Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site

Welcome to the audio-described version of Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site's official print brochure.  Through text and audio descriptions of photos, illustrations, and maps, this version interprets the two-sided color brochure that Brown v. Board visitors receive.  The brochure explores the history of the site, some of its highlights, and information for planning your visit. This audio version lasts about one hour and five minutes which we have divided into 24 sections, as a way to improve the listening experience.  Sections three through twelve cover the front of the brochure and include information regarding The United States Supreme Court, Equal Justice Under Law: The Fight for Constitutional Rights, and the five cases related to segregation in nineteen fifty. Sections fourteen through twenty-four cover the back of the brochure which consists of a timeline of the long struggle of civil rights from fifteen hundred to nineteen sixty five, the aftermath of Brown, visiting Brown v. Board, the Brown Foundation, directions to the site, and accessibility information.   

Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site, located in Topeka, Kansas, is part of the National Park Service, within the Department of the Interior. The site is located on the eastern side of Topeka, in the former Monroe Elementary building. Brown v. Board became a National Historic Landmark in 1992 and the visitor center was opened to the public on May 17, 2004, on the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education ruling.  Each year, thousands of visitors come to learn, remember, and honor the history that shaped where we are today that only can be had at Brown v. Board. We invite you to explore the experiences of the plaintiffs, the genius of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the resistance to integration inside the Hall of Courage. Feel the emotion and the courage. Learn about the individuals and their strength to show love when surrounded by hate. Understand that one person can make a difference. To find out more about what resources might be available or to contact the park directly, visit the "Accessibility" and "More Information" sections at the end of this audio-described brochure.

Front page describes the history of the Brown v. Board of Education U.S. Supreme Court decision as the legal backbone for desegregation, civil rights, diversity and inclusion in the United States.

The top two thirds of the page is overlaid on a photo of the front of The U.S. Supreme Court Building. The page displays photos of integrated schools. It then discusses the history of constitutional inequality in the United States, starting with post-Civil War events.

The bottom third of the page discusses the five separate cases that make up the Brown v. Board of Education case, while also displaying photos from each case and a map of where the cases are located within the U.S.

DESCRIBING: Photograph of the front of The U.S. Supreme Court Building, which is a neoclassical building that resembles a Greek temple set in the background behind other images and text.

SYNOPSIS: A view of the first roe of eight symmetrical fluted or ribbed Corinthian columns.  The columns are topped with leafy ornate capitals.  They hold up an entablature, a type of horizontal band, on which equal justice under law 'is engraved with clean capital letters. On either side of the text of the entablature there are decorative moldings that look like banners. On top of the entablature is a triangular pediment which is hidden behind three of the brochures' photographs, leaving a sculpture's legs to peek out on the left.  The structure looms overhead, ornately decorated, and is symmetrical to capture the ancient Greek love of mathematical precision.   

CAPTION: Washington, D.C., Supreme Court

CREDIT: National Park Service/Robert Lautman

QUOTE: 

We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of “separate but equal” has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.

—From the opinion written by Chief Justice Earl Warren in the 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education

IMAGE 1 of 3: Children in classroom sitting at desks

DESCRIBING:

Taken from the front of the room, this black-and-white landscape-oriented photo shows two girls seated at their desks in the front row.  Behind them, two lines each of six school children, both boys and girls, are seated at their desks.

SYNOPSIS:

The girl on the left is African American and the girl on the right is white. The children are about eight years old - perhaps third grade in a grammar school.  The two girls look at one another, eye to eye, the white girl leaning forward into conversation.  The black girl's facial expression is neutral.  Their facial expressions are open to interpretation - curious, intent, maybe concerned or interested, neither obviously positive or negative.

IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION:

Seven or eight other children can be seen seated in the two lines behind the two girls in front.  They all appear to be white. They are watching the two girls in front.  Some have their heads resting on their arms, some sit up straight.

CAPTION: Girls meet at the Fort Myer, Virginia., elementary school after the Brown decision.

CREDIT: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library

IMAGE 2 of 3: Boys running outside

DESCRIBING:

A small, black-and-white photograph taken in a school yard. About a dozen school boys are running out of the school building. 

SYNOPSIS:

At least a third of the boys are African American, mixed in the rush of activity, boys excitedly getting out of class for recess. Some of the boys are dressed in white shirt and tie, others are in more casual shirts. They are all clean and neatly dressed.

The boys are all smiling. They are one large group running out of the school to play, they are one crowd of active boys, black and white mixed together.

IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION:

The building is built of brick.  It's impossible to tell the building's age, from what little is seen, but the brickwork is worn.  The school building serves only as a background to a group of very active happy school boys.

CAPTION: Boys race to recess at a Washington, D.C., elementary school in 1954.

CREDIT: A P Wide World/Martin Luther King Library

IMAGE 3 of 3: Nine men standing next to one another.  

DESCRIBING:  A black-and-white newspaper journalist's photograph aimed at a group of mostly African American men standing on the steps of the US Supreme Court Building.

SYNOPSIS:

The nine men are dressed most conservatively, most are wearing dark business suits, one is in a light colored suit.  Some carry briefcases. There are eight African American men and one white Jewish man. They are in their late thirties to mid-fifties.

This is the team of lawyers who argued Brown v. Board (from left to right): John Scott, James Nabrit, Spottswood Robinson, Frank Reeves, Jack Greenberg, Thurgood Marshall, Louis Redding, U. Simpson Tate, and George Hayes.

IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION:  

The nine members of the legal team are standing on the steps of the US Supreme Court Building, some looking out at the crowd, others looking at each other. Their facial expressions are serious but not solemn.  The photo is close enough that little more than the men are visible.  There is nothing to the right or the left of the nine men; their feet are cut out of the picture.  Some columns of the Supreme Court Building are visibly rising behind the legal team.

CAPTION: Brown plaintiffs’ legal team on the Supreme Court steps. Thurgood Marshall is fourth from right.

CREDIT: NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund

RELATED TEXT: 

These noble words are engraved on the façade of the Supreme Court building and represent the promise on which the United States was founded. But for two decades after the structure was erected in 1935, they also stood as a reproach: For millions of African American citizens and other minority groups the promise was empty. In no area was the denial of rights more detrimental than in public schools, where legal segregation and blatantly unequal facilities had for over a century imposed handicaps on millions of children. Finally, in the face of longstanding judicial precedent and societal resistance, the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954 declared that segregated education was a denial of equal protection of the laws under the 14th Amendment. 

The Brown case had roots in the post Civil War years, when a number of states, mostly southern but by no means limited to that region—transformed social patterns of discrimination into codes relegating African Americans to separate public facilities or barring them altogether. The constitutionality of one such law, the Louisiana Separate Cars Act, was tested in 1892. Homer Plessy, an African American New Orleans citizen, was arrested after attempting to sit in a whites-only railroad car. After a District Court judge upheld the act, the case was appealed to the US Supreme Court as Plessy v. Ferguson. In 1896 the court upheld the earlier decision, finding that Plessy had not been denied his equal protection rights under the 14th Amendment because, in the court’s interpretation, separation did not in itself deny equality before the law. The court rejected the plaintiff’s claim that separate cars stamped African Americans with a badge of inferiority. This strong affirmation of the “separate but equal” doctrine would color civil rights court decisions until the middle of the 20th century. Justice John Marshall Harlan’s lone dissenting opinion sharply attacked the decision: “There is no caste here. Our constitution is color-blind . . .” Yet the highest court had sanctioned a caste system.

The post-Plessy years were disheartening for African Americans, as they saw the very judicial system intended to ensure fairness and equality before the law used to fend off reform. Emboldened by Plessy, states passed ever more restrictive Jim Crow laws that paid little attention to the “equal” part of “separate but equal.” Congress even refused to pass anti-lynching laws. Realizing that African Americans could not look to Congress for help, W.E.B. DuBois, Ida Wells-Barnett, and others founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1909 to fight for change. The organization’s broad strategy was to end segregation in all its forms, but it developed more limited tactics to achieve that end. It would use the courts, and at first it would attack inequality rather than challenge Plessy and segregation. Charles Houston, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People chief counsel from 1934 to 1938, and his successor Thurgood Marshall took the battle to the nation’s schools in the 1930s and 1940s, beginning with higher education. Several Supreme Court victories chipped away at the disparities in education, but the court’s opinions underscored the justices’ reluctance to go further and overturn Plessy. 

In 1948 the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People decided it was time to attack the separate but equal doctrine. By 1952 the organization had brought to the Supreme Court four of the five cases involving school segregation that were consolidated as Oliver L. Brown et al. v. The Board of Education of Topeka et al. Arguing before the high court for the Briggs plaintiffs, Marshall held that racial classifications were inherently unconstitutional, as were separate educational facilities to accommodate such classifications. The unanimous decision handed down on May 17, 1954, was one of the most significant in U.S. history. Its reaffirmation of the 14th Amendment, long undermined by Plessy, made it clear to all Americans that the federal government would protect the rights of citizens from state laws that threatened those rights. It opened the modern civil rights movement for African Americans and laid the foundation for similar movements by other minority groups. The ruling even served as a model for the inclusion of education as a basic right in the constitution of post apartheid South Africa. Yet Brown was only the beginning.  For over 10 years it was met with fierce resistance, and today it stands as a guidepost from a half-century ago, reminding us that the high ideals of the U.S. Constitution can never be taken for granted.

RELATED TEXT: 

Five Cases: A National Strategy

The cases consolidated as Brown v. Board of Education were deliberately drawn from different areas of the country. Emphasis on the South would have introduced political complications to an already complex case. Topeka, Kans., was chosen as the lead case for the same reason. Also, the African American schools in Topeka were essentially equal to white schools, so segregation itself, not equality, would be the issue in question.

 IMAGE 1 of 5: Delaware

DESCRIBING: Horizontal top fold of frontpage

SYNOPSIS: Newspaper titled "Journal Every Evening" features headline "Claymont Negroes Win School Suit: Court Also Holds Hockessin Facilities Inferior"

IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION: An article entitled "Princess has Decision to Make," which is surrounded by other local stories, is accompanied by a photo of two women. The woman on the left is young and white with dark hair, the woman on the right is white and middle-aged with greying hair. They both lean over a suitcase as the younger woman puts a white garment inside the suitcase.

CAPTION: Wilmington area plaintiffs were the only ones to win in the lower courts

CREDIT: Journal, University Of Delaware

IMAGE 2 of 5: Kansas

DESCRIBING: Square black and white photograph.

SYNOPSIS: Taken from directly in front of five Black schoolchildren, possibly first grade. A girl is standing in the center of the photo, reading from a book. 

IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION: She is standing in the middle of four boys, seated, who follow along diligently in their own books. The children are well dressed, in sweaters, trousers with suspenders, button up shirts, and the girl in a collared dress. They sit in front of a chalkboard where we can see part of a grammar lesson. Resting on the small shelf at the bottom of the chalk board are several papers with drawings from students on them.

CAPTION: First grade class, Topeka, 1950s

CREDIT: Joe Douglas Collection, Kansas Collection, University of Kansas Libraries

IMAGE 3 of 5: South Carolina

DESCRIBING: Square black and white photo, partly cut off by the photo to it's right.

SYNOPSIS: Several Black students, seemingly all boys, shyly glance at a photographer while sharing seats in a class room. 

IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION: Two boys sit in the front of the classroom, looking at the photographer. The back of their seat has a desk built into it, but the children in the front row have nowhere to study. All the children in the classroom seem curious about the photographer, and are looking toward the viewer. They are modestly dressed in trousers, button ups, and work coats. Despite seeing ten students in the photo, only three books can be seen.

CAPTION: Elementary school in South Carolina, 1953

CREDIT: Time Life Pictures/Getty Images/© Robert W. Kelley

IMAGE 4 of 5: Virginia

DESCRIBING: Oval sepia-toned photo that fades out into the brochure around it.

SYNOPSIS: This photo was taken in front of and a little above approximately thirty high school students, boys and girls.

IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION: They are well dressed, wearing coats, dresses, button up shirts, and trousers. Most of the students have a stern or determined look on their face, but several are smiling. The students are standing outside in front of what looks like a cheaply constructed tar-paper wall.

CAPTION: Students in Virginia

CREDIT: Life Magazine ©Time Warner, Inc./Hank Walker

IMAGE 5 of 5: Washington, D.C. 

DESCRIBING: Square black and white photo.

SYNOPSIS: A middle aged Black woman wearing a black dress with white polka dots and a lace lapel stands behind a desk with two students. While the facility seems of good quality, it is cramped.

IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION: A boy sitting to the left side of the teacher, seems to be working on a small sewing machine, in front of him are several books standing on end, facing a girl sitting around the corner of the desk from him. The girl is sitting to the right side and in front of the teacher. She is staring intently at a few soda cans while using a small telegraph machine. The three are in front of a bookshelf, behind them and to the left. Behind them and to the right a girl in a vest and skirt and a boy in a black and white suit watch on from another room. 

CAPTION: Students and teacher in D.C. school, 1943

CREDIT: The Charles Sumner School Museum and Archives

DESCRIBING:  A map illustrating segregation in 1950 in the United States.  

SYNOPSIS:  An illustration of a map showing differences in state segregation status in 1950 in the United States and pin-pointing where the five cases consolidated as Brown v. Board of Education occurred.  

IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION: A map of the United States in 1950 illustrating segregation status in 1950 in the United States.  A key designates the color tan to show the states where segregation was required, the color peach to show the states where segregation was permitted in varying degrees, the color yellow to show the states where there was no specific legislation, and blue to show the states where segregation was prohibited. The map also pin-points where the five cases consolidated as Brown v. Board of Education occurred. 

The tan states on the map show that segregation was required in the south east, including Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida.     

The peach states on the map show where segregation was permitted in varying degrees, including Kansas, Wyoming, Arizona, and New Mexico.  

The yellow states on the map show where no specific legislation on segregation existed, including Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Montana, Utah, Nevada, Oregon, and California.  

The blue states on the map show where segregation was prohibited, including Massachusetts, Rode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Colorado, Idaho, and Washington.  

CREDIT: National Park Service/cartographics

IMAGE 1 of 2: Confrontation of three people

DESCRIBING: 

Four people are in a railway car.  On the left, there is an African American passenger. To his left, there is a white man, woman and child.  The black man is well-dressed; the white man is, based on his dress, of a lower economic class.  Research suggests that the Black man is Frederick Douglass, Abolitionist Leader.

SYNOPSIS:

On the left is a well-dressed African American man, in a black suit, tie, and top hat. He is seated in a two person railway chair, resting his arm on a pillow. Behind him stands a woman and child. The woman, in a bonnet, looks over his shoulder and smiles. To their left, the viewer's right, stands a white man who is less well-dressed than the black passenger. There is a look of anger, shock, or possible disgust on his face. He seems to be attempting to expel the black man from the railway.  He is raising his hand in a threatening manner.

The image's caption reads: Negro Expulsion from Railway Car, Philadelphia

IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION: The image is an engraving, in dark and light shades of gray.  The black man remains seated and maintains his composure while being verbally accosted. The woman behind him looks almost amused, there is a modest smile on her face, while the child looks up at her. The white man's mouth is open - either dumbstruck or mid-sentence. He is possibly pointing to a Whites Only sign, directing the passenger to a door, or raising his fist in a threatening gesture.

CAPTION: Homer Plessy’s refusal to leave a white rail car (a similar confrontation in Philadelphia is described in Confrontation of Three People) led to the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision and the “separate but equal” doctrine that would play so significant a role in the Brown v. Board of Education cases. After Plessy, localities could justify Jim Crow laws by citing the case. By mid-century the “psychological terror of segregation,” as Mary E. Mebane wrote (Mary: An Autobiography, 1981), had taken root from Florida to as far north as Delaware and as far west as Arizona. 

CREDIT: Schomburg Center For Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library

IMAGE 2 of 2: Waiting room sign

DESCRIBING: A small, black-and-white photograph of a sign, from the Library of Congress' collection.

SYNOPSIS: the sign reads: Waiting Room for Colored Only, (arrow points left), By order Police Dept.

There is an arrow directing persons to another room, presumably, of a train station or similar location.

CAPTION: Waiting Room for Colored Only. By Order Police Dept.

CREDIT: Library of Congress

Angered that a white school bus passed her house every morning, refusing to stop for her daughter, Ethel Belton contacted a National Association for the Advancement of Colored People lawyer. Sarah Bulah, whose daughter couldn’t attend a nearby white school and had to take a long bus ride to an African American school with poor facilities, contacted the same attorney. At a joint hearing the NAACP challenged the state’s segregation law. Because of the “obvious superiority” of the white schools, which deprived the plaintiffs of equal protection of the laws, the judge ordered that the children be admitted to the white schools. But he refused to directly refute Plessy, believing that was up to the Su­preme Court. The state board of education appealed.

In Topeka, Kans., African American elementary students were assigned to four schools. For most that meant long bus rides, though white schools were nearby. With NAACP guidance 13 parents volunteered to attempt to en­roll their children in white schools and then file complaints. The District Court ruled against the plaintiffs, stating that Plessy still authorized segregation. The judges, however, included a “finding of fact” indi­cating that their decision troubled them: “Segregation . . . has a detrimental effect upon the colored children. The im­pact is greater when it has the sanction of the law . . .” (These words were repeated verbatim in the Supreme Court’s Brown opinion).  The ruling was appealed by the NAACP.

Disparities between white and African American schools (“tumbledown, dirty shacks” wrote a sympathetic federal judge, J. Waties Waring) were flagrant in Claren­don County, S.C. Gathering signatures from 20 courageous parents, the NAACP, with Waring’s encouragement, at­tacked the constitutionality of segregation. Thurgood Marshall cited Kenneth Clark’s doll study (in which African American children presented with both black and white dolls showed a preference for the latter) to demonstrate segregation’s damaging psychological effects. Conced­ing inequalities, the District Court or­dered the county to rectify them, but, citing Plessy, ruled that segregation did not violate the 14th Amendment. The NAACP appealed.

In this rural Virginia county, Moton High—overcrowded, lacking science labs or gym—was the only high school for African Americans. The county dragged its feet on building a new school, instead adding a few uninsulated tarpaper shacks. Sixteen-year-old Barbara Johns led a student strike for integrated schools, then asked for help from the NAACP. Death threats forced her to leave the state. Dorothy Davis, daughter of the lead plaintiff, is in the foreground of the strikers. The court found for the county, ignoring the testimony and invoking states’ rights and Virginia tradition. It directed the county to pursue its “present program” to replace Mot­on High. The NAACP appealed.

Mid-20th-century Washington, D.C. was a Jim Crow city. African American children at­tended overcrowded, substandard schools. An activist, Gardner Bishop, enlisted attorney Charles Houston, who, becoming ill, referred Bishop to James Nabrit, Jr. Bishop then at­tempted, un­suc­ces­s­fully, to enroll 11 African American stu­dents in an un­derused white school. The 14th Amend­ment did not apply to D.C., so Nabrit argued that the students were de­nied due pro­cess of law under the 5th Amendment. The District Court dismissed the case. Nabrit appealed to the Court of Appeals. It passed the case to the US Supreme Court for hearing with the consolidated Brown cases. Be­cause of its due pro­cess arg­ument, Chief Justice Warren wrote a separate opinion for Bolling.

The back of the brochure describes the long struggle for civil rights in the United States from the 1500's to 1965. It also provides information regarding planning a visit to the historic site.    

The top of the brochure includes the fourteenth amendment and three pictures relating to the history of the fight for civil rights from 1863 to 1941, overlaid on a solid black background. The pictures capture the history of the New York City draft riots, a segregated movie theater in Mississippi, and educational opportunities in the North for African Americans.  

The middle of the brochure displays a timeline of text, images, and artifacts of the long struggle for civil rights in the United States from the 1500's to 1965. The timeline begins in 1500 when Spain imports enslaved Africans to replace enslaved American Indians who escaped or died from European diseases.  Other key dates included in the timeline are the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, the ratification of the 13th amendment in 1865, and the 1909 formation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the 1954 Brown v. Board decision, and the 1964 Civil Rights Act is signed into law. The timeline ends in 1965 when the nation is appalled by images of police and state troopers beating and kicking participants in the Selma to Montgomery voting rights march.  Soon after, Congress passes the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which nullifies state and local laws hindering voting by African Americans.     

Significant events from the 16th-19th centuries are highlighted with illustrations and 19th century artifacts including a tag for free African Americans and an abolitionist newspaper.  The timeline features portraits of important 20th century civil rights leaders as well as photographs, artifacts, and headlines showcasing Jim Crow laws, integration, and civil rights activism.  

Below the timeline, the brochure describes the aftermath of the Brown v. Board case, including text and four significant black and white photographs.  The first photograph is of African American students entering Central High School in 1957.  The second photograph is of segregationist Gov. George Wallace blocking the door of the University of Alabama in 1963.  The third photograph is a woman turned away from a segregated Dallas waiting room in 1964. The fourth photograph is of a rioter wielding the American flag against an African American attorney in one of the South Boston anti-bussing riots in 1976.  

 The bottom of the brochure provides information about visiting the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site.  It includes a photograph of the Monroe Elementary school which houses the park visitor center and a map to aid in navigating to the site.  It also includes the address: 1515 SE Monroe Street, Topeka, KS, 66612, phone number: 785-354-4273, website: www.nps.gov/brvb, hours of operation: 9:00 to 5:00 all year except Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. This section also provides information about the Brown Foundation and directions to the site.   

IMAGE 1 of 3: 1863 Riots

DESCRIBING: Horizontal black and white newspaper drawing.

SYNOPSIS: A white crowd cheers as a black man is hanged from a tree in a city center.

IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION: A well dressed crowd of white people, men in suits and bowler hats and women in hoop-skirts, cheer and yell as a lone African American man wearing nothing but a knee-length white shirt is lynched. The barefoot man hangs from a makeshift noose tossed over a tree branch and pulled by several men in the crowd. Many members of the crowd seem to be armed with clubs and several of them have brought their children with them to watch. White men scale a fence in the background as if pushing the riot onward. Children can be seen playing on a horse-drawn carriage in the foreground and city buildings can be seen in the background.

CAPTION: 1863 - New York City Draft Riots

CREDIT: The New York Public Library Source: Illustrated London News

IMAGE 2 of 3: Movie theater

DESCRIBING: Horizontal, high contrast black and white photo

SYNOPSIS: An African American man in silhouette climbs the stairs on the back of a theater to see a show.

IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION: In what seems to be the back of a theater a lone African American man wearing a fedora and jacket can be seen climbing an exterior flight of stairs labeled "Colored Admission 10 cents." The man, almost completely in shadow in the photo, stands out against a whitewashed brick wall, with a part of an advertisement above him can be seen, reading "a bite to." Various stage items, such as a ladder, a poster for Bob Steele "Riders of the Purple Sage," and a sign reading "Cash-Nite Friday  400 dollars " lay around behind the theater. A doorway below the stairs is labeled "White Men Only" and stands next to a smaller unlabeled door.

CAPTION: 1939 - Segregated movie theater in Mississippi 

CREDIT: Library of Congress

IMAGE 3 of 3: Painting of three people

DESCRIBING: Horizontal full color painting.

SYNOPSIS: Painting of three Black girls facing away from us simultaneously writing the numbers two, three, and four on a chalkboard with their right outstretched hands.  The chalkboard is larger than the girls and is mounted on a brown wall. Each girl left to right, seems to be reaching higher than the previous, as they draw a number higher than the girl before.  Each girl is wearing a different colored mini-dress, dark salmon with pleats, mustard yellow, and aqua blue with white frills on the bottom.  The girls, whose age can't be discerned, are comprised of several geometric shapes and the wide brush strokes can clearly be seen throughout the photo. 

IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION: 

CAPTION: “In the North the African American had more educational opportunities” by Jacob Lawrence

CREDIT: ©The Museum of Modern Art/licensed by Scala/Art Resource, NY

RELATED TEXT: 

Fourteenth Amendment, Section 1: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

IMAGE 1 of 2: Branding

DESCRIBING: A black and white sketch or woodcut of a historical scene

SYNOPSIS: In the foreground, a African man with shackled hands is stabilized and pushed forward by a Spanish man putting a branding iron on his chest.  Behind them are three African men who appear to be naked.  Two of the men watch the scene unfold before them.  The other faces away from them, presumably towards the sea.  In the background to the left, the tall sails of a ship looms above them. 

IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION: The shackled African man in the foreground wears a tired and troubled expression in addition to a white skirt and sash that drapes over his left shoulder, across his bare chest, and towards his right hip.  He has large expressive eyes, a high forehead, a sharp nose, a closed downturned mouth, and short, dark, textured hair.  He has bands around his left bicep and on each ankle.  The Spanish man pushing him has an open mouth and short light hair.  He wears a light brimmed hat and a buttoned, cuffed coat over a light waistcoat and pants.  His left hand hangs on the shackled man's right shoulder while his right hand holds the branding in front of the shackled man's shoulder.  Something dangles from his right hip, perhaps a key. 

 In the background on the left, we cannot see a ship but can see four sails.  The sails are mostly arranged one on top of the other with two stretched sales (one in front and one behind) in the middle, one loosely draped sale on the bottom, and one still rolled sail on the top   Above the top sail rises two thin waving flags that look like ribbons.  In the foreground to the left is a two-storied ribbed basket with flames flickering and smoke rising out of the top.

CAPTION: Image showing branding of the enslaved.

CREDIT: New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations

IMAGE 2 of 2: Escaped slave illustration

DESCRIBING: A muted water color illustration of a historical scene in shades of white, tan, and gray.

SYNOPSIS: An African-American man is pushed against the front of a wood-planked shack by two white men with bayonets and dogs. The bayonet juts towards the Black man's throat and his lower body is similarly pinned by a tan dog pushing between his legs. He wears a tattered short sleeved white shirt with the front tucked into his gray trousers. He lifts his head and chin to try to avoid contact with the bayonet. It is difficult to see his facial expression clearly, but his body language communicates that he is frightened.

IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION: The left of the image features the Black man leaning against the open-doored shack. It is dark inside, but there appears to be items strewn on the floor and planks missing from the sides and roof. It is in a state of disrepair. To the right of the illustration stand the two white men. They wear all light-colored clothing including collared long-sleeved shirts and Stetson hats. The man brandishing his bayonet is near the center of the illustration, closer to the man he threatens. He appears to be sneering and wears trousers and a jacket. The man to the right (his left) wears overalls and smokes a pipe, his weapon resting lazily against his right hip. In his left hand, he holds the leash of the tan dog that crosses the midline of the image to trap the Black man. In between the two men is another dog, a white hound with brown ears, that gazes up at the men for approval. A glimpse of white trees rooted in tan-gray soil against a gray-blue sky can be seen in the background.

CAPTION: 1793 Congress passes Fugi­tive Slave Act, making it a crime to harbor African Americans who have escaped enslavement.

CREDIT: National Park Service/Richard Schlecht

RELATED TEXT: 

About 1500 Spain imports enslaved Afri­cans to the New World to re­place en­slaved American Indians who es­cape or die from European diseases. 

1619 Twenty Africans are sold into servitude, Jamestown, Va. Institutionalized slavery includes branding of the enslaved.

1793 Congress passes Fugi­tive Slave Act, making it a crime to harbor African Americans who have escaped enslavement.

IMAGE 1 of 3: Uprising

DESCRIBING: A landscape black and white sketching or woodcut of a historical scene

SYNOPSIS: The scene to the right features three African American men brandishing weapons; two push a white man in a fancy three-piece suit down to the ground and threaten him with swords. Shrubbery can be seen behind them. The scene to the left features a Black man with an axe standing to the left of a kneeling white woman and her three or four children. The children face their mother, while she raises her hand, pleading to the man to save her family. A small tree in the center separates the two scenes.

CAPTION: 1831 Nat Turner and 60 followers kill 55 whites in Virginia-- the most serious uprising by enslaved African Americans in U.S. history. Turner and 16 followers are hanged.

CREDIT: Library of Congress

IMAGE 2 of 3: Bronze-like tag

DESCRIBING: Small metal oval pendant

SYNOPSIS: Tarnished copper or bronze medallion with a small hole near the top so that it can be strung. The hole is near the top of an embossed (raised) bell shape. The bottom of the bell reads “free” in embossed capital letters and a rod hangs from its center, nearly reaching the bottom of the medallion. Under the bell, in faint engraved letters, reads "N 33."  The bottom 3/4 of the oval features a horseshoe with "City of Charleston" in embossed capital letters. There are small dots or lines all around the perimeter that make the medallion pendent resemble a coin. The artifact looks so old and used that the dots on the top and left of the medallion have nearly been rubbed smooth.

CAPTION: Charleston, S.C., required free African Americans to wear this tag.

CREDIT: The American Numismatic Society

IMAGE 3 of 3: Newspaper

DESCRIBING: Small image of a historic black and white newspaper with thin margins

SYNOPSIS: Image is so small that it is difficult to see and interpret. The top 1/5 of the newspaper features a large landscape printed woodcut image flanked by two columns while the bottom features six long columns. The bottom of the image says "The Liberator" in capital letters. The image itself is comprised of three scenes. 

A central circle features a Jesus-like long-haired bearded white man wearing a tunic with a raised right arm. In front of him kneels a bare-chested shackled African American man praying to him. A white man is watching them, but is turned away from them. The scene on the left of the circle resembles an auction under an American flag, while the scene on the right appears to be a large Black family of multiple ages in front of a door frame. A child in front kneels in front of a sheep while other farm animals watch. 

CAPTION: William Lloyd Garrison’s The Liberator (1831-65) was the voice of fiery abolitionism.

CREDIT: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library

RELATED TEXT: 

1831 Nat Turner and 60 followers kill 55 whites in Virginia—the most serious uprising by enslaved African Americans in U.S. history. Turner and 16 followers are hanged. 

1843 Sojourner Truth (born Isabella Bomefree; freed from slavery in New York, 1827) becomes an itinerant antislavery orator and singer.

1847 Frederick Douglass’s publication of North Star, an antislavery newspaper, signals his break with the more radical white abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison.

1849 Supreme Court’s Roberts v. The City of Boston decision upholding segregated schools provides precedent for Plessy v. Ferguson. 

1857 Supreme Court’s Dred Scott v. Sandford decision upholds slavery in the territories. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney writes that an en-slaved person is property and that only whites are U.S. citizens.

1863 President Abraham Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation. Mobs in the New York City Draft Riots kill dozens of African Americans.

1865–69 Congress passes 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the Constitution, outlawing slavery, ensuring “equal protection of the laws,” and banning state re­­strictions on voting based on race.

1875 Civil Rights Act promises to “citizens of every race . . . regardless of any previous condition of servitude” equal access to public accommodations. It is nullified by the Supreme Court in 1883.

1881 Booker T. Washington founds Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama.

1896 Supreme Court’s Plessy v. Ferguson decision establishes the “separate but equal” doctrine. 

IMAGE 1 of 5: Newspaper headlines

DESCRIBING: Rectangular landscape image of a close-up of a section of a newspaper title and subtitle

SYNOPSIS: Faded gray-brown printed text upon a light cream background shows a section of title reading "Jim Crow cars" in all capital letters with "Jim Crow" in quotation marks. The subtitle below reads "For Virginia Afro-Americans, as Well as Those of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Several Other Southern States." The first letter of every word is capitalized except "and" and "as."

CAPTION: Cleveland headline about Virginia’s 1900 Jim Crow streetcar law

CREDIT: Ohio Historical Society

IMAGE 2 of 5: Charles H. Houston side portrait

DESCRIBING: Medium-sized, horizontal (but nearly square) black and white portrait against a dark background

SYNOPSIS: 3/4 profile of head and shoulders portrait of Charles H. Houston, an African American man who looks to be in his 30's or 40's. He wears a dark suit and stares intently to the right with a relaxed neutral expression. 

IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION: He has dark expressive eyes with thick eyelashes and eyebrows, a wide nose, full lips, and smooth skin. His close-cropped hair reveals a receding hairline. A beam of light illuminates his right temple and cheekbone, as well as the background directly behind him.

CAPTION: Charles H. Houston (1895–1950), NAACP chief counsel

CREDIT: The Granger Collection

IMAGE 3 of 5: People holding segregation signs

DESCRIBING: Medium-sized, horizontal (but nearly square) black and white photograph

SYNOPSIS: A woman who appears to be in her 20's or 30's protests beside a preteen boy, presumably her son, in front of the Arkansas state capitol building. They hold signs in front of their eyes and above their heads. The boy's sign on the left reads "Governor Faubus Save Our Christian America" in capital letters of different colors. The woman's sign on the right spells out "Race Mixing is Communism" in capital letters.

IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION: The woman wears a dark short-sleeved belted suit with a light scarf around her shoulders, as well as a dark kerchief covering her hair. The boy wears a short-sleeved collared and checkered shirt. The signs are very large-- nearly half their height and wider than they are-- and are also on tall thin sticks.

A huge neoclassical building rises behind them. We can see the very top of the building's facade that resembles an ancient Greek or Roman temple. It consists of smooth and graceful Ionic columns capped with carved scrolls that support an entablature (horizontal beams or bands) that is topped with a triangular pediment. The top band is a smooth panel, known as a frieze, decorated with small, evenly spaced cut out circles. Behind the facade is a tall round rotunda topped by a dome, though the photo cuts off the top of the dome and we cannot see it here. The bottom of the rotunda features tall dark windows behind more Ionic columns.

CAPTION: Segregationists in Little Rock, Ark., 1957

CREDIT: Library of Congress

IMAGE 4 of 5: Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth side portrait

DESCRIBING: Small vertical black and white portrait against a dark background

SYNOPSIS: Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth, a bespectacled African American man who looks to be in his 50's or 60's, faces to the left. He wears a light suit and tie.

IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION: He is graying at the temples of his short hair, as well as on the mustache above his slightly pursed lips. This pose slightly emphasizes the apples of his cheeks and makes it look almost as though he is getting ready to speak. His eyebrows are raised which exaggerates the wrinkles on his forehead. His face is also lined around his nose, mouth, and chin. Light appears to shine into his face and reflects off his forehead, nose, cheeks, and tie. Though he does not visibly squint, his eyes are barely visible behind his thin wire-rimmed glasses.

CAPTION: Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth (b. 1922), Birmingham civil rights leader whose courage was legendary

CREDIT: ©Bud Schultz

IMAGE 5 of 5: Button

DESCRIBING: Front view of a circular white graphic political button

SYNOPSIS: The top of the button has "We Share the Dream" written in slightly rounded capital letters arranged in a semicircle around the top 2/3 of the perimeter. The center of the button features five stylized egg-shaped faces of different colors: black, brown, red, yellow, and white to represent an artistic rendering of diversity. Each face has an elongated z-shaped line with a horizontal almond shape directly below the top line of the 'z'. The effect gives the impression of an eyebrow, eye, and nose in profile. 

IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION: The faces overlap and cluster roughly into a tight oval shape slightly tilted towards the left. A black face forms the top of the oval. Moving clockwise, there is then a brown face, a red face, a yellow face (at the bottom of the oval), and a white face.

CAPTION: Button worn by 1960s civil rights marchers.

CREDIT: National Museum of American History

RELATED TEXT: 

1903 In The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. DuBois breaks with Booker T. Washington over the latter’s em­phasis on gradualism and vocational education. DuBois wants the college-educated “Talented Tenth” to lead “the masses of the Negro people” to political and social equality.

1909 DuBois’s Niagara Movement joins with whites outraged by the Springfield Riot of 1908 to form the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Its strategy relies on legal action, protest, and education.

1934 Charles H. Houston is named chief counsel to NAACP. He develops a legal strategy for achieving equality in education.

1942 Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) sponsors nonviolent sit-ins at northern segre­gated public facilities.

1948 President Harry Truman ends segregation in the U.S. military.

1954 On May 17 the U.S. Supreme Court rules in Brown v. Board of Education that segregation is unconstitutional.

1955 Rosa Parks, seamstress and secretary of the Montgomery, Ala., chapter of the NAACP, refuses to give her bus seat to a white passenger. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., helps organize a successful year-long bus boycott in Montgomery.

1960 Four African American students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College launch the southern sit-in movement at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C.

1961 CORE organizes Freedom Rides, in which student volunteers take bus trips to test new laws desegregating bus terminals. They meet brutal resistance in Alabama. 

1963 Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference lead anti-seg­re­gation marches in Birmingham, Ala. Police Com­mis­sion­er “Bull” Connor uses fire hoses and dogs against student marchers, hundreds of whom are jailed. 

1963 In his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King, Jr., de­fends “direct action” to clergymen counseling patience. “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be de­manded by the oppressed.”

1963 Demonstrators—estimated at 250,000—march on Wash­ing­ton, D.C., demanding passage of the Civil Rights Act.

1964 President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act outlawing racial discrimination in em­ploy­ment, voting, and use of public facilities.

1965 The nation is appalled by images of police and state troopers beating and kicking participants in the Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march. Soon after, Con­gress passes the Voting Rights Act, which nullifies state and local laws hindering voting by African Americans.

IMAGE 1 of 4: Troops walking students into a school

DESCRIBING: A small black and white late nineteen-fifties photograph of Federal troops escorting African American students into a high school. 

SYNOPSIS: In the black and white image, white male federal troops are neatly dressed in long sleeved uniforms; each troop has on a combat helmet, a pair of dark boots, and half of the troops are holding a gun in the upright position. The troops and 9 neatly dressed black students are walking up the stairs preparing to enter  Central High School.  

IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION: At the top of the stairs of the school, there are three sets of double glass paned brown doors, all separated by solid white concrete walls. Three exterior sconces are mounted on the concrete walls located at the top left of each door. Two white Federal troops are positioned to the very far left set of the double doors, looking at other troops and the 9 black students. The bottom left portion and middle of the image shows rows of troops escorting 9 students (6 black teenage females and three black teenage males) are centered. They are preparing to enter the middle set of glass paned doors. The students are facing forward and are surrounded on either side by Federal troops. To the far right of the image, three troops are positioned outside of the doors; one of the troops has his hand resting on his hip. Beneath the concrete railing and brick wall, the letters 'LITTLE ROCK CENTRAL' can be seen. The top of three bricked archways are supported by several columns and sits above a fountain which are not visible in the picture.

CAPTION: Federal troops protect African American students as they enter Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas., 1957

CREDIT: Library of Congress

IMAGE 2 of 4: Man blocking a door

DESCRIBING: A small black and white photograph taken during the early nineteen-sixties.

SYNOPSIS: Governor George Wallace blocking the door to a school. Two white male state troopers are located to the the right of the door. One taller white male is looking at George Wallace, who is preventing anyone from entering the doorway.  

IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION: A brown six paned wooden door is propped open. A brick wall is located to the immediate left of the door. Governor George Wallace (a white male in his late forties) has on a dark suit with a collared shirt and a printed tie. His hair is neatly groomed into a slicked corporate cut. He is looking straight ahead with his lips pursed tightly and his hands are behind his back. A tall podium is placed directly in front of Governor George Wallace. To the right of the image, one white male state trooper (seems to be in his mid twenties) is standing with his lips pursed tightly as he looks straight ahead with his arms placed behind his back. His helmet is slightly covering his eyes and they are not fully visible. The officer has on a belt with a gun holster on one side and a silver object on the  other side.  He has on a darker uniform shirt and lighter pants. A second male state trooper is standing to the right of the officer. Only his arm and leg are visible. His hands are placed behind his back and his pocket is slightly bulging outwards. There is also a white tall male to the very far right of the image. His elbows are bent and his arms are in motion. His suit is of a lighter color. He has a low hair cut and his hair seems to be thinning . The white male is attempting to enter the school, which is being blocked by Governor George Wallace.

CAPTION: Segregationist Governor George Wallace blocks the door of the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 1963.

CREDIT: The Birmingham News

IMAGE 3 of 4: Woman being guided out of  a door

DESCRIBING: Black and white image taken in 1964.

SYNOPSIS: A white man dressed in a dark suit and brimmed hat is turning  a black woman away from a segregated waiting room. The woman is looking straight ahead with two objects in her hand. 

IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION: A heavier set white male with a double chin is holding a dark solid waiting room door open with his back. The door has the phrase 'White Waiting Room' painted on the back side. The man has on a suit jacket with his arm stretched outward and is pointing his index finger. The man is wearing a black fedora hat. A thin caramel complected black woman is walking away from the door. She has on a long sleeved lighter colored dress. A black purse is resting on her forearm and she is holding a newspaper. The woman has a scarf neatly tied on top of  her hair with her neat curls peaking out of the top of the scarf.  A brick multicolored wall can be seen in the background. 

CAPTION: Woman is turned away from a segregated Dallas, Texas waiting room, 1964

CREDIT: Hulton Archive

IMAGE 4 of 4: Rioters

DESCRIBING: A black and white nineteen seventies  photograph of a group of angry mobsters.

SYNOPSIS: An angry mob of men and women are scattered around a brick walkway. Various buildings can be seen in the background.

IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION: Dozens of rioters can be seen in the image. A white male is angrily wielding the American flag , as if he is propelling a sphere, against an African American attorney  who's arms are being forcefully held behind his back by a white male; the African American male is struggling to break free. Onlookers are watching and shouting as the event unfolds. Everyone is dressed in pants, long sleeved shirts and closed toe shoes. Some of the individuals are wearing jackets. 

CAPTION: Rioter wields the American flag against an African American attorney in one of the South Boston anti busing riots, 1976.

CREDIT: ©Stanley J. Forman, Pulitzer Prize 1977

RELATED TEXT: 

In May 1955 the Supreme Court ordered that integration be implemented with “all deliberate speed,” a controversial phrase reflecting the court’s concern over Brown’s reception. Rather than comply, Prince Edward County, Va., closed its schools from 1959 to 1964, an example of Virginia’s “massive resistance” strategy. The Supreme Court finally ordered the county to open and integrate the schools. In other places desegregation was met with angry—often violent—resistance, and openly segregated public facilities persisted into the 1960s.

DESCRIBING:  A horizontal photograph of the exterior of a two story red brick and limestone structure. 

SYNOPSIS:  This building is Monroe Elementary School which serves as the Brown v. Board of Education visitor center. The color photograph was taken around 2006. 

In Depth Description: Looking diagonally through two silver maple trees you can see the center of Monroe Elementary School, from an angle. The two story rectangular brick building is of an Italian Renaissance Revival style design. The Spanish tile gable and hipped roof is the same color of the red brick located on the exterior wall. The center of the building is limestone and the two wings are red brick. The entrance has an arched doorway and there are horizontal glass paned windows on both stories. Four steps and two ramps are located along the front of the building. The orangish-yellow leaves and bare limbs suggest that it was a fall day. The bright Robin's egg blue sky is adorned with two hidden clouds. 

CAPTION: Monroe Elementary School houses the park visitor center. It was one of four segregated elementary schools for African Americans in Topeka, Kansas, during the time of The U.S. Supreme Court case. 

CREDIT: ©Michael C. Snell

RELATED TEXT: 

Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site is open all year 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. except Thanksgiving, December 25, and January 1. The park may close for extreme weather, like ice and snow. Please call ahead or check local weather conditions. The park is accessible to those in wheelchairs (entrance, rest­rooms, and the second floor via elevator) and to those with visual impairment.

An important park partner, The Brown Foundation for Educational Equity, Excellence, and Research was established in 1988 as a living tribute to the attorneys, plaintiffs, and community activists in the landmark Brown case. The foundation promotes educational equality and multicultural understanding by helping minority students pursue careers in education and by establishing programs that emphasize diversity, especially in education. Visit the Brown Foundation website at www.brownvboard.org.

Brown v. Board of Education Na­tional Historic Site is one of over 380 parks in the National Park System. The National Park Service cares for these special places saved by the American people so that all may experience our heritage. Visit www.nps.gov to learn more about parks and National Park Service pro­­grams in America’s communities.

DESCRIBING: Horizontal full color map illustration.

SYNOPSIS: A map of Topeka, as taken from above. Highways, 70 and 470, loop the city, creating a swollen almond shape. 

IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION: Numbered streets run east to west, with lower numbers in the north and higher in the south. Named streets run north to south. The Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site is located on the eastern side of the city on the intersection Monroe St and 15th Street. About a mile north of the historic site is the State Capitol on 10th street and Kansas Avenue. Another mile north of the capitol is the now closed Sumner Elementary School, a National Historic Landmark, on the intersection of Western Avenue and 4th Street.

CREDIT: National Park Service/cartographics

RELATED TEXT: 

From I-70 westbound take the 10th Avenue exit ( 362 C ), turn left (west) onto 10th Avenue , turn left (south) onto Monroe Street , drive past the site at 1515 SE Monroe Street, turn left (east) onto 17th St., and left into the visitor parking lot.

From I-70 eastbound take the 8th Avenue exit ( 362 B ); it merges with Monroe St. Follow Monroe south past the site at 1515 SE Monroe St., turn left (east) onto 17th St. and left into the visitor parking lot.

From I-335 northbound take the Topeka Boulevard exit (177), turn left (north) on Topeka Blvd., turn right (east) onto 17th St., drive 200 feet past 

Monroe Street , turn left into the visitor parking lot.

From US-75 southbound merge onto I-70 east toward Kansas City. Take the 8th Avenue exit ( 362 B ); it merges with Monroe Street. Follow Monroe Street south past the site at 1515 SE Monroe Street , turn left (east) onto 17th Street and then left into the visitor parking lot.

We strive to make our facilities, services, and programs accessible to all. For information go to a visitor center, ask a ranger, call, or check our website w. w. w.  dot. n. p. s. dot. gov. backslash. b. r. v. b. 

Visitor centers offer free audio or braille guides, and is accessible via two ramps outside the front door. Accessible parking is available in the rear of the building with a marked path to the front of the building.

Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site is one of over 400 sites in the National Park System. To learn more about national parks and National Park Service programs in America’s communities, visit w. w. w. dot. n. p. s. dot. gov.

Start your journey by getting information at Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site, 1515 South East Monroe Street, Topeka, Kansas 66612.

Or contact:

PHONE: 785 - 354 - 4273

WEBSITE: w. w. w. dot. n. p. s. dot. gov. backslash. b. r. v. b.