Yesterday's visit to the Monroe School in Topeka will likely be the memory that lingers longest for all of us. Though the Brown Vs. Board of Education decision is one with which we were all familiar, we knew little of its intricacies. The fact that the National Park Service oversees the site lets you know immediately the attention to detail, first-rate exhibits and knowledgeable park rangers that will enrich your understanding.
After driving around the building a few times, we finally found our way to the empty gravel parking lot. The school is impressive and sits across a large grass field. After we read the historic signs, still not knowing if the site would be open to explore inside, we tentatively made our way towards the school. A young black park ranger met us as we stepped off the grass and assured us that the museum was open and he would be happy to give us some information before we began our self-guided tour. While there were a few other people there, we had the ranger and the majority of the exhibits to ourselves, to delve into and reflect on as deeply as they deserve.
I have always found that I most fully understand any moment or place of historical importance when I am able to experience it first-hand. Standing in the classrooms of this once segregated black elementary school, reading about how its black teachers were against the court case for fear of losing their jobs and realizing the weight of the decision those black parents made to risk their children's happiness and well-being in a school that was safe, beautiful, "equal" to its white counterparts to upend a system that highlighted that the country did not view their children or them as equal in any other way.... well, let's just say that I went through much of Monroe in tears.
As I exited a classroom devoted to the ongoing struggle to build on this unanimous Supreme Court decision to end segregation in public schools, reflecting on everything from the lunch counter in Wichita to the Black Lives Matter signs in nearly every store and restaurant in the majority of towns and cities we have visited, I started to talk with the ranger about George Floyd, Dave Chapelle, Just Mercy (which he had just watched the night before) and how everything is connected. Maddie, Daniel and Dana joined me as each of them emerged from an exhibit, and we all talked about what we had known about this court case and the things that had surprised us. Dana, who we lovingly teased all day for identifying himself as a Civil Rights Attorney (as opposed to his typical answer of Employment Attorney), was thrilled to discuss Thurgood Marshall's strategy in trying the case. To add Kansas as the 5th state, one where segregation was permitted but not required and the schools for the black children were every bit as good as the schools for the white children, the books and materials identical and the teachers even better qualified, was a brilliant approach. As we left, Maddie wondered how the same approach might be used to dismantle the current system of law enforcement. I could write and write about how much we all learned and how inspired we were, but suffice it to say we were very happy to have made that our first stop of the day.
While in Topeka, we also visited the NOTO Arts District, about to celebrate its 10th anniversary, had a delicious lunch and walked the neighborhood as much as we could tolerate in the 95 degree weather. Maddie noticed that a George Floyd mural on an outside wall was painted by the same person as one of the paintings inside the NOTO Arts Center, and I later realized that he (Jordan E. Brooks) had also contributed to the wonderful mural adjacent to the Monroe school.
After lunch, we set out to see the Capitol building, whose dome is even taller (though not as large in diameter) as the one is DC. We then stopped by the Historic Ritchie house, which is considered to be the oldest house in Kansas and was an important stop in the underground railroad. The Ritchie's were ahead of their time in every way, early advocates for women's rights as well as for the end of slavery.
As Bleeding Kansas was on its journey to become a state in the mid 1850's, there was a desperate battle by both political sides to claim it as either a slave or free state. This led to tremendous violence and much bloodshed. In Lecompton, where we took the River Road to Lawrence on our way back to Kansas City, there was a pro-slavery constitution which ultimately was rejected, and today they proudly label their town as the "Civil War Birth Place" and claim it is "Where Slavery Began to Die." I never knew what a role the Midwest played during that period of America's history, so this whole day was quite educational.
We ended our journey in the college town of Lawrence, home to the University of Kansas Jayhawks, where we drove around the campus, walked around the shops and had an ice cream cone in a shop that is beloved in these parts. Back home for our last night in KC, we headed to Sunset Hill in Loose Park, where we enjoyed the rose garden and the people, all milling about and relaxing on this beautiful Saturday night.
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