Wichitan remembers integration on the 70th anniversary of Brown vs. BOE
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — Friday marks 70 years since the Supreme Court Brown vs. BOE decision that made segregated public schools unconstitutional. The case involved the Topeka Board of Education but impacted schools nationwide.
Sheila Kinnard grew up going to Wichita Public Schools. She says 1954 was the beginning of a long journey to desegregation.
“Lunch counters were segregated. Churches were segregated. Schools were segregated,” Kinnard said. “I mean, Brown vs. Board was written in a law, but it was not enacted by a lot of communities, even here in Wichita.”
Topeka was at the center of Brown v. Board. Decades later, segregation of another sort lingers
She said that after the May 17, 1954 Supreme Court decision, there was not much of a plan in place to integrate Wichita schools. Over a decade passed before the district started busing Black students to white schools.
Kinnard’s mother was Jo Brown, the first Black woman on the USD 259 school board. She served for over a decade.
“She was able to speak power and speak truth to the people in that room, so they realized we have to be better, and we can be,” Kinnard said. “With her work and guidance, they were better, and we hope and pray that there are still people in those spaces that can still do that like she did.”
Kinnard says the lessons of history shape today.
“The wakeup call was that America could not live divided,” Kinnard said. “We hear the saying, united we stand, divided we fall. We’re divided even today, so we’re up for a fall if we don’t get ourselves together. To highlight this momentous court decision is a reminder to everybody, I get chills as I say it, is a reminder to everybody that we must be together, come together. If we don’t, we’re going to fall.”
70 years after Brown v. Board, America is both more diverse — and more segregated
Kinnard went to an all-Black elementary school in the 60s, then to an integrated Curtis Jr. High with a few others. She says they were able to go to the school of their choice, but they had to have their own transportation. She says she had a good school experience, but that wasn’t the case for everyone at that time.
“There was a lot of animosity for Black students to integrate a school like West High, my friend,” Kinnard said. “I didn’t have that because different schools in different parts of our city accepted Black students differently with respect to how their parents felt. If their parents were not progressive or forward-thinking, the students were not forward-thinking or progressive, and they were stuck in their old ways of segregation.”
The Topeka school at the heart of the Brown vs. BOE case is now a National Historic Site. Click here to learn more.
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