2023 Road Trip: Civil Rights Trail: Kansas (5/27/2023)

Saturday, May 27, 2023

Today we headed straight to Topeka, KS, capital of Kansas.

On the grounds of the Kansas State Capitol:

Replica Statue of Liberty (1950, donated
by the Boy Scouts of America)

Statue (2018, by Jim Brothers) of General
Dwight D Eisenhower, as he looked talking to
his troops a few hours before the D-Day
landings (a Roadside America attraction)

Kansas State Capitol (1866-1903, by E Townsend Mix
in French Renaissance style)

Abraham Lincoln, Man of Sorrows
(1916, by Robert Merrell Gage)
(a Roadside America attraction)

Kent stands next to the Kansas
Veterans Memorial (1997) at the State Capitol;
Kansas does have a much larger
All Veterans Memorial (2006) at the
Great Overland Station in Topeka

Pioneer Women Memorial (1937,
by Robert Merrell Gage)
 (a Roadside America attraction)

Fourth floor view of the inner dome

Fourth floor view down in the rotunda (KSS)

House of Representatives Chamber

Senate Chamber (KSS)

Brown vs Board of Education Mural (2018,
by Michael Young)

Old Supreme Court

Stained glass windows (1976, by Patrick McKinney) (KSS)

The Sacking of Lawrence 1856 (1978, by Lumen Martin Winter)
illustrates the burning and destruction by 800
southern men under Sheriff Samuel Jones who had been
shot at when he tried to arrest free-state settlers (KSS)

Statue (1981, by Peter "Fritz" Felten)
of Amelia Earhart

Colonel John C Frémont (1978, by
Lumen Martin Winter) illustrates the one of the
three expeditions he led to the West 1842-1846

Statue (1981, by Peter "Fritz" Felten)
of Dwight D Eisenhower

Second level of the State Capitol (KSS)

Tragic Prelude (1937-1942, by John Steuart Curry)
depicts the early years in Kansas history when it was
stipulated that the settlers would vote on whether to become
a free or slave state, resulting in a rush of pro-slavery, then
free-staters rushing into the territory and clashing,
in what Curry saw as a prelude to the Civil War (KSS)

The east and west wing murals of Curry were immediately criticized. He left Kansas and did not complete the planned murals within the rotunda, which were later done by Lumen Martin Winter, based on Curry's studies.

Kansas Pastoral (1937-1942, by John Steuart Curry)
was also criticized (the woman's skirt was too short,
the Hereford bull was too long and red; later a
stockman would declare it a fine example)

Before Curry left, he painted a family of skunks (to represent the critics) on Kansas Pastoral, and refused to sign his works, which later were considered some of his best.

The flags flown over what is now Kansas: England,
French Monarchy, French Republic, Mexico, Spain,
the Republic of Texas, United States/Louisiana
Purchase, and the Kansas state flag

Lewis and Clark in Kansas (1953,
by David H Overmyer) on the first
level of the Kansas State Capitol

Arrival of the Railroad (1953, by
David H Overmyer) also on the first level

A mural (collaborative work led by Michael Toombs,
which made a collage of student artwork) near the
Brown vs Board of Education National Historical Park

Brown vs Board of Education National Historical Park
(1992) is located in the former Monroe Elementary School
(1926, by Thomas W Williamson in Italian
Renaissance Revival style on land donated by abolitionist
John Ritchie specifically for an African-American school)

A map illustrating the status of school segregation
before the Brown vs Board decision: green means
segregation was required, blue permitted segregation,
red for segregation prohibited, and white had no
 specific legislation on segregation (KSS)

Brown vs Board of Education of Topeka resulted in the 1954 landmark ruling of the US Supreme Court that US state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional. The case began when Oliver Brown tried to enroll his daughter Linda in an all-white school because it was closer to their home. When refused, he joined with 12 others under the guidance of the NAACP to take legal action.After losing in a federal district court, the case was appealed to the US Supreme Court, along with cases from Delaware, South Carolina, Virginia and Washington, DC.

Elementary school height drinking fountains
at Monroe Elementary School

A recreated kindergarten classroom at Monroe

Next: Route 66 in Missouri continued.