Before there was Ruby Bridges and Little Rock Nine, there was Linda Brown

The Story of Brown v. Broad of Education.

By Gladys W. MuturiPublished 2 years ago • 4 min read

Linda Carol Brown

Before Ruby Bridges, a six year old little black girl who desegregated William Frantz Elementary School in Louisiana, Clinton Twelve, 12 teenaged black kids desegregated Clinton High School and Little Rock Nine, another nine teenaged black students Little Rock Central High School,there was Linda Carol Brown, a seven year old girl who changed the Broad of Education system. Linda Brown was a young black little girl from Topeka, Kansas who wants to go to school that's close by instead of going farther away from home. The problem is the school that's close by is an all white school and no negro children were allowed to attend the school.

Brown was born on February 20, 1943 in Topeka, Kansas to her parents Leola and Oliver Brown. Oliver was a welder and a minister at St. Mark’s African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. Brown was oldest of her sisters: Terry Brown Tyler and Cheryl Brown Henderson.

Linda and her family: her mother Leola, her father Oliver, and her sister Cheryl

Brown at age 7 at the time was at the beginning to start her first day forced to walk across railroad tracks and take a bus to grade school despite there being a school four blocks away from her home. This was due to the elementary schools in Topeka being racially segregated, with separate facilities for Black and white children.

"My father pondered, 'Why? Why should my child walk four miles when there is a school only four blocks away?'”

Linda and her siblings had to walk miles just to reach the bus that transported them to the black school. Many black children were educated in schools that lacked basic amenities like running water or proper classrooms. As long as black schools and white schools offered the same accommodations, schools could remain segregated under the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision. In order to force the government to rectify the resource disparities between schools, the NAACP litigated cases around the country in hopes that one case would eventually make it to the Supreme Court. In Topeka, the NAACP found 13 families willing to enroll their children in non segregated schools. Although Linda Brown attended segregated Monroe Elementary, which was more than a mile away from her home, Sumner Elementary was six blocks from her house. After her parents were denied admission to Sumner, they were able to join the NAACP's class action suit.

On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court, under Chief Justice Earl Warren, ruled unanimously in favor of the NAACP. In a unanimous decision, the Court declared

"separate but equal"

After the Court, Brown was no longer in elementary school when the Brown decision was rendered. The family moved to Springfield, Missouri, in 1959. In 1961, Linda graduated from Central High School in Springfield, Missouri. Two years later, her father Oliver died and her and her family back to Topeka. Brown earned her degree in early childhood education from Kansas State University and became a Head Start teacher, and at one time taught private music lessons in piano. She went on to serve as Program Associate with The Brown Foundation where she assisted with the establishment of four libraries for preschool children. She was an accomplished pianist and for 40 plus years provided musical accompaniment for several choirs at St. Mark's African Methodist Episcopal Church in Topeka.

By the late 1970s, when Brown spoke of feeling exploited by the amount of media attention given to the case, with there being limited awareness that she was a human being as opposed to a lofty historical figure. Nonetheless, she continued to speak out on segregation and reopened the Topeka case with the American Civil Liberties Union in 1979, arguing that the district's schools still weren't desegregated. It was eventually ruled by the Court of Appeals in 1993 that the school system was indeed still racially divided, and three new schools were built as part of integration efforts. Brown died in 2018 at her hometown in Topeka leaving behind her husband, her children and her grandchildren. She was 75. Although her family wouldn't comment, Kansas Governor Jeff Colyer paid tribute to the woman who sparked one of the landmark cases in American history: "Sixty-four years ago a young girl from Topeka brought a case that ended segregation in public schools in America," he tweeted. "Linda Brown's life reminds us that sometimes the most unlikely people can have an incredible impact and that by serving our community we can truly change the world."

Her mother and her sister Cheryl lives her legacy telling stories about Linda and the case that made her the historical figure of the Brown vs. Board of Education.