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StoryCorps Voices from Topeka - 60 Years After Brown v. Board of Education

By KPR Staff

Published May 7, 2015 at 5:00 AM CDT

The first grade class at State Street Elementary School, taught by Miss Hunt. It was taken in January 1955, shortly after Topeka elementary schools were racially integrated in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling in the Brown v. Board of Education case. Prior to this decision, which made segregated schools unconstitutional, State Street had been a school for white children only. (Photo Courtesy of Kansas Historical Society / kansasmemory.org)

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Thomas Averill (aka William Jennings Bryan Oleander, longtime KPR commentator) talks to Matthew Porubsky about growing up in Topeka, Kan.

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Averill remembers moving to Topeka in 1953 from California and recalls that his father grew up in the 1930s. Discusses a photograph he found of his father, Stuart Carson Averill, dressed up as the Gold Dust twins for a Rotary Club parade.

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In May 2014, StoryCorps Facilitators found themselves in Topeka, Kan., working with The Kansas Humanities Council for the 60th Anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education desegregation case, whose decision was released on May 17, 1954.

The trip was part of the other many town-wide celebrations for the occasion, including a high school graduation ceremony with a special Baccalaureate speech delivered by First Lady Michelle Obama who also commemorated the anniversary.

The Kansas Humanities Council hosted three StoryCorps recording days to capture conversations between generations of Topekans, about their school and life experiences, how those have changed over time and how Topeka can grow from it all.

Kansas Public Radio began airing the series on Monday, Feb. 2, 2015, with pieces airing at 6:45 and 8:45 a.m. The series will continue every Monday morning (the series has been moved to Tuesday mornings, starting Feb. 24) on KPR's Morning Edition - and will run well into the month of March.