Brown v. Board of Education

  • We Did It!

    On May 12, President Biden signed into law the Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park Expansion and Redesignation Act (S. 270) that will help share the full history of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case.

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One of the most significant landmark cases in the history of the United States, the 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education compiled cases from five communities across the South, East, and Midwest to desegregate American schools. Though Brown v. Board is most often associated with Kansas, this collection of historic schools from communities in Delaware, Washington, D.C., Virginia, and South Carolina tell a more complete story of Brown v. Board and the ongoing struggle for educational equity.

In partnership with the offices of House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-SC) and Senator Chris Coons (D-DE), the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund is working with local partners to join the stories of these places with those already being told at the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site in Topeka, Kansas, creating opportunities for public education and interpretation while allowing buildings to maintain their current uses as schools, community centers, and offices. This work is an opportunity to give voice to the stories of dozens of parents, students, attorneys, and activists who not only struggled to secure the Brown v. Board decision, but also often weathered the continued fight to integrate in its aftermath.

Many Places, One Goal

The communities represented in the Brown v. Board cases were deliberately chosen to represent the geographic spread and variety of experiences of school segregation. Their experiences are captured by the era’s remaining buildings, each of which has a unique place in the fight to achieve the common goal of integration.

Brown v Board of Education Map

Wilmington, Claymont, and Hockessin, Delaware

Black students in suburban Claymont had to travel long distances by bus into downtown Wilmington to attend Howard High School, the only high school in the state of Delaware open to Black students. Although Howard provided an excellent education in a stately, two-story brick building, the commute was exhausting. Meanwhile, students at Hockessin Colored School #107 couldn’t ride the whites-only bus that passed the school every day, and instead had to find their own transportation.

Howard High School of Technology in Wilmington, Delaware

photo by: Curtis Martin

Howard High School of Technology in Wilmington, Delaware.

The case brought by Sarah Bulah about transportation to Hockessin Colored School #107, along with parents who sued to gain admittance to the all-white Claymont High School, became the basis for Belton (Bulah) v. Gebhart. In 1952, it became the only case connected to Brown v. Board at the state level to be decided in favor of the plaintiffs. By the time of the Supreme Court decision two years later, Claymont High School was already integrated.

Today, Howard High School has become the Howard High School of Technology, while Claymont High School is the Claymont Community Center. Hockessin Colored School #107 is poised to become a training center focused on inclusion and equity.

Claymont Community Center (Claymont High School) in Claymont, Delaware

photo by: Curtis Martin

Claymont Community Center (Claymont High School) in Claymont, Delaware.

Hockessin Colored School, in Hockessin, Delaware

photo by: Curtis Martin

Hockessin Colored School, in Hockessin, Delaware.

Washington, D.C.

In Washington, Black students living in neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River were barred from attending the new John Phillip Sousa Junior High School, instead traveling to various older Black schools much further away. After a group of parents calling themselves the Consolidated Parents Group unsuccessfully petitioned to have their children admitted to Sousa, attorney James Nabrit, Jr. filed Bolling v. Sharpe. Because of its Washington, D.C. origins, the decision in this case held the federal government to the same standards of nondiscrimination as the states. The Modernist brick building continues to be used as Sousa Middle School.

John Phillip Sousa Junior High School in Washington, DC

photo by: Curtis Martin

John Phillip Sousa Junior High School in Washington, D.C.

Farmville, Virginia

In Farmville in 1951, 16-year-old Barbara Rose Johns led a student walkout at Russa Moton High School to protest the Black school’s classroom conditions, where overcrowding was forcing some students to attend class in tar paper shacks. The bravery of Johns and her fellow students led the NAACP Legal Defense Fund to file Davis v. Prince Edward County, one of the key cases that became a part of the broader Brown v. Board Supreme Court case.

Following the 1954 Supreme Court victory, the Prince Edward County Board of Supervisors closed their schools for five years rather than integrate, denying an education to a generation of students. The one-story brick building now houses the Robert Russa Moton Museum, which tells the story of the student walkout, the legal battle, and the school closures that followed.

R.R. Moton Museum (Robert Russa Moton High School) in Farmville, Virginia

photo by: Curtis Martin

R.R. Moton Museum (Robert Russa Moton High School) in Farmville, Virginia.

Summerton, South Carolina

White students at Summerton High School had far superior facilities to their Black counterparts (who were also denied access to school buses) at nearby Scott’s Branch High School. Reverend J.A. DeLaine recruited parents to serve as plaintiffs in a case brought in the fall of 1950 that sought the integration of schools. A panel of three judges denied the parents’ request and instead ordered that separate schools be equalized, leading to the demolition of the old Scott’s Branch School and its replacement with a new, brick “equalization school.” Today, Summerton High School serves as school district offices, while the Scott’s Branch equalization school is a community resource center.

Clarendon District 1 Offices (Summerton High School) in Summerton, South Carolina

photo by: Joel Lassiter

Clarendon District 1 Offices (Summerton High School) in Summerton, South Carolina.

Clarendon District 1 Community Resource Center (Scotts Branch High School) in Summerton, South Carolina

photo by: Joel Lassiter

Clarendon District 1 Community Resource Center (Scott's Branch High School) in Summerton, South Carolina.

Linda Brown Smith, Ethel Louise Belton Brown, Harry Briggs, Jr., and Spottswood Bolling, Jr. during press conference at Hotel Americana.

photo by: Library of Congress

Linda Brown Smith, Ethel Louise Belton Brown, Harry Briggs, Jr., and Spottswood Bolling, Jr. during press conference at Hotel Americana.

Combining Old Uses with New Approaches

After a multi-year advocacy campaign, on May 12, 2022, President Biden signed into law the Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park Expansion and Redesignation Act (S. 270) that will help share the full history of the Brown v. Board of Education case. The innovative legislation enacted into law helps connect these communities and tell their stories within the National Park System through creating National Park Service Affiliated Areas in Delaware, Virginia, and the District of Columbia and expanding the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site in Topeka, Kansas, to include related sites in South Carolina.

This recognition will allow them to combine current uses with preservation and public education, as well as provide more technical assistance.Then, in collaboration with local partners, we will use the Affiliated Areas status to better recognize the communities that fought for school integration, help them tell their own stories of Brown v. Board, and connect them to other stories of the fight for educational equity, past and present.