KU works with national commission to observe Brown v. BOE 50th anniversary

LAWRENCE -- As the 50th anniversary of the 1954 landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Topeka Board of Education approaches, Kansans are preparing to observe the ruling that ended the legal basis for racial segregation in public schools.

Deborah Dandridge, archivist at the University of Kansas, is one of five Kansans serving on the 21-member national commission to commemorate the decision in Kansas and across the nation.

"Our purpose is to inform and educate the public of the significance of the case to American society and encourage people to talk about it," Dandridge said.

The national commission is coordinating a number of public education activities and initiatives across the country in 2004, including a conference March 14 -17 at KU. The conference, "Legacies and Unfinished Business of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka," will bring nationally recognized civil rights leaders, educators, lawyers and journalists, as well as descendants of the original Brown v. Board of Education case participants, to the university.

"The case involves issues that are central to understanding our nation; understanding its creed of freedom and equality," Dandridge said. "That's what makes our nation unique. That's what our democracy is about. And always at the center of this is the issue of race... and understanding that would enable us to understand all of the other issues that surrounded public education."

Dandridge said that the case was not simply about equal education but about race and race relations in the United States. Lawyers and others recognize that the ruling set the tone for the civil rights movement not only for African-Americans but movements for the rights of women and for those with disabilities, for example, Dandridge noted.

As a field archivist for the African-American collections in KU's Spencer Research Library's Kansas Collection, Dandridge works with communities and individuals throughout Kansas and in other states to preserve documents, photographs and other historical memorabilia. KU's collection includes many papers from the Rev. Oliver L. Brown family in Topeka as well as the papers of Charles S. Scott, one of the lead Topeka attorneys for the Brown v. Board of Education case. Some of these materials and others from the KU collection will be used in a Web site being prepared by KU journalism students as part of the 50th anniversary commemoration.

Dandridge said it was not entirely clear why Kansas became the lead in the case that involved school districts in five more states Ð Delaware, South Carolina, Virginia and the District of Columbia. Led by Thurgood Marshall, lawyers arguing that segregation was unconstitutional, wanted Americans to recognize this was a national issue about race, not a southern issue.

"Kansas was one of the states in which the social argument was the strongest because the physical facilities and the qualifications of the teachers were more equal in both African-American and in white schools," said Dandridge, who was a student in Topeka's Washington Elementary School, one of four schools designated for African-American children before the 1954 ruling. She notes that Topeka's African-American teachers were highly qualified and their school facilities were superior to those in South Carolina, for example.

"Kansas has always been the beacon on issues of race relations from Kansas entering the Union as a free state onward, including the emergence of John Brown and later as the destination for a mass migration of African-Americans following the Civil War," Dandridge said

On May 17, 2004, the date the decision became law, the Brown v. Board National Historic Site and National Park will officially open in Topeka.

More information about the March 14 -17, 2004 conference "The Legacies and Unfinished Business of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka," and to preregister please visit their Web site at www.kuce.org/programs/bbec/ Conference speakers will include Tony Brown of "Tony Brown's Journal," the longest-running program on PBS; Lani Guinier, Harvard Law School professor; Julianne Malveaux, economist and author; and Walter Broadnax, Clark Atlanta University president and former Kansan. Broadnax, who grew up in Hoisington, is a leading scholar-practitioner in public policy and management. He has a bachelor's degree from Washburn University and a master's degree from KU.

In addition to Dandridge, other Kansans on the commission who are preparing for the 50th anniversary next year are Cheryl Brown Henderson, president of the Brown Foundation in Topeka and co-chair of the national commission; Steven Adams, superintendent of the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site in Topeka; Jesse Milan, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People of Kansas Kansas City, Kan.; and Daniel D. Holt, director of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library in Abilene.

A number of KU offices are sponsoring the March conference including: American studies, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Continuing Education, African and African-American studies, political science, sociology, Hall Center for the Humanities, the Multicultural Resource Center, the Executive Vice Chancellor for University Relations, the Office of the Provost, the Office of the Vice Provost for Student Success, the Graduate School and the schools of education, journalism, law and social welfare, and University Libraries; and by the Brown Foundation, USD 497 in Lawrence, and by Luke Blanchard and George T. Grigsby, both of Las Vegas, Nev.