'Brown v. Board' school could be razed

The Topeka City Council gave preliminary approval to begin destruction of the former all-white school that was at the center of the Brown v. Board of Education case.

Council and city staff members said Tuesday they would like to save the Sumner Elementary School building, but the cost to the city forced them to consider other options.

"We do not take this lightly," City Manager Norton Bonaparte said. "It is a historic structure. However, it continues to cost the city to maintain."

Two groups are seeking to save the structure, and officials gave them five months to prove their financial capabilities to acquire and renovate the building. Previous proposals from the applicants who want to use the building for housing and a charter school fell "very short" of showing financial capability for the project, Deputy City Manager Randy Speaker said.

A formal council vote would be needed for the two-story brick building to be torn down, Deputy Mayor Brett Blackburn said.

The art deco building became a symbol of civil rights history when Oliver Brown, a black minister, tried to enroll his daughter in Sumner School in 1950.

When the school turned them away, the Browns filed a lawsuit that would eventually lead to the Supreme Court's 1954 desegregation decision in the Brown v. Board of Education case.

The school was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987 and remained open until 1996, when the school district closed it.

In 2002, the city bought the school for $45,000 from the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library, which had used the building for storage.