Tennessee Town Media:
What They're Saying About Tennessee Town
What They're Saying About Tennessee Town
Academy planned for Tennessee Town
Fundraising dinner on Thursday to provide details of project
Posted: September 14, 2014 - 5:29pm
[email protected]
By Phil Anderson
Anticipation is building for a new learning academy for young children set to be built next year in central Topeka.
The International Academy in Tennessee Town, sponsored by the nonprofit group Community First Inc., is planned for the northwest corner of S.W. 12th and Lincoln.
Information about the academy will be presented during a fundraising dinner at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Regency Ballroom of the Ramada Hotel and Convention Center, 420 S.E. 6th.
Speakers will include Ruben West, Sal Cruz, Pamela Johnson-Betts, Tim Dupree, Stephen Ortiz, Herman Bringle and Joey Rocha Sr. The theme of the dinner is “We Can Get There from Here.”
Sandra Lassiter, a former elementary school principal for Topeka Unified School District 501, will be the first headmaster of the academy, which she said will prepare youngsters to excel in middle school, high school and college.
Lassiter said the school will start with 30 students. She said she has a number of retired teachers who already are on board to help educate the youths.
According to information provided by the academy, the curriculum will be aligned with Kansas state learning standards, with emphasis given to mastery of core skills and subject content.
After they complete third grade, Lassiter said, the students will be free to go anywhere they and their parents choose — whether that is a public or private school.
“This is a preparatory school,” Lassiter said. “We’re preparing them for life and to be quality students. No matter where they go, they’ll be at the top of the class.”
Lassiter said the goal of the academy is to make sure students — at least 50 percent of whom will be “at-risk” — receive necessary skills to enable them to be successful in their future academic endeavors.
“We’re not in a fight with public schools,” Lassiter said. “We are working in concert with them.”
Lassiter said the first building at the academy will be a full-sized gymnasium that will provide a place for students to participate in physical activities.
In addition to being a center of physical activity for the academy’s children, the building also will act as a kind of community center, as it will be open to both youths and adults.
The building also will have a safe room that will be open to the community in times of severe storms.
To that end, Lassiter said, the academy is in the process of applying for a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant that would help cover the costs of construction. She was hopeful the building could be finished by August 2015.
The building cost is expected to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $500,000. Private funds are being sought for the building, which would supplement any dollars that are raised through grants.
In time, a building housing classrooms will be built adjacent to the gymnasium.
Lassiter said Faith Temple Church of God in Christ, where she is a co-pastor along with her husband, Bishop Ronald Lassiter, owns the land where the academy will be built. The church is at 1162 S.W. Lincoln, a half-block north of the proposed academy site.
She said the north portion of Faith Temple is being renovated so it can hold classrooms for the initial group of students. She said she was hoping the academy could open by this January.
“To me, it’s historical,” Lassiter said, “because it’s intergenerational and multicultural, and it speaks about Topeka.”
Lassiter said a year of education at the academy will run $4,000 — $2,000 of which will be paid by families of students and $2,000 from local businesses that are on board to provide matching funds.
Lassiter said the academy is in the process of forming partnerships with Topeka-based businesses that want to support its mission of giving young children a jump start on their educations.
Lassiter, the former principal of the now defunct Quinton Heights Elementary School, spearheaded an unsuccessful effort that spanned several years to purchase the former Sumner Elementary School — which was closed in 1996 — from the city and turn it into a charter school.
The Sumner building, at 330 S.W. Western, was sold in 2009 to Los Angeles-based True Foundation World Outreach Ministries, which was going to turn it into a multipurpose center. However, the building continues to sit empty to this day.
Mike Bell, president of the Tennessee Town Neighborhood Improvement Association, said Lassiter has worked “very hard at lining up support for the project” in Tennessee Town.
Bell noted Lassiter was close with the Sumner bid, “but that didn’t turn out.” Now, she has turned her energies into the academy project that will benefit not only Tennessee Town but the entire Topeka community, Bell said.
“I think it’s going to be a real boon for the neighborhood on a variety of levels,” he said. “And it’s going to be an asset for the community as far as offering educational opportunities for the children.
“Also, it will have a neighborhood component with its community center and safe room, and that’s very exciting for us.”
Tickets for Thursday night’s dinner are $35 and can be ordered by calling (785) 806-0121 or (785) 217-4452 or by emailing [email protected].
Community First shares plans to construct school
Non-profit group making arrangements to have school built
By Tim Hrenchir
[email protected]
Posted: August 9, 2014 - 5:42pm
The Topeka nonprofit group Community First revealed plans Saturday to build and operate a school at the northwest corner of S.W. 12th and Lincoln.
The school will educate children from pre-kindergarten through the third grade, said Community First co-founder Sandra Lassiter.
She said the school will be located on property owned by Faith Temple Church, 1162 S.W. Lincoln.
Shawnee County appraisal records show Faith Temple owns land at the corner involved, at 1191 and 1195 S.W. Lincoln. Faith Temple’s pastor is Sandra Lassiter’s husband, the Rev. Ronald Lassiter Sr.
Sandra Lassiter said Community First is working with Mar Lan Construction and Treanor Architects to have the school built.
She said the Faith Temple congregation has provided seed money for the project and Community First plans to raise further funds through a capital campaign, which will feature a 6:30 p.m. banquet on Sept. 18 at the Ramada Inn Downtown, 420 S.E. 6th.
The school will not be a charter school, Sandra Lassiter said. After serving as a principal in Topeka public schools and retiring early in 2003, she tried unsuccessfully to acquire the historic former Sumner School building, at 330 S.W. Western Ave., to be the site of a charter school she hoped to establish.
Sandra Lassiter spoke to the Capital-Journal on Saturday as Community First and other sponsors put on the eighth-annual Tennessee Town Basketball Tournament, held on the King's Court basketball court at the northwest corner of S.W. Munson and Lincoln.
About 25 youth and adult teams took part in the one-day, single-elimination tournament, said tournament director Arturo Lassiter, a son of Sandra and Ronald Lassiter Sr.
Saturday’s event also featured a free barbecue lunch in the multi-purpose room of Faith Temple Church, across the street cater-cornered from the basketball court.
Those present in that room included Michael Bell, president of the Tennessee Town Neighborhood Improvement Association.
Bell revealed plans were in the works to potentially arrange for a mural to be painted on the south wall of the WCW Enterprises building at 1238 S.W. Lane in central Topeka’s Tennessee Town community.
Also on hand was Jason Needham of Kansas City, Kan., a former Topekan who would be in charge of the project. Bell said details were still being worked out, and it wasn’t clear whether local students would help paint the mural.
Bell said a focus of the mural might be the history of Tennessee Town.
Topeka city officials say the health of Tennessee Town — evaluated by looking at areas such as crime, poverty and residential property values — has improved considerably over the past 14 years.
Bell said community pride has increased as a result of mural projects carried out at multiple locations in Topeka. He suggested Tennessee Town improvement efforts would further benefit from the proposed mural project.
Non-profit group making arrangements to have school built
By Tim Hrenchir
[email protected]
Posted: August 9, 2014 - 5:42pm
The Topeka nonprofit group Community First revealed plans Saturday to build and operate a school at the northwest corner of S.W. 12th and Lincoln.
The school will educate children from pre-kindergarten through the third grade, said Community First co-founder Sandra Lassiter.
She said the school will be located on property owned by Faith Temple Church, 1162 S.W. Lincoln.
Shawnee County appraisal records show Faith Temple owns land at the corner involved, at 1191 and 1195 S.W. Lincoln. Faith Temple’s pastor is Sandra Lassiter’s husband, the Rev. Ronald Lassiter Sr.
Sandra Lassiter said Community First is working with Mar Lan Construction and Treanor Architects to have the school built.
She said the Faith Temple congregation has provided seed money for the project and Community First plans to raise further funds through a capital campaign, which will feature a 6:30 p.m. banquet on Sept. 18 at the Ramada Inn Downtown, 420 S.E. 6th.
The school will not be a charter school, Sandra Lassiter said. After serving as a principal in Topeka public schools and retiring early in 2003, she tried unsuccessfully to acquire the historic former Sumner School building, at 330 S.W. Western Ave., to be the site of a charter school she hoped to establish.
Sandra Lassiter spoke to the Capital-Journal on Saturday as Community First and other sponsors put on the eighth-annual Tennessee Town Basketball Tournament, held on the King's Court basketball court at the northwest corner of S.W. Munson and Lincoln.
About 25 youth and adult teams took part in the one-day, single-elimination tournament, said tournament director Arturo Lassiter, a son of Sandra and Ronald Lassiter Sr.
Saturday’s event also featured a free barbecue lunch in the multi-purpose room of Faith Temple Church, across the street cater-cornered from the basketball court.
Those present in that room included Michael Bell, president of the Tennessee Town Neighborhood Improvement Association.
Bell revealed plans were in the works to potentially arrange for a mural to be painted on the south wall of the WCW Enterprises building at 1238 S.W. Lane in central Topeka’s Tennessee Town community.
Also on hand was Jason Needham of Kansas City, Kan., a former Topekan who would be in charge of the project. Bell said details were still being worked out, and it wasn’t clear whether local students would help paint the mural.
Bell said a focus of the mural might be the history of Tennessee Town.
Topeka city officials say the health of Tennessee Town — evaluated by looking at areas such as crime, poverty and residential property values — has improved considerably over the past 14 years.
Bell said community pride has increased as a result of mural projects carried out at multiple locations in Topeka. He suggested Tennessee Town improvement efforts would further benefit from the proposed mural project.
Housing summit seeks to ensure Tennessee Town continues to make progress
Neighborhood health map shows area has seen positive strides since 2000
By Tim Hrenchir
[email protected]
Posted: June 21, 2014 - 11:45am
Central Topeka’s Tennessee Town neighborhood has made positive strides, a planner for the city of Topeka said Saturday.
Ensuring that progress continues was the target of a housing summit held Saturday in which the speakers included that planner, Susan Hanzlik.
The city and the Tennessee Town Neighborhood Improvement Association put on Saturday’s event at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library. Participants included Tennessee Town NIA president Michael Bell and City Councilwoman Karen Hiller, who lives in Tennessee Town.
The city defines Tennessee Town as being bounded on the north and south by S.W. 10th and Huntoon, and on the east and west by S.W. Clay and Washburn.
A slide that was part of Hanzlik’s PowerPoint presentation Saturday showed that when the city in 2000 released its initial Neighborhood Health Map, Tennessee Town had the worst possible rating — of “intensive care” — in four of the six categories assessed. Those were poverty, public safety, residential property values and composite health.
But Hanzlik noted that Tennessee Town subsequently improved to the point where it received no “intensive care” ratings when the city put out its most recent Neighborhood Health Map in 2011.
Bell attributed the improvements in part to city programs that encouraged the construction of infill housing and the rehabilitation of existing homes.
He said the condition of the block of S.W. Lincoln located between S.W. 12th and Huntoon has “completely turned around.”
Resident Pat DeLapp said the neighborhood feels safer than it used to.
Nevertheless, another participant in Saturday’s summit said he would like to see more lighting in Tennessee Town at night.
Representatives from city government departments and local housing providers — such as the Topeka Housing Authority, Topeka Habitat for Humanity, Cornerstone of Topeka, Christmas in Action, and Housing and Credit Counseling — planned at Saturday’s meeting to meet with NIA residents and stakeholders to evaluate where the neighborhood has been and where it is going.
Participants planned to create a document detailing where the Tennessee Town NIA should be headed regarding the primary issue of housing and related issues that included crime, safety, infrastructure, land use, zoning, vacant housing and vacant lots.
Neighborhood health map shows area has seen positive strides since 2000
By Tim Hrenchir
[email protected]
Posted: June 21, 2014 - 11:45am
Central Topeka’s Tennessee Town neighborhood has made positive strides, a planner for the city of Topeka said Saturday.
Ensuring that progress continues was the target of a housing summit held Saturday in which the speakers included that planner, Susan Hanzlik.
The city and the Tennessee Town Neighborhood Improvement Association put on Saturday’s event at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library. Participants included Tennessee Town NIA president Michael Bell and City Councilwoman Karen Hiller, who lives in Tennessee Town.
The city defines Tennessee Town as being bounded on the north and south by S.W. 10th and Huntoon, and on the east and west by S.W. Clay and Washburn.
A slide that was part of Hanzlik’s PowerPoint presentation Saturday showed that when the city in 2000 released its initial Neighborhood Health Map, Tennessee Town had the worst possible rating — of “intensive care” — in four of the six categories assessed. Those were poverty, public safety, residential property values and composite health.
But Hanzlik noted that Tennessee Town subsequently improved to the point where it received no “intensive care” ratings when the city put out its most recent Neighborhood Health Map in 2011.
Bell attributed the improvements in part to city programs that encouraged the construction of infill housing and the rehabilitation of existing homes.
He said the condition of the block of S.W. Lincoln located between S.W. 12th and Huntoon has “completely turned around.”
Resident Pat DeLapp said the neighborhood feels safer than it used to.
Nevertheless, another participant in Saturday’s summit said he would like to see more lighting in Tennessee Town at night.
Representatives from city government departments and local housing providers — such as the Topeka Housing Authority, Topeka Habitat for Humanity, Cornerstone of Topeka, Christmas in Action, and Housing and Credit Counseling — planned at Saturday’s meeting to meet with NIA residents and stakeholders to evaluate where the neighborhood has been and where it is going.
Participants planned to create a document detailing where the Tennessee Town NIA should be headed regarding the primary issue of housing and related issues that included crime, safety, infrastructure, land use, zoning, vacant housing and vacant lots.
Neighborhood fair tells stories of Topeka
Event held Saturday commemorates city's 160th birthday
By Phil Anderson
[email protected]
Posted: May 10, 2014 - 3:13pm
The Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library gave a tip of the hat to capital city neighborhoods — and what is being done to preserve them — during a special event Saturday.
The first Neighborhood Fair took place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. inside Marvin Auditorium at the library, 1515 S.W. 10th.
Representatives of 11 local organizations set up booths and visited with attendees about their groups and organizations, and how they are contributing to the betterment of the Topeka community.
Donna Rae Pearson, local history librarian, said the fair was one of several events this year designed to commemorate the 160th anniversary of the founding of Topeka.
Pearson said the event was designed to “highlight the history and heritage” of Topeka and tell “what’s going on in neighborhoods at this time.”
Groups represented at the fair included the Chesney Park Neighborhood Improvement Association; Friends of the Free State Capitol; Historic Topeka Cemetery; Jayhawk Theatre; Kansas Historical Society; Safe Streets; Shawnee County Historical Society; Tennessee Town NIA; Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library; and Ward-Meade Neighborhood Association.
Crowds were sparse during the morning portion of the event, which organizers attributed to the busy Mother’s Day weekend. Some changes may be made next year, when the event will be scheduled again.
“Next year,” Pearson said, “we hope to have more neighborhoods participate.”
Michael Bell, president of the Tennessee Town NIA, spoke with people about his organization and the work it is doing in central Topeka.
He said the fair was a good opportunity for groups and organizations to get out the word on the positive work that is being done in the city’s neighborhoods.
“About the only time you hear about NIAs is when it involves crime,” Bell said. “And there is a lot of good stuff going on in the NIAs.”
Among those who attended the fair were Rah Gist, 35, and her son, Jakweli Gist, 8, of Kansas City, Mo.
Rah Gist, who grew up in Topeka, said enjoyed learning about the history of Topeka at the fair. She picked up an armful of brochures and literature from the various booths.
“We home-school our kids,” she said, “so we have tons of ideas for field trips.”
In addition to the 11 booths, the fair also featured several mini-presentations, including:
■ “Our First Building Downtown,” by Friends of Free State Capitol.
■ “Stories in Stone,” by Historic Topeka Cemetery.
■ “Neighborhood Watch and Crime Prevention,” by Safe Streets.
■ “The Historic Ritchie House and Summer Camps for Kids,” Shawnee County Historical Society.
■ “Tennessee Town: From Freedom to the Future,” Tennessee Town Neighborhood Improvement Association. (Note: Click on the "History" link at the top of this page to see the presentation.)
Legacy of Brown: Topekan recalls benefiting from ruling
Talented teachers are among cherished childhood memories
By Marilyn Landrum Williams
Special to the Capital-Journal
Posted: May 10, 2014 - 4:34pm
Editor’s note: Having grown up in an integrated school system, Marilyn Landrum Williams, a speech paraprofessional at Ross and Highland Park Central elementaries, feels she reaped the benefits of the Brown v. Board ruling but recalls that as a child, she wasn’t aware of the case that made this possible.
As I approach my 11th year of employment with Topeka Unified School District 501, I have had many occasions to fondly reminisce about my elementary school years. I have worked at various elementaries in the district, and many situations have caused me to remember things that happened during those years. It seems as if they had just occurred yesterday.
I spent all of my elementary years at Monroe Elementary, my neighborhood school. The year I entered kindergarten happened to be the same year the 1966 tornado tore through Topeka. My family and I lived on Quincy Street, right around the corner from my elementary school. I was not aware that I was able to attend my neighborhood school because of a landmark Supreme Court decision based on a lawsuit that had been filed in Topeka.
On many occasions, I have thought of the afternoon kindergarten class that I attended. First and second grades passed quickly, but by the time I got to third grade, I knew I loved school and there was no other place I preferred to be.
I have vivid memories of my third-grade teacher, Mrs. Rinda H. Coon. She was one of many favorite teachers that I had. Not only was she a no-nonsense teacher, keeping all unruliness away with the help of the 12-inch wooden ruler she kept in her desk drawer, but she was also very talented in arts and crafts, as well as a very caring teacher.
I remember being in Miss Mary Hoyt’s fourth-grade classroom. What stands out for me most during that time was Miss Hoyt’s kind and caring mannerisms. For fifth grade, I had the pleasure of having a young lady who was fresh out of college and hadn’t even taken the time to get married yet. I am speaking of none other than Sandra West — or Miss West, as she was known to us. I don’t remember finding out what her first name was until her picture was in the newspaper after she got married and became Mrs. Lassiter, the summer after teaching the fifth-graders at Monroe. (Note: Mrs. Lassiter, nee West, is Sandra Lassiter, the current Tennessee Town NIA Secretary-Treasurer and the wife of Rev. Ronald Lassiter, both of Faith Temple Church of God in Christ, at 1162 SW Lincoln in Tennessee Town.)
I remember many things about fifth grade — like a field trip to Perry Lake and playing softball outside during class recess time, to name a few. I even received my first (and only) broken bone when I was in the fifth grade at Monroe. But most memorable during that time were the morning prayers, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, and singing “My Country ’Tis of Thee” each day.
And last, but certainly not least, I remember sixth grade. I had the very special privilege of being the first class taught by none other than Mrs. Cheryl Brown Henderson, daughter of Oliver Brown and a younger sibling of Linda Brown. At the time that I was in sixth grade, I knew very little, if anything, about the landmark Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education, or about racism. I lived in a predominantly black neighborhood, went to an all-black church and saw many black professionals in my early childhood.
During my sixth-grade year, I can still remember spelling tests given by our first-year teacher — and she soooo wanted us to be successful that she found a very clever way to help us to learn to spell some words that may be considered difficult. I can correctly spell “Wednesday” and “beautiful” because of my sixth-grade teacher. I remember feeling the passion that she had for education and how eager she was for her students to learn.
My sixth-grade year was one of the most enlightening years of my life. I already had a love of learning, and after witnessing the passion for education that Mrs. Henderson exhibited that year, if you were to ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would have exclaimed that I wanted to be a teacher!
Fast forward to now, May 2014, approaching the 60th anniversary of the Brown v. Board decision that says “separate but equal” is unconstitutional. I have greatly benefited from this decision in more ways than one. I have had a combination of caring teachers, black and white. I have been under a combination of effective administrators, black and white. If it had not been for the landmark decision, my experience could have been different than what it was, but I am thankful the decision came when it did and allowed me to have the experiences I had.
Talented teachers are among cherished childhood memories
By Marilyn Landrum Williams
Special to the Capital-Journal
Posted: May 10, 2014 - 4:34pm
Editor’s note: Having grown up in an integrated school system, Marilyn Landrum Williams, a speech paraprofessional at Ross and Highland Park Central elementaries, feels she reaped the benefits of the Brown v. Board ruling but recalls that as a child, she wasn’t aware of the case that made this possible.
As I approach my 11th year of employment with Topeka Unified School District 501, I have had many occasions to fondly reminisce about my elementary school years. I have worked at various elementaries in the district, and many situations have caused me to remember things that happened during those years. It seems as if they had just occurred yesterday.
I spent all of my elementary years at Monroe Elementary, my neighborhood school. The year I entered kindergarten happened to be the same year the 1966 tornado tore through Topeka. My family and I lived on Quincy Street, right around the corner from my elementary school. I was not aware that I was able to attend my neighborhood school because of a landmark Supreme Court decision based on a lawsuit that had been filed in Topeka.
On many occasions, I have thought of the afternoon kindergarten class that I attended. First and second grades passed quickly, but by the time I got to third grade, I knew I loved school and there was no other place I preferred to be.
I have vivid memories of my third-grade teacher, Mrs. Rinda H. Coon. She was one of many favorite teachers that I had. Not only was she a no-nonsense teacher, keeping all unruliness away with the help of the 12-inch wooden ruler she kept in her desk drawer, but she was also very talented in arts and crafts, as well as a very caring teacher.
I remember being in Miss Mary Hoyt’s fourth-grade classroom. What stands out for me most during that time was Miss Hoyt’s kind and caring mannerisms. For fifth grade, I had the pleasure of having a young lady who was fresh out of college and hadn’t even taken the time to get married yet. I am speaking of none other than Sandra West — or Miss West, as she was known to us. I don’t remember finding out what her first name was until her picture was in the newspaper after she got married and became Mrs. Lassiter, the summer after teaching the fifth-graders at Monroe. (Note: Mrs. Lassiter, nee West, is Sandra Lassiter, the current Tennessee Town NIA Secretary-Treasurer and the wife of Rev. Ronald Lassiter, both of Faith Temple Church of God in Christ, at 1162 SW Lincoln in Tennessee Town.)
I remember many things about fifth grade — like a field trip to Perry Lake and playing softball outside during class recess time, to name a few. I even received my first (and only) broken bone when I was in the fifth grade at Monroe. But most memorable during that time were the morning prayers, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, and singing “My Country ’Tis of Thee” each day.
And last, but certainly not least, I remember sixth grade. I had the very special privilege of being the first class taught by none other than Mrs. Cheryl Brown Henderson, daughter of Oliver Brown and a younger sibling of Linda Brown. At the time that I was in sixth grade, I knew very little, if anything, about the landmark Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education, or about racism. I lived in a predominantly black neighborhood, went to an all-black church and saw many black professionals in my early childhood.
During my sixth-grade year, I can still remember spelling tests given by our first-year teacher — and she soooo wanted us to be successful that she found a very clever way to help us to learn to spell some words that may be considered difficult. I can correctly spell “Wednesday” and “beautiful” because of my sixth-grade teacher. I remember feeling the passion that she had for education and how eager she was for her students to learn.
My sixth-grade year was one of the most enlightening years of my life. I already had a love of learning, and after witnessing the passion for education that Mrs. Henderson exhibited that year, if you were to ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would have exclaimed that I wanted to be a teacher!
Fast forward to now, May 2014, approaching the 60th anniversary of the Brown v. Board decision that says “separate but equal” is unconstitutional. I have greatly benefited from this decision in more ways than one. I have had a combination of caring teachers, black and white. I have been under a combination of effective administrators, black and white. If it had not been for the landmark decision, my experience could have been different than what it was, but I am thankful the decision came when it did and allowed me to have the experiences I had.
Legacy of Brown: Plaintiff's daughter recalls history of historic case
By Cheryl Brown Henderson
Special to the Capital-Journal
Posted: May 13, 2014 - 8:25pm
Editor’s note: Cheryl Brown Henderson’s father, Oliver Brown, was a plaintiff in Brown v. Board. In this essay, she traces key points in civil rights history in Topeka, and her family’s involvement.
As children in Topeka, we walked among civil rights pioneers like McKinley Burnett, president of the Topeka NAACP, who in 1948 continued the Kansas campaign against racially segregated schools, begun decades earlier by Elisha Tinnon.
In 1881, Tinnon v. Ottawa, Kansas, School Board opened the doors to nearly a dozen early challenges to segregated schools in the Kansas cities of Independence, Parsons, Wichita, Galena, Coffeyville, Merriam and Topeka, in the cases of Reynolds v. the Topeka Board of Education, Wright v. the Topeka Board of Education and Graham v. the Topeka Board of Education.
Mr. Burnett was among the leading civil rights pioneers in our city.
His decision to file suit in federal court would lead to an unanticipated conclusion. Attorneys and brothers Charles and John Scott, with Charles Bledsoe, worked alongside Mr. Burnett and NAACP Secretary Lucinda Todd. Their strategy involved recruiting families with elementary-aged children to serve as plaintiffs. Thirteen African-American families in our city answered history’s call for what is said to be “The Case of the Century.” (Note: Charles and John Scott’s father, the attorney Elisha Scott, was a graduate of the Tennessee Town Kindergarten, lived in Tennessee Town on Lane St., and is a past president of the Topeka NAACP. Charles and John Scott would join their father’s practice before becoming a part of the Kansas portion of Brown v. Board of Education.)
One of the parents recruited was my father, Oliver Brown, for whom, in 1950, history literally came knocking at the door when Charles Scott, a childhood friend and attorney for the NAACP, asked him to join the campaign to end racially segregated schools.
My parents, Leola and Oliver Brown, were a traditional family raising two small girls and awaiting the arrival of a third. They were 29 and 32 years old, respectively. After some deliberation, Dad accepted his friend’s impassioned invitation to stand against racial segregation. As instructed, parents attempted to enroll their children in eight of the 18 Topeka elementary schools for white children. That simple act began their journey into civil rights history. On February 28, 1951, the case of Oliver L. Brown et. al. v. the Board of Education of Topeka was filed in Federal District Court, reviewed by a three-judge panel led by former Kansas Governor Walter Huxman.
My father’s participation was almost coincidental, yet the fact remains, it is his name attached to what is said to be one of the most pivotal events in U.S. history.
In 1953, he was ordained by the African Methodist Episcopal Church, known as AME, and assigned to pastor St. Mark AME Church in North Topeka. Shortly after his assignment, on May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its decision in favor of plaintiffs from Delaware, Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia and Washington, D.C., that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.
In 1959, my father was assigned to Benton Avenue AME Church in Springfield, Missouri. Two years after our move, in 1961, my father died at the age of 42. In the decades that followed, we have lost case strategists and most of the attorneys whose legal brilliance resulted in the Brown decision.
In 1988, we organized volunteers from various backgrounds, uncovered historic connections across this community and those communities comprising companion cases in Brown, to establish the Brown Foundation as a way of paying tribute to those involved in Brown v. Board of Education.
In 1990, we began the task of saving the old Monroe School building, one of the four segregated African-American Schools involved in the Brown case in Topeka. We worked with Senator Bob Dole, an extraordinary human being and exceptional U.S. senator who had known the Scott brothers. All of these men were part of the “Greatest Generation,” having served in WWII.
For 14 years, we spent countless hours working with Congress and the U.S. Department of the Interior to establish a Historic Site to preserve the Brown story.
Our commitment was also fueled by a generational connection to Monroe School, where my mother began her formal education in 1926; where my sisters Linda and Terry attended; where, post-Brown, my sister’s children were students; and where my teaching career began in 1972.
Achieving the goal of preserving the legacy of Brown within the walls of the old Monroe School building seemed preordained.
During this 60th anniversary of Brown, we’ve traveled and shared our story from Texas to New Hampshire, from California to Alabama and from Spain to the United Kingdom. Its impact remains ever present.
By Cheryl Brown Henderson
Special to the Capital-Journal
Posted: May 13, 2014 - 8:25pm
Editor’s note: Cheryl Brown Henderson’s father, Oliver Brown, was a plaintiff in Brown v. Board. In this essay, she traces key points in civil rights history in Topeka, and her family’s involvement.
As children in Topeka, we walked among civil rights pioneers like McKinley Burnett, president of the Topeka NAACP, who in 1948 continued the Kansas campaign against racially segregated schools, begun decades earlier by Elisha Tinnon.
In 1881, Tinnon v. Ottawa, Kansas, School Board opened the doors to nearly a dozen early challenges to segregated schools in the Kansas cities of Independence, Parsons, Wichita, Galena, Coffeyville, Merriam and Topeka, in the cases of Reynolds v. the Topeka Board of Education, Wright v. the Topeka Board of Education and Graham v. the Topeka Board of Education.
Mr. Burnett was among the leading civil rights pioneers in our city.
His decision to file suit in federal court would lead to an unanticipated conclusion. Attorneys and brothers Charles and John Scott, with Charles Bledsoe, worked alongside Mr. Burnett and NAACP Secretary Lucinda Todd. Their strategy involved recruiting families with elementary-aged children to serve as plaintiffs. Thirteen African-American families in our city answered history’s call for what is said to be “The Case of the Century.” (Note: Charles and John Scott’s father, the attorney Elisha Scott, was a graduate of the Tennessee Town Kindergarten, lived in Tennessee Town on Lane St., and is a past president of the Topeka NAACP. Charles and John Scott would join their father’s practice before becoming a part of the Kansas portion of Brown v. Board of Education.)
One of the parents recruited was my father, Oliver Brown, for whom, in 1950, history literally came knocking at the door when Charles Scott, a childhood friend and attorney for the NAACP, asked him to join the campaign to end racially segregated schools.
My parents, Leola and Oliver Brown, were a traditional family raising two small girls and awaiting the arrival of a third. They were 29 and 32 years old, respectively. After some deliberation, Dad accepted his friend’s impassioned invitation to stand against racial segregation. As instructed, parents attempted to enroll their children in eight of the 18 Topeka elementary schools for white children. That simple act began their journey into civil rights history. On February 28, 1951, the case of Oliver L. Brown et. al. v. the Board of Education of Topeka was filed in Federal District Court, reviewed by a three-judge panel led by former Kansas Governor Walter Huxman.
My father’s participation was almost coincidental, yet the fact remains, it is his name attached to what is said to be one of the most pivotal events in U.S. history.
In 1953, he was ordained by the African Methodist Episcopal Church, known as AME, and assigned to pastor St. Mark AME Church in North Topeka. Shortly after his assignment, on May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its decision in favor of plaintiffs from Delaware, Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia and Washington, D.C., that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.
In 1959, my father was assigned to Benton Avenue AME Church in Springfield, Missouri. Two years after our move, in 1961, my father died at the age of 42. In the decades that followed, we have lost case strategists and most of the attorneys whose legal brilliance resulted in the Brown decision.
In 1988, we organized volunteers from various backgrounds, uncovered historic connections across this community and those communities comprising companion cases in Brown, to establish the Brown Foundation as a way of paying tribute to those involved in Brown v. Board of Education.
In 1990, we began the task of saving the old Monroe School building, one of the four segregated African-American Schools involved in the Brown case in Topeka. We worked with Senator Bob Dole, an extraordinary human being and exceptional U.S. senator who had known the Scott brothers. All of these men were part of the “Greatest Generation,” having served in WWII.
For 14 years, we spent countless hours working with Congress and the U.S. Department of the Interior to establish a Historic Site to preserve the Brown story.
Our commitment was also fueled by a generational connection to Monroe School, where my mother began her formal education in 1926; where my sisters Linda and Terry attended; where, post-Brown, my sister’s children were students; and where my teaching career began in 1972.
Achieving the goal of preserving the legacy of Brown within the walls of the old Monroe School building seemed preordained.
During this 60th anniversary of Brown, we’ve traveled and shared our story from Texas to New Hampshire, from California to Alabama and from Spain to the United Kingdom. Its impact remains ever present.
Legacy of Brown: Memory of vibrant, diverse East Topeka recalled
From a child's perspective, integration meant the adventure of walking to school
By Robert West
Special to The Capital-Journal
Posted: May 15, 2014 - 4:41pm
Editor’s note: As a child, Topeka native Robert West played with the children on his street, but attended a school separate from many of them. His reflections on integration are intertwined with his memories of suddenly attending school together, and of the morning walk to the neighborhood school he hadn’t known existed.
In 1951 I lived in East Topeka on S.E. Klein, a diverse street. There were a lot of kids of various races, and we spent time with all of them. There was a church a block away, a Mexican Baptist church, and we would go to summer school there. Some of the Mexican children were Baptist and some were Catholic. At the time, the difference didn’t really strike me, but as I got older, I noticed they didn’t seem to associate with each other.
We lived within walking distance of the Fiesta. That was something we looked forward to. It always happened in the middle of the summer.
I grew up trying a lot of Mexican food. At the time, no one had air conditioning, and in the summer everyone’s doors were wide open. You could hear the families’ conversations and smell what they were cooking. The kids shared their food with each other.
I associated with all the children, but we didn’t go to school with all these people. We went to Washington School, an all-black school, where I started kindergarten. It was a mile away from my home.
I walked to the bus stop at S.E. 3rd and Branner, and there I caught the bus to and from Washington, in the 1100 block of Washington St. The bus was always crowded, but we never really thought about why we were on it, headed to school over there.
Two years later my sister, Sandra West (now Lassiter), also started school, and we both would take that same bus (Note: Sandra Lassiter is the Tennessee Town NIA Secretary-Treasurer. Her husband, Rev. Ronald Lassiter, is the pastor at Faith Temple Church of God in Christ, at 1162 SW Lincoln in Tennessee Town, where she is involved, too). We were not aware of Lincoln Grade School, an all-white public school that was within walking distance of our home.
In the summer of 1955 the principal of Lincoln School came to the neighborhood and spoke to the parents about sending their children to his school. He came with some ladies that I assumed were teachers. I remember my mother talking to them in the front room. I probably just walked to the back of the house or outside. I didn’t really get the gist of what was going on. My mother told me they were talking about us going to Lincoln, but I wasn’t familiar with it. I was 8 or 9, and the fact that this was about integration didn’t strike me at the time.
When school began that year, my sister and I, along with several other neighborhood children, walked to Lincoln, which was a four- to five-block walk, for the first time, where we began our journey of attending school with white boys and girls.
Me, my sister and the neighborhood kids would walk together down Hancock, through the Whelan’s lumberyard parking lot, and down across the tracks. Back then, they didn’t have mechanical barriers to stop the traffic. There was a little shed beside the tracks with an elderly man in there, and he would stop cars with a hand-held stop sign. He would hold a lantern, too, if it was night.
In the winter, when it was real cold, he had a coal-fired stove in his shed. We would be walking to school and would go in there and stand by the coal stove to warm up, then continue on our way.
The Santa Fe depot was down there, too. It was a busy place, with people lounging and eating and reading papers, and a lot of old guys smoking cigars. Railway was the way to travel in the 1940s and 1950s, and Santa Fe was booming.
We would go through the northeast door, walk through the station and come out the main door on the southwest side, by the Sunbeam Bakery at the corner of S.E. 5th and Adams. You could smell the bread baking. Then we’d go up 5th street to Lincoln School. There was a small grocery across the street from the school, Morgan’s Grocery, and it was a good place to get candy. That was all before urban renewal, before they cleared it all out and put the interstate through there.
When we started at Lincoln, we discovered the other black kids and the Mexican-American kids and Asian-Americans also were attending it.
There was Tommy Mah and his sister, and such families as the Tinoco, Ortiz, Martinez, Williams, Beaver and Wells families, to name a few.
It turned out that some of the families, friends and relatives we played with in our neighborhood were now going to the same school. It was a learning and enlightening experience for us, but at the time we did not know the social and political ramifications.
I went on to East Topeka Junior High and Topeka High, but I don’t remember any classes that taught about desegregation. History was in the making and we were part of it, but it wasn’t discussed.
From a child's perspective, integration meant the adventure of walking to school
By Robert West
Special to The Capital-Journal
Posted: May 15, 2014 - 4:41pm
Editor’s note: As a child, Topeka native Robert West played with the children on his street, but attended a school separate from many of them. His reflections on integration are intertwined with his memories of suddenly attending school together, and of the morning walk to the neighborhood school he hadn’t known existed.
In 1951 I lived in East Topeka on S.E. Klein, a diverse street. There were a lot of kids of various races, and we spent time with all of them. There was a church a block away, a Mexican Baptist church, and we would go to summer school there. Some of the Mexican children were Baptist and some were Catholic. At the time, the difference didn’t really strike me, but as I got older, I noticed they didn’t seem to associate with each other.
We lived within walking distance of the Fiesta. That was something we looked forward to. It always happened in the middle of the summer.
I grew up trying a lot of Mexican food. At the time, no one had air conditioning, and in the summer everyone’s doors were wide open. You could hear the families’ conversations and smell what they were cooking. The kids shared their food with each other.
I associated with all the children, but we didn’t go to school with all these people. We went to Washington School, an all-black school, where I started kindergarten. It was a mile away from my home.
I walked to the bus stop at S.E. 3rd and Branner, and there I caught the bus to and from Washington, in the 1100 block of Washington St. The bus was always crowded, but we never really thought about why we were on it, headed to school over there.
Two years later my sister, Sandra West (now Lassiter), also started school, and we both would take that same bus (Note: Sandra Lassiter is the Tennessee Town NIA Secretary-Treasurer. Her husband, Rev. Ronald Lassiter, is the pastor at Faith Temple Church of God in Christ, at 1162 SW Lincoln in Tennessee Town, where she is involved, too). We were not aware of Lincoln Grade School, an all-white public school that was within walking distance of our home.
In the summer of 1955 the principal of Lincoln School came to the neighborhood and spoke to the parents about sending their children to his school. He came with some ladies that I assumed were teachers. I remember my mother talking to them in the front room. I probably just walked to the back of the house or outside. I didn’t really get the gist of what was going on. My mother told me they were talking about us going to Lincoln, but I wasn’t familiar with it. I was 8 or 9, and the fact that this was about integration didn’t strike me at the time.
When school began that year, my sister and I, along with several other neighborhood children, walked to Lincoln, which was a four- to five-block walk, for the first time, where we began our journey of attending school with white boys and girls.
Me, my sister and the neighborhood kids would walk together down Hancock, through the Whelan’s lumberyard parking lot, and down across the tracks. Back then, they didn’t have mechanical barriers to stop the traffic. There was a little shed beside the tracks with an elderly man in there, and he would stop cars with a hand-held stop sign. He would hold a lantern, too, if it was night.
In the winter, when it was real cold, he had a coal-fired stove in his shed. We would be walking to school and would go in there and stand by the coal stove to warm up, then continue on our way.
The Santa Fe depot was down there, too. It was a busy place, with people lounging and eating and reading papers, and a lot of old guys smoking cigars. Railway was the way to travel in the 1940s and 1950s, and Santa Fe was booming.
We would go through the northeast door, walk through the station and come out the main door on the southwest side, by the Sunbeam Bakery at the corner of S.E. 5th and Adams. You could smell the bread baking. Then we’d go up 5th street to Lincoln School. There was a small grocery across the street from the school, Morgan’s Grocery, and it was a good place to get candy. That was all before urban renewal, before they cleared it all out and put the interstate through there.
When we started at Lincoln, we discovered the other black kids and the Mexican-American kids and Asian-Americans also were attending it.
There was Tommy Mah and his sister, and such families as the Tinoco, Ortiz, Martinez, Williams, Beaver and Wells families, to name a few.
It turned out that some of the families, friends and relatives we played with in our neighborhood were now going to the same school. It was a learning and enlightening experience for us, but at the time we did not know the social and political ramifications.
I went on to East Topeka Junior High and Topeka High, but I don’t remember any classes that taught about desegregation. History was in the making and we were part of it, but it wasn’t discussed.
Lassiter's cheery Cheerios remake catches attention of General Mills
Educator uses different varieties of the cereal to help children
By La Tia Penn
Special to The Capital-Journal
Posted: May 26, 2014 - 2:42pm
Big things are happening in Topeka. Last week, many Topekans had the opportunity to hear first lady Michelle Obama speak at the Kansas Expocentre for the 60th anniversary of the Brown v. Board decision.
This week, a longtime Topeka resident received some news that was no less stellar.
Sandra Lassiter, Topeka Unified School District 501 educator and first lady of Faith Temple Inc., is taking her love of children outside the boundaries of the school district.
Years ago, Lassiter said she heard a catchy song at a conference, and the tune stuck with her. After coming up with a different meaning of the tune, Lassiter made it her own with a few embellishments and copyrighted it.
And the song? The Cheerios song: “Cheerios, cheerios. Push them to the bottom of the bowl, and they’ll rise to the top,” sings an energetic Lassiter, motions and all.
Over time, Lassiter has become known as the “Cheerios Lady.”
“This song is my mantra. I would see children who needed hope with backgrounds that may be considered opposing,” said Lassiter. “So I would introduce this song every morning as encouragement that it is not about color, but it is about character.”
After taking a trip to the East Coast for a youth revival in January, Lassiter discovered there are 13 varieties of Cheerios and wanted to share her knowledge of the different varieties with grocery store chains in Topeka. This sparked a plan to use the varieties of different Cheerios as reference points for children to become appreciative of the different shades they are.
Varieties of Cheerios range from yogurt-flavored to peanut butter-flavored, from fruit-flavored to the newest flavor, dark chocolate crunch.
“They may be able to relate by color as opposed to kind, but all children can relate to a type of Cheerios cereal,” Lassiter said.
After debuting her Cheerios song on YouTube with the 13 varieties of Cheerios, as well as a diverse group of youths, Lassiter contacted General Mills.
“When Mrs. Lassiter reached out to us and showed us her great Cheerios song, we absolutely fell in love with it and the message it sent out,” said Rachel Evans, General Mills integrated marketing communications planner. “It was super positive and upbeat.”
Also underway for Lassiter is a school. While the school hasn’t yet been built, instructors and curricula is further along. Unlike the normal school system of grading, The Sandra West Lassiter International Academy will use the growth development model by using student progress versus traditional grading systems.
“If these kids are challenged with a nongraded school system, they will be able to develop at their own rate if we provide the curriculum for them,” Lassiter said.
(Note: Sandra Lassiter is the Tennessee Town NIA Secretary-Treasurer.)
Educator uses different varieties of the cereal to help children
By La Tia Penn
Special to The Capital-Journal
Posted: May 26, 2014 - 2:42pm
Big things are happening in Topeka. Last week, many Topekans had the opportunity to hear first lady Michelle Obama speak at the Kansas Expocentre for the 60th anniversary of the Brown v. Board decision.
This week, a longtime Topeka resident received some news that was no less stellar.
Sandra Lassiter, Topeka Unified School District 501 educator and first lady of Faith Temple Inc., is taking her love of children outside the boundaries of the school district.
Years ago, Lassiter said she heard a catchy song at a conference, and the tune stuck with her. After coming up with a different meaning of the tune, Lassiter made it her own with a few embellishments and copyrighted it.
And the song? The Cheerios song: “Cheerios, cheerios. Push them to the bottom of the bowl, and they’ll rise to the top,” sings an energetic Lassiter, motions and all.
Over time, Lassiter has become known as the “Cheerios Lady.”
“This song is my mantra. I would see children who needed hope with backgrounds that may be considered opposing,” said Lassiter. “So I would introduce this song every morning as encouragement that it is not about color, but it is about character.”
After taking a trip to the East Coast for a youth revival in January, Lassiter discovered there are 13 varieties of Cheerios and wanted to share her knowledge of the different varieties with grocery store chains in Topeka. This sparked a plan to use the varieties of different Cheerios as reference points for children to become appreciative of the different shades they are.
Varieties of Cheerios range from yogurt-flavored to peanut butter-flavored, from fruit-flavored to the newest flavor, dark chocolate crunch.
“They may be able to relate by color as opposed to kind, but all children can relate to a type of Cheerios cereal,” Lassiter said.
After debuting her Cheerios song on YouTube with the 13 varieties of Cheerios, as well as a diverse group of youths, Lassiter contacted General Mills.
“When Mrs. Lassiter reached out to us and showed us her great Cheerios song, we absolutely fell in love with it and the message it sent out,” said Rachel Evans, General Mills integrated marketing communications planner. “It was super positive and upbeat.”
Also underway for Lassiter is a school. While the school hasn’t yet been built, instructors and curricula is further along. Unlike the normal school system of grading, The Sandra West Lassiter International Academy will use the growth development model by using student progress versus traditional grading systems.
“If these kids are challenged with a nongraded school system, they will be able to develop at their own rate if we provide the curriculum for them,” Lassiter said.
(Note: Sandra Lassiter is the Tennessee Town NIA Secretary-Treasurer.)
Community invited to paint mural Saturday
Latest endeavor taking place at Meadows Elementary School
By Phil Anderson
[email protected]
Posted: May 30, 2014 - 2:18pm
Artist Jamie Colon found the going a bit quieter on Friday morning than it was on Thursday, when dozens of adults and children gathered to bathe a large concrete wall in shades of purple and turquoise paint in the city’s Kenwood neighborhood.
For a good part of the day Friday, Colon worked alone, sprucing up the west wall of the Meadows Elementary School playground in the 200 block of S.W. Quinton.
“I’m just here touching things up today,” Colon said as he applied a swath of purple paint to a section of wall that needed another coat. “Just fixing the mistakes.”
About 10 volunteers from the Mars chocolate plant were to come by the Meadows site around 2 p.m. Friday to help paint the 286-foot section of concrete, the tallest part of which is about 9 feet high.
But Colon said the biggest crowd awaits, with the next community paint day scheduled from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.
A goal of the mural project is to involve volunteer painters from across Topeka.
Colon said he is seeing people from various neighborhoods showing up at all of the mural sites, something he said brings the community together and encourages individuals to visit neighborhoods where they may not otherwise have gone.
Local businesses also have been supportive by allowing workers to volunteer.
Among those planning to paint in the Meadows mural project is Emmaline Bohlander, 17, a senior-to-be at Seaman High School.
“I think it’s a great idea,” Bohlander said of the mural project. “I think it’d be cool to drive by later and say, yeah, you were a part of that.”
The Meadows Elementary School wall is the third and latest in the Topeka Mural Wall Project sponsored by ARTSConnect, the Topeka Police Department, Safe Streets and several other local organizations.
Funding and painting supplies have come through donations from local businesses and individuals.
In addition to beautifying otherwise nondescript walls, the mural project is seen as a way of curbing crimes such as graffiti and vandalism.
The first wall painted as part of the Topeka Mural Project series was in June 2013 at a business at N.E. Seward and Lake in the city’s Oakland neighborhood.
The second mural was started in April at the Avondale East NetReach Center at 455 S.E. Golf Park Blvd. Work on that mural continued Friday, and the project is nearing completion.
Design work is taking place at present on the fourth mural project, to be painted near S.W. Huntoon and Lane later this summer and showcasing the city’s historic Tennessee Town neighborhood.
An earlier effort — known as the Great Mural Wall of Topeka, which started in 2006 — also is continuing to progress, with work taking place on new panels at this time near S.W. 20th and Fillmore.
Scenes from the various murals depict Topeka’s history and cultural diversity.
For more information and photos of the various efforts to date, visitwww.facebook.com/topekamuralproject.
Latest endeavor taking place at Meadows Elementary School
By Phil Anderson
[email protected]
Posted: May 30, 2014 - 2:18pm
Artist Jamie Colon found the going a bit quieter on Friday morning than it was on Thursday, when dozens of adults and children gathered to bathe a large concrete wall in shades of purple and turquoise paint in the city’s Kenwood neighborhood.
For a good part of the day Friday, Colon worked alone, sprucing up the west wall of the Meadows Elementary School playground in the 200 block of S.W. Quinton.
“I’m just here touching things up today,” Colon said as he applied a swath of purple paint to a section of wall that needed another coat. “Just fixing the mistakes.”
About 10 volunteers from the Mars chocolate plant were to come by the Meadows site around 2 p.m. Friday to help paint the 286-foot section of concrete, the tallest part of which is about 9 feet high.
But Colon said the biggest crowd awaits, with the next community paint day scheduled from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.
A goal of the mural project is to involve volunteer painters from across Topeka.
Colon said he is seeing people from various neighborhoods showing up at all of the mural sites, something he said brings the community together and encourages individuals to visit neighborhoods where they may not otherwise have gone.
Local businesses also have been supportive by allowing workers to volunteer.
Among those planning to paint in the Meadows mural project is Emmaline Bohlander, 17, a senior-to-be at Seaman High School.
“I think it’s a great idea,” Bohlander said of the mural project. “I think it’d be cool to drive by later and say, yeah, you were a part of that.”
The Meadows Elementary School wall is the third and latest in the Topeka Mural Wall Project sponsored by ARTSConnect, the Topeka Police Department, Safe Streets and several other local organizations.
Funding and painting supplies have come through donations from local businesses and individuals.
In addition to beautifying otherwise nondescript walls, the mural project is seen as a way of curbing crimes such as graffiti and vandalism.
The first wall painted as part of the Topeka Mural Project series was in June 2013 at a business at N.E. Seward and Lake in the city’s Oakland neighborhood.
The second mural was started in April at the Avondale East NetReach Center at 455 S.E. Golf Park Blvd. Work on that mural continued Friday, and the project is nearing completion.
Design work is taking place at present on the fourth mural project, to be painted near S.W. Huntoon and Lane later this summer and showcasing the city’s historic Tennessee Town neighborhood.
An earlier effort — known as the Great Mural Wall of Topeka, which started in 2006 — also is continuing to progress, with work taking place on new panels at this time near S.W. 20th and Fillmore.
Scenes from the various murals depict Topeka’s history and cultural diversity.
For more information and photos of the various efforts to date, visitwww.facebook.com/topekamuralproject.
Have a question or comment? Contact the Tennessee Town NIA at [email protected].
Tennessee Town on the Internet! Nextdoor: https://tennesseetown.nextdoor.com/news_feed/; Twitter: https://twitter.com/tenntown
Media page last updated on April 1, 2017