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In this letter, Attorney General of Kansas Harold Fatzer responds to a letter by J. Lindsay Almond, Attorney General of Virginia. Almond had inquired about a school segregation suit against the Topeka Board of Education. Fatzer mentions a similar case in South Carolina, Briggs v. Elliott, and states that the plaintiffs in the Topeka case were arguing that segregation violated their rights under the 14th Amendment. Virginia would later join Kansas as one of the five states represented in the case Brown v. Board of Education. This case reached the U. S. Supreme Court, and in 1954 segregated school facilities were declared unconstitutional. Attached to this letter is Almond's initial inquiry.
Creator: Fatzer, Harold R
Date: July 13, 1951
This letter illustrates how the situation in Topeka was also occurring elsewhere; it also allows students to see how the other cases (in Washington D. C., Delaware, South Carolina, and Virginia) came to be associated with the Topeka case. It could be grouped with any of the sources relating to how the Kansas suit took the lead in the Supreme Court case.
KS:11th:3.1:Brown v. Board (2005)
Item Number: 211842
Call Number: Records of the Attorney General's Office, Brown v. Board Files, Box 1, Folder 1
KSHS Identifier: DaRT ID: 211842
Collections - State Archives - Attorney General
Curriculum - 11th Grade Standards - Kansas History Standards - 1945-1990 (Kansas_Benchmark 3) - Brown v. Board (Indicator 1) - Kansas' lead role in the Supreme Court case
Date - 1950s - 1951
Education - Primary
Education - Segregation and desegregation - Brown v. Board
Government and Politics - Federal Government - Courts
Government and Politics - Reform and Protest - Civil rights
Government and Politics - State Government - Courts - District Courts
Government and Politics - State Government - State agencies and programs - Agencies - Attorney General
Objects and Artifacts - Communication Artifacts - Documentary Artifact - Letter
People - African Americans - Discrimination - Segregation
Places - Cities and towns - Topeka
Places - Counties - Shawnee
Places - Other States - North Carolina
Places - Other States - South Carolina
Places - Other States - Virginia
Thematic Time Period - Eisenhower Years, 1946 - 1961 - Civil Rights Movement
Type of Material - Unpublished documents - Letters
http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/211842