A Look Back: Kappa History
Middle Western Province Retrospective The Legacy of Washburn University Chapter, the Rho of Kappa Alpha Psi and Topeka (KS) Alumni in the Civil Rights Transformation of the United States: Part II
Brother Elisha Scott advising on the case for 13 families on behalf of their 20 children in U.S. District Court for Kansas. The local NAACP chapter wrote NAACP headquarters to solicit help. Two NAACP lawyers from New York, Robert Carter and Jack Greenberg, were dispatched to help argue the case before a three-judge panel of federal judges in Topeka. There was a lot of pressure from white Topeka on the plaintiffs, the local NAACP and the lawyers to drop out of the case. “My family not
had to cross a railroad track to meet a bus that would take her to Monroe Elemen- tary about 20 blocks away at S.E. 15 th and Monroe. The bus ride took an hour and 20 minutes. Sumner Elementary, a white school, was at S.W. 4 th and Western, about four blocks from her home.
The Brown Case
In 1950, Topeka NAACP President McKinley Burnett with attorneys Brother Charles Scott age 30, Brother John Scott, age 32 and Brother Charles Bledsoe all members of the NAACP Legal Redress Committee conceived the idea of bringing a school desegregation suit and strategically recruited parents to participate in the action. The law firm of (Elisha) Scott (John) Scott (Charles) Scott and (Sam) Jackson (all Kappa Men) handled the case. They sought plaintiffs, specifically looking for African American parents who lived near schools segregated for white chil- dren. The parents were hesitant. They didn’t know if associating themselves with the lawsuit would mean loss of their jobs or expose them to other types of harassment and retaliation. A key part of the strategy was to recruit psychologists and social scientists as expert witnesses to testify about the psychologi- cal harm of segregation to school children. This testimony would play an important role in the Supreme Court’s 1954 deci- sion because the Kansas case was the only case to focus on the psychological harm of segregation to school children. According to Brother Charles Scott Jr., Brother Charles Scott, Sr., recruited Oliver Brown, a good friend, as one of the plaintiffs. Eight-year-old Linda Brown was a good example of what many African American students endured. A student at Monroe Elementary, the Browns lived on 1st Street. Each school morning, Linda
only put their careers on the line but also put their lives on the line” according to Brother Charles Scott Jr. Additionally, the Scott Law firm undertook the financial burden of the case and never did receive any remuneration for their services.
Brown v. Board of Education made its debut June 25, 1951 at the U.S. Dis- trict Court located at 5th and S. Kansas Avenue. The Brown attorneys argued that “segregation on the basis of race instilled feelings of inferiority”. While the NAACP lost the case, the judges said they did believe that segregation was detrimental to black children. The Topeka decision would be quoted in the decision of the Supreme Court, which would likewise marshal testimony of psychological harm. Expert witness Hugh Speer, chairman of the Department of Education at the University of Kansas, argued that school curriculums couldn’t be equal under seg- regation. Speer said a black child’s cur- riculum was inadequate if the child was being denied the experience of associating
In the fall of 1950, each plaintiff was instructed by the local NAACP to watch the local newspaper to determine the ap- propriate enrollment dates, and then take their child or children along with a witness to a white school nearest to their home. Once they attempted enrollment and were denied, the next step was to report back to the NAACP. Their experiences provided attorneys with documentation needed to file a law suit against the Topeka Board of Education. Knowing that principals would refuse to enroll black children in the white schools, the NAACP charge the Topeka Board of Education with violating their 14th Amendment rights. The plaintiffs’ complaint was filed on February 28, 1951 by Brother Charles Scott, John Scott & Charles Bledsoe with
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