parents in Topeka challenged racially segregated schools in the state's capital city. Kansas law gave cities with a population of 15,000 or more the right to segregate schools below the high school level according to race. Topeka High School was integrated, as the law required, although most extracurricular activities, such as athletic teams and student advisory councils, were segregated by race. (The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2004)
Fifty years ago, the Supreme Court made a decision that has had a very great impact on education in the United States. Although this decision affects us all even today, many students don't know or remember exactly what was decided in the Brown vs. the Board of Education lawsuit.
In 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that segregation between whites and blacks was acceptable in a case called Plessy vs. Ferguson. They agreed that blacks and whites could be "separate but equal." As a result of this ruling, segregation of races continued in 21 states.
Although segregation had the approval of most whites, in the late 1940s some people in the U.S. government began to see the detrimental effect that segregation was having in foreign relations. In a letter to the Attorney General in 1946 the writer said of segregation, "Other peoples cannot understand how such a practice can exist in a country which professes to be a staunch supporter of freedom, justice, and democracy."............
