The Case that Led to Public School Integration in Kansas: Esther Brown (Jewish Community Center)
In Person Only | Registration opens 8/14/2026 12:00 AM CDT
In 1947, a group of determined Black parents in the tiny town of South Park, KS (now part of Merriam), clamored for improvements to their children’s rundown, segregated school. The school board turned them down and then refused their children admission to a newly built elementary school–even though Kansas law prohibited segregated public schools in towns the size of South Park.
The parents, aided by a white Jewish woman named Esther Brown, sued and, in 1949, the Kansas Supreme Court handed down a seminal decision ordering the school to be integrated. Five years later, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its historic decision in Brown v. Topeka Board of Education.
Members of the Jewish Community Center/The J KC should enroll through their activities director.
Dan Margolies
Dan Margolies retired nearly four years ago after a 37-year career as a journalist with the Kansas City Business Journal, The Kansas City Star and KCUR Public Media. Before becoming a journalist he was a lawyer. He writes on Substack under the title “Notes from KC” about politics, religion, business, the arts and any other subject that strikes his fancy.
Deborah Keating
Deborah Keating has a PhD in History from UMKC and is a Research Assistant