Editing Brown v. Board of Education (section)

===Topeka===
[[File:Judgment, Brown v. Board of Education, 05311955.gif|thumb|Judgment and order of the Supreme Court for the case]]
The Topeka junior high schools had been integrated since 1941. Topeka High School was integrated from its inception in 1871 and its sports teams from 1949 onwards.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cjonline.com/indepth/flood/stories/071001_floodclass.shtml |title=The Class of '51 |website=[[The Topeka Capital-Journal|CJOnline]] |date=July 10, 2001 |access-date=October 15, 2010 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120730064343/http://www.cjonline.com/indepth/flood/stories/071001_floodclass.shtml |archive-date=July 30, 2012 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all}}</ref> The Kansas law permitting segregated schools allowed them only "below the high school level".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cjonline.com/stories/022802/ksb_release.shtml |title=Brown vs. The Board of Education of Topeka information release |website=[[The Topeka Capital-Journal|CJOnline]] |date=February 28, 2002 |access-date=October 15, 2010 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120722162705/http://www.cjonline.com/stories/022802/ksb_release.shtml |archive-date=July 22, 2012 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all}}</ref>

Soon after the district court decision, election outcomes and the political climate in Topeka changed. The Board of Education of Topeka began to end segregation in the Topeka elementary schools in August 1953, integrating two attendance districts. All the Topeka elementary schools were changed to neighborhood attendance centers in January 1956, although existing students were allowed to continue attending their prior assigned schools at their option.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.cjonline.com/stories/031604/loc_brown4.shtml |title=Racial bar down for teachers here |work=[[The Topeka Capital-Journal|Topeka Daily Capital]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926234004/http://www.cjonline.com/stories/031604/loc_brown4.shtml |archive-date=September 26, 2007 |date=January 19, 1956 |via=CJOnline}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.cjonline.com/stories/031604/loc_brown16.shtml |title=First step taken to end segregation |work=[[The Topeka Capital-Journal|Topeka Daily Capital]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080405215627/http://www.cjonline.com/stories/031604/loc_brown16.shtml |archive-date=April 5, 2008 |date=September 9, 1953 |via=CJOnline}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.cjonline.com/stories/031604/loc_brown7.shtml |title=Little Effect On Topeka |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929095453/http://www.cjonline.com/stories/031604/loc_brown7.shtml |archive-date=September 29, 2007 |work=[[The Topeka Capital-Journal|The Capital-Journal]] |via=CJOnline |date=May 18, 1954}}</ref> Plaintiff Zelma Henderson, in a 2004 interview, recalled that no demonstrations or tumult accompanied desegregation in Topeka's schools: "They accepted it&nbsp;... It wasn't too long until they integrated the teachers and principals."<ref>Erin Adamson, "[http://www.cjonline.com/stories/051103/our_brown1.shtml Breaking barriers: Topekans reflect on role in desegregating nation's schools]" {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040427065259/http://www.cjonline.com/stories/051103/our_brown1.shtml |date=April 27, 2004}}, ''The Topeka Capital-Journal'' (May 11, 2003)</ref>

The Topeka Public Schools administration building is named in honor of [[McKinley Burnett]], NAACP chapter president who organized the case.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2006-09-24 |title=Topeka Public Schools – About McKinley Burnett |url=https://www.topeka.k12.ks.us/pc/Schools/Administrative/Burnett_Center/mckinnley_burnett.html |access-date=2020-11-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060924021932/https://www.topeka.k12.ks.us/pc/Schools/Administrative/Burnett_Center/mckinnley_burnett.html|archive-date=September 24, 2006}}</ref>

[[Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park|Monroe Elementary]] was designated a [[National Historic Site (United States)|National Historic Site]] under the National Park Service on October 26, 1992, and redesignated a National Historical Park on May 12, 2022.

The intellectual roots of ''[[Plessy v. Ferguson]]'', the landmark United States Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutionality of [[Racial segregation in the United States|racial segregation]] in 1896 under the doctrine of "[[separate but equal]]" were, in part, tied to the [[scientific racism]] of the era.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tm2I6LNZ7-cC&pg=PA55 |page=55 |title=Race, Law, and Culture: Reflections on Brown v. Board of Education |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1997 |first=Austin |last=Sarat |quote=What lay behind ''Plessy v. Ferguson''? There were, perhaps, some important intellectual roots; this was the era of scientific racism. |isbn=978-0-19-510622-0}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fuXX4wQXYlsC&pg=PA184 |title=The Plessy Case |first=Charles A. |last=Lofgren |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1988 |page=184 |quote=But he [ [[Henry Billings Brown]] ] at minimum established popular sentiment and practice, along with legal and scientific testimony on race, as a link in his train of reasoning. |isbn=978-0-19-505684-6}}</ref> However, the popular support for the decision was more likely a result of the racist beliefs held by many whites at the time.<ref name="rlac">''Race, Law, and Culture: Reflections on Brown v. Board of Education'' By Austin Sarat. Page 55 and 59. 1997. {{ISBN|0-19-510622-9}}</ref> In deciding ''Brown v. Board of Education'', the Supreme Court rejected the ideas of scientific racists about the need for segregation, especially in schools. The court buttressed its holding by citing (in [http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=347&invol=483#f11 footnote 11]) social science research about the harms to black children caused by segregated schools.

Both scholarly and popular ideas of [[hereditarianism]] played an important role in the attack and backlash that followed the ''Brown'' decision.<ref name="rlac" /> ''[[Mankind Quarterly]]'' was founded in 1960, in part in response to the ''Brown'' decision.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Schaffer |first=Gavin |title="'Scientific' Racism Again?": Reginald Gates, the ''Mankind Quarterly'' and the Question of "Race" in Science after the Second World War |journal=Journal of American Studies |volume=41 |issue=2 |pages=253–278 |year=2007 |doi=10.1017/S0021875807003477 |s2cid=145322934 }}</ref><ref name="jackson">''Science for Segregation: Race, Law, and the Case Against Brown v. Board of Education''. By John P. Jackson. {{ISBN|0-8147-4271-8}} Page 148</ref>