Judge Rules Topeka Has Ended School Segregation Since 1954

Topeka’s public schools have eliminated any traces of the “separate but equal” discrimination outlawed by a historic 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling even though they are not racially balanced, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Richard D. Rogers, ruling on a suit that had reopened the landmark Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education case, said the district had achieved a high level of integration with a neighborhood schools system and does not discriminate against minorities.

Chris Hansen, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney who acted for the plaintiffs, said he read the decision “as approving continuing segregation in Topeka under the guise of neighborhood schools.”

Weighs Filing Appeal

Hansen said he will talk to his clients and other school desegregation lawyers before deciding whether to appeal.

Gary Sebelius, attorney for the school board, said the decision shows the district has made progress and students will receive a good education no matter which of the public schools they attend.

The case, filed in 1951 by Oliver Brown, a black railroad worker, was reopened in 1979 by the parents of a group of 17 children who said Topeka had not wiped out “all vestiges of discrimination” from the old dual school system.

The reopened suit asked that the district do more to integrate minorities into a school system that is 74% white. Brown’s daughter, Linda Brown Smith, mother of two students in the Topeka schools, was among the plaintiffs.

‘Sent Out Signals’

The suit said the district dragged its feet in implementing desegregation and “sent out signals” to white residents prior to integrating white schools to give them time to get out of the path of integration. The suit also said the district concentrates black faculty in certain schools.

In his decision, Rogers said the Constitution does not require complete racial balance and that Topeka Unified School District No. 501 “provides a high-quality educational opportunity to its students on a non-discriminatory basis.”

Rogers said Topeka had adequately eliminated all traces of the “separate but equal” school system it once operated for white and black children.