Educators want to reopen 'Brown v. Board' school - USATODAY.com: Fifty-six years ago, the Rev. Oliver Brown and 12 other black parents helped kick-start the civil rights movement when they tried to enroll their children in all-white schools in Topeka, Kan. The schools' refusal helped give rise to the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case, which led to school desegregation nationwide.
Brown's old neighborhood school, Sumner Elementary, has been shuttered for years. Now two black Kansas educators want to turn it into a charter school for at-risk students, most of whom, they say, will be black or Hispanic. Their bid, which goes before the Topeka school board next month, has a certain symbolic importance: Not only would it reopen the landmark building, potentially to children of all races — it illustrates just how far the discussion on race and schooling has moved since Brown.
The proposal is backed by Cheryl Brown Henderson, one of Brown's daughters, who heads the Brown family foundation. She is on the governing board, whose plan includes a proposal to buy Sumner from the city and raise up to $5.5 million to renovate it.
