The Sumner Elementary School in

Topeka, Kansas Topeka ( ; Kansa: ; iow, Dópikˀe, script=Latn or ) is the capital city A capital city or capital is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state, province, department, or other subnational entity, usually as its seat ...

was involved in the ''

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segreg ...

'' case in 1954. Linda Brown's attempted enrollment to the Sumner School was rejected by the Topeka Board of Education, thus forcing her to attend the all-black Monroe School, which was farther away from her home. Oliver Brown, Linda's father, then joined the

class action A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class action ...

lawsuit against the Topeka Board of Education that was eventually heard before the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

. The Sumner Elementary School is currently a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

listed with the

United States Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the m ...

. It was constructed in 1936 as a part of the

Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works The Public Works Administration (PWA), part of the New Deal of 1933, was a large-scale public works construction agency in the United States headed by Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. It was created by the National Industrial Reco ...

, a

New Deal The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Con ...

program. The school was designed in the

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unit ...

style by Thomas W. Williamson, and has an unusual amount of stone detailing. Because of the quality of the original construction, it retains many of its original features, including light and bathroom fixtures, clocks, carved woodwork and a marble-rimmed fireplace in the

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cent ...

.Susan Saulny
In Purchase of School, Hopes of Saving a Neglected Monument
''The New York Times'', July 20, 2009, Accessed July 20, 2009. Monroe Elementary School, the segregated school that Linda Brown had been attending, closed in 1975 and was held privately for a number of years before being purchased in 1991 by

The Trust for Public Land The Trust for Public Land is a U.S. nonprofit organization with a mission to "create parks and protect land for people, ensuring healthy, livable communities for generations to come". Since its founding in 1972, the Trust for Public Land has compl ...

and added to Sumner's listing on the National Register. Because Sumner was still in use at the time for classes and Monroe was not, Monroe was selected on October 26, 1992 to house the

Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site ''Brown v. Board of Education'' National Historical Park was established in Topeka, Kansas, on October 26, 1992, by the United States Congress to commemorate the landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in the case '' Brown v. Board of Educa ...

, the official commemorative location operated for the public by the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government within the United States Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of ...

. The school closed in 1996. It was one of eight schools closed as part of a local

desegregation Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups, usually referring to races. Desegregation is typically measured by the index of dissimilarity, allowing researchers to determine whether desegregation efforts are having impact o ...

plan to satisfy the original ''Brown'' case which was re-opened in the 1980s and not closed until 1999. The building was initially purchased by the

Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library The Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library is a public library located in Topeka, Kansas, United States. It serves all of Shawnee County, Kansas with the exception of the Rossville, Kansas and Silver Lake, Kansas townships. The Topeka & Shawnee Co ...

, which used it as a storage facility. The City of Topeka purchased the building from the library in 2002, hoping to rehabilitate it, but city was unable to allocate the necessary funds. The city then tried to sell the property, but found no buyers; it even considered demolishing the building, which had fallen into serious neglect and had suffered vandalism. As a consequence, in May 2008,

The National Trust for Historic Preservation The National Trust for Historic Preservation is a privately funded, nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that works in the field of historic preservation in the United States. The member-supported organization was founded in 1949 b ...

listed the building on their list of

America's Most Endangered Places America's 11 Most Endangered Places or America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places is a list of places in the United States that the National Trust for Historic Preservation considers the most endangered. It aims to inspire Americans to preserve ex ...

.Threats to history seen in budget cuts, bulldozers - Yahoo! News
/ref> The city chose to auction the building to the public in January 2009. Hearing of the sale and recognizing the significance to the Civil Rights Movement, Rev. W. R. Portee, minister of a nondenominational Christian church based in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

, purchased the building using the umbrella organization True Foundation World Outreach Ministries in April 2009 for $89,000. The organization plans to renovate the building and open it to the public as a community center and human rights memorial. The estimated renovation costs are $7 million.

References

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka : Sumner and Monroe Elementary Schools : management alternatives study and environmental assessment. National Park Service, Midwest Region, 1992

External links

Photo and info on Sumner School

{{Registered Historic Places School buildings completed in 1936 Art Deco architecture in Kansas Buildings and structures in Topeka, Kansas School segregation in the United States National Historic Landmarks in Kansas Defunct schools in Kansas School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Kansas New Deal in Kansas National Register of Historic Places in Topeka, Kansas