Junction City, Manhattan and Topeka, Kansas School Districts 1930-1960: Patterns of Segregation

Abstract

Loni Wells analyzes the effect of the historic 1954 Supreme Court decision, Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. Examining three cities affected by the ruling – Topeka, Manhattan, and Junction City – she shows that each place had a different reaction. She ties these responses to the historic differences in their African American populations and neighborhoods. Only Junction City had integrated elementary schools and a citywide distribution of black families, whereas Topeka and Manhattan had rigidly-defined and segregated neighborhoods. Newspaper reporting in all three places reflects these differing histories.