In Topeka, Kansas, Mr. Oliver Brown, along with 12 other parents, and with help from the NAACP, filed an appeal to the Supreme Court in October, 1951. This was in protest of the Plessy V Ferguson decision in February which stated segregation didn't conflict with the 14th Amendment as long as separate facilities for black people were equal to that of white people.
Mr. Brown's daughter, Linda, was selected to represent the class action suit, which would allow black children to attend Summer Elementary, 5 blocks away, rather than the run-down, decrepit all black Monroe School which was over 2 miles away. Other cases from the District of Columbia, South Carolina, Virginia, and Delaware were included in the Kansas suit. Brown's name was put first so that it wouldn't "seem like a Southern issue."
The Warren Court's decision was unanimous, 9-0.
The Brown V Board of Education National Historic Site was established in October, 1992, at Monroe Elementary School, one of 4 segregated schools in Topeka. The title was transferred to the National Park Service in 1993.
