Topeka 160

2 | Sunday, January 29, 2017 | The Topeka Capital-Journal

160 years ago, a Kansas city coalesced

By Tim Hrenchir

tim.hrenchir@cjonline.com

Editor’s note: Feb. 14 will mark the 160th anniversary of the day in 1857 when the Kansas territorial legislature incorporated Topeka. The city had been founded 26 months earlier.

Capital-Journal reporter Tim Hrenchir compiled this narrative account of its founding using information from books written by Topeka co-founder F.W. Giles and historian Roy Bird.

The nine men who founded Topeka in December 1854 knew little about each other, except they all supported banning slavery in Kansas and intended to establish a freestate city on the prairie.

The men were so unfamiliar with each other that one simply called for the chairman to be “the man in the white hat” at the meeting in which they approved a document establishing the city.

The man in the white hat was Cyrus K. Holliday, who would become president of the Topeka Town Association and would serve three terms as mayor.

The founding of Topeka came in response to the passage by Congress in May 1854 of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which let people in the Kansas and Nebraska territories vote to decide for themselves whether to allow slavery.

Pro-slavery advocates reacted by making moves that included establishing the community of Tecumseh in what is now eastern Shawnee County.

With hopes of establishing another free-state settlement to counteract Tecumseh, several men from the free-state community of Lawrence traveled west in late November 1854. They visited Tecumseh, then continued west.

About 25 miles from Lawrence, they found the site they wanted, not far from an Oregon Trail crossing where brothers Joseph, Etienne and Louis Pappan operated a ferry across the Kansas River.

The location seemed both well-watered and welldrained, with high country nearby and good timber lands not too far away. It also seemed to be a good place for steamboats to land, though steamboat use of the Kansas River was soon afterward deemed impractical.

The group reported its findings back to Lawrence.

Nine men responded in early December by traveling to the chosen site, where they built or refurbished an abandoned log cabin.

Though the city hadn’t yet been named, the nine men formed what would later become the Topeka Town Association during a meeting inside that cabin on Dec. 5, 1854.

They were Holliday, F.W. Giles, Daniel H. Horne, George Davis, Enoch Chase, J.B. Chase, L.G. Cleveland, M.C. Dickey and Charles L. Robinson.

Dickey and Robinson were involved with the Bostonbased New England Emigrant Aid Company, which was created to transport immigrants to the Kansas Territory so it would enter the United States as a free state instead of a slave state. Robinson, who would later become the first governor of the state of Kansas, was a loyal Lawrence resident who continued living there afterward.

After Dickey made a motion at the Dec. 5 meeting for the “man with the white hat” to serve as chairman, those present voted to approve.

Holliday used a sack of flour to serve as the speaker’s chair and bring himself to the proper elevation for a pre-

KANSASMEMORY.ORG

Near an Oregon Trail crossing, brothers Joseph, Etienne and Louis Pappan operated a ferry across the Kansas River.

F.W. Giles

Cyrus K. Holliday

siding officer. Giles was then named secretary.

The group drew up and adopted an agreement establishing the city and forming the town association.

The city’s founders continued after the Dec. 5 meeting to stay in the cabin, where late one night the flames roaring up its chimney, which wasn’t mortar, ignited the thatch of its roof.

Everyone managed to escape while removing various supplies, which included a keg of powder, but the cabin

Charles L. Robinson was destroyed.

The men then put up a tent they had with them, and stayed there until they finished building a new cabin.

The tent proved particularly confining. As Horne later said, “When one wanted to turn over, someone had to go out of the tent, and wait until the revolution was complete.”

Contact Tim Hrenchir at (785) 295-1184 or @timhrenchir on Twitter.

The Topeka Capital-Journal | Sunday, January 29, 2017 | 3

Five features that came to define Topeka

peka’s 1966 tornado, but the university’s facilities were rebuilt under the leadership of President John Henderson.

Washburn’s current president, Jerry Farley, has held that position since 1997. Washburn’s enrollment was 6,636 for the fall semester in 2016.

By Tim Hrenchir

tim.hrenchir@cjonline.com

Topeka was involved with both an 1856 confrontation that threatened to start the Civil War and the 1954 Supreme Court decision that banned school segregation.

The city’s free-state roots and subsequent role in race relations are among five features that make Topeka what it is. Others include the Kansas River, Kansas Statehouse, Washburn University and Forbes Field.

Here’s more about those features:

KANSAS RIVER

The Kansas River played a key role in the birth of the city of Topeka. This area tended to be an early stop for the estimated 300,000 people who between 1840 and 1869 used the 2,170-mile Oregon Trail to travel between Independence, Mo., and the Pacific Ocean.

Those using the trail generally crossed the Kansas River somewhere in the Topeka area. Revenue from the travelers helped support the Topeka economy in the early years after the city was founded in 1854 and chartered in 1857.

The Kansas River has since continued to play a role in the life of Topekans, providing a ready source of water while flooding and devastating parts of the city in 1903 and 1951.

Efforts are currently underway to develop the riverfront in the downtown Topeka area and create an Oregon Trail Riverfront Park.

The National Park Service last summer provided four of its employees for activities targeted at developing the proposed tourist attraction.

RACE RELATIONS

Topekan Oliver Brown was the lead plaintiff and the Topeka Board of Education was lead defendant when the U.S. Supreme Court in 1954 issued its landmark ruling banning racial segregation in public schools in the case of Brown v. Board of Education.

The National Park Service maintains the Brown v.

Board of Education National Historic Site at Topeka’s former Monroe School, which Brown’s daughter attended as he sought to enroll her in a school where attendance was closed to African-American children.

KANSAS STATEHOUSE

FILE PHOTOGRAPH/THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

The Commemorative Air Force, which preserves and flies World War II-era planes, brought its B-17, Sentimental Journey, to Forbes Field.

But Topeka’s role in race relations dates back to nearly a century before the Brown case.

After the Kansas Territory was established in 1854, Missourians came in great numbers in 1855 and elected a territorial legislature that was pro-slavery. The federal government recognized that legislature. Later in 1855, settlers gathered at Topeka’s Constitution Hall and drew up a constitution calling for Kansas to be a free state.

Federal troops armed with rifles, bayonets and a cannon came to Constitution Hall in 1856 and forced the freestate legislature — after a confrontation — to disperse.

Kansas subsequently went into the Union as a free state, with Topeka as its capital. Efforts are underway to develop Constitution Hall as a tourist attraction.

WASHBURN UNIVERSITY

Washburn University was established as Lincoln College in 1865 on land donated by abolitionist John Ritchie.

It was renamed Washburn College after receiving a pledge of $25,000 in 1868 from Ichabod Washburn, a Massachusetts industrialist and abolitionist who died later that year. Washburn’s mascot, the Ichabod, honors Ichabod Washburn.

The Washburn School of Law was established in 1903.

Its alumni include former U.S. senator and presidential candidate Bob Dole.

Much of the Washburn campus was devastated by To-

The cornerstone was laid in 1866 for the Kansas Statehouse in downtown Topeka. The land on which it stands was donated through the efforts of Cyrus K. Holliday, a founder of both the city of Topeka and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway.

The Kansas Legislature began meeting in the Statehouse in 1870, after previously meeting in Topeka’s Constitution Hall.

Construction took 37 years, and was completed in 1903.

The Statehouse sustained damage to its dome in the 1966 Topeka tornado.

It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.

“Ad Astra,” a statue of a Kaw warrior, was placed atop the building’s dome in 2002. The building stands 306 feet tall from the ground to the top of the warrior’s bow.

FORBES FIELD

The Army in 1942 opened Topeka Army Air Field south of the city. The base was deactivated after World War II, then reopened in 1948 by the newly formed Air Force.

The base was renamed Forbes Air Force Base in 1949 in honor of Carbondale native Maj. Daniel Forbes Jr., who was killed in 1948 in a test piloting accident.

Topeka Capital-Journal archives show as many as 17,000 personnel were stationed at Forbes. Many chose to stay in Topeka after leaving the service.

Forbes closed in 1973. Topeka and Shawnee County officials assumed responsibility for running it and established the Metropolitan Topeka Airport Authority to manage the community’s two airports, with the other being Philip Billard Municipal Airport.

The MTAA in 2012 changed Forbes Field’s name to Topeka Regional Airport & Business Center. The airport still serves as the home of the 190th Air Refueling Wing of the Kansas National Guard.

Contact Tim Hrenchir at (785) 295-1184 or @timhrenchir on Twitter.

4 | Sunday, January 29, 2017 | The Topeka Capital-Journal

Loring Farnsworth, 1858-59

Lorenzo Dow, 3/1859-4/1859

Cyrus K. Hiram W. Holliday, 1859-60, Farnsworth, 1867-68 & 1869-70 1860-61

M.H. Case, 1877-81

Joseph C. Wilson, 1881-83

Bradford Miller, 1883-85

J.B. Billard, 1910-13

Jay E. House, 1915-19

Harris F. Otis, 1861-62

N.W. Cox, 1862-63

J.F. Cummings, 1863-64

Samuel H. Fletcher, 1864-65

Maj. W. W. Ross, 1865-66

Ross Burns, 1866-67

Orin T. Welch, 1868-69 & 1871-73

Rev. J.B. McAfee, 1870-71

Maj. Henry Bartling, 1873-75

Maj. Thomas J. Anderson, 1875-77

R.L. Cofran, Judge 1885-87, 1889-93, D.C. Metsker, & 1913-15 1887-89

Dr. D.C. Jones, 1893-11/1893

Col. T.W. Harrison, 1893-95

Chas A. Fellows, 1895-99

Chas.

J. Drew, 1899-1901

Gen. J.W.F. Hughes, 1901-02

Albert Parker, 1902-03

W.S. Bergundthal, 1903-05

W.H. Davis, 1905-07

W.M. Green, 1907-10

Herbert J. Corwine, 1919-23

Earl Akers, 1923-25

James E. Thomas, 1925-27

W.O. Rigby, 1927-31

Omar B. Ketchum, 1931-35

Herbert G. Barrett, 1935-39

John F. Scott, 1939-41

Frank J. Warren, 1941-51

W. Kenneth Wilke, 1951-53

George C. Schnellbacher, 1953-59

E.J. Camp, 1959-63

Hal W. Gerlach, 1963-65

Charles W. Wright, Jr. 1965-69

Gene C. Martin, 1969-71

William B. McCormick, 1971-83

Douglas S. Wright, 1983-89

Harry Felker, 1989-97 & 2001-01/2003

Joan Wagnon, 1997-2001

Duane James A. William W. Larry E. Pomeroy, McClinton, Bunten, Wolgast, 10/2003-1/2004 1/2004-4/2005 4/2005-4/2013 4/2013-present

Mayor’s duties have evolved through the years

By Tim Hrenchir

tim.hrenchir@cjonline.com

Harris F. Otis became the only Topeka mayor to die violently in office.

Otis, 44, was inspecting a business building in 1861 when he accidentally lost his footing and fell while stepping from a flight of stairs, according to newspaper reports. He died from his injuries.

Otis was the fifth of 52 people — 51 men and one woman — to serve as mayor of Topeka. The powers and duties of those mayors have differed, depending on when they held office.

Topeka was founded on Dec. 5, 1854, and incorporated on Feb. 14, 1857.

Topekans in 1858 elected their first mayor, a New Englander named Loring Farnsworth. His one-year term included the construction of a wooden bridge over the Kansas River, which was washed away by heavy rains a year later.

Topeka’s second mayor, Lorenzo Dow, was elected in 1859 but resigned later that year to be replaced by Cyrus K. Holliday, who was among the city’s founders.

Holliday traveled that year to the state’s Wyandotte Convention and successfully lobbied to have Topeka chosen as the capital of Kansas when it became a state in 1861. Holliday would serve three different times as Topeka’s mayor.

One other Topekan served three terms as mayor: Rosswell L. Coffran, who held the office from 1885 to 1887, 1889 to 1893 and 1913 to 1915.

A newspaper account said Albert Parker, Topeka’s mayor from 1902 to 1903, chose not to seek re-election after Blanche Boise — a member of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and friend of saloon smasher Carry Nation — came

to City Hall, accused him of being responsible for alcohol being sold openly in Topeka and used a horse whip to strike him across the head and shoulders. Parker took the whip but chose not to file a complaint.

Topekans voted in 1909 to replace the city’s mayor-council form of government with a city commission government form in which citizens elected a finance commissioner, park commissioner, street commissioner and water commissioner to run those departments, while the mayor oversaw the city’s other departments. The new government form took effect in 1910.

After being elected in 1913 to what would be his final term as mayor, Coffran created controversy when he appointed two women to the police department. His opponent, Jay E. House, won the 1915 mayoral election after saying, “The woman policeman is the biggest joke in the world.”

Both female officers resigned after House took office.

The Kansas Attorney General’s office in 1922 filed ouster proceedings against Mayor Herbert Corwine, charging him with failure to enforce anti-liquor and cigarette laws. The Daily Capital indicated Corwine was cleared through a District Court decision that the city had a corrupt police court system but the mayor was unaware of it.

Topeka’s longest-tenured mayor was Frank J. Warren, who held three terms from 1941 to 1951. Warren was able to remain in office 10 years because of the passage of state legislation — later repealed — that allowed city officials to hold four-year terms in office between 1943 and 1951.

Mayor Chuck Wright gained acclaim for guiding Topeka’s city government after a monster tornado ripped through the city in 1966.

Wright also spearheaded the city commission’s pas-

sage the following year of a fair housing ordinance, which banned property owners and managers from refusing to rent or sell to someone on the basis of race.

Wright’s son, Doug Wright, was mayor from 1983 to 1989.

Topekans voted in 1984 to adopt a strong mayor-council form of government, which effectively put the mayor in charge of the city. That government form took effect the following year.

Topeka’s only female mayor, Joan Wagnon, was elected in 1997.

She lost her bid for re-election in 2001 to Harry “Butch” Felker, who had also been mayor from 1989 to 1997.

Felker then resigned in November 2003 while facing an ouster action alleging he violated campaign finance laws.

Council members in December 2003 elected James McClinton, who became the city’s first African-American mayor.

Topekans — who had previously defeated bids in 1929, 1952, 1962, 1964 and 1969 to adopt a form of government featuring a city manager — voted in 2004 to adopt a councilmanager government form.

The mayor’s responsibilities in that form of government are limited largely to overseeing city council meetings, voting at those meetings and carrying out ceremonial duties.

McClinton responded by choosing not to seek re-election, saying “A mayor under this form of government would basically cut ribbons and shake hands.”

Bill Bunten was elected mayor when the new form of government took effect in April 2005, and remained in office for eight years. Larry Wolgast was then elected to that office in 2013, and has held it since.

Contact Tim Hrenchir at (785) 295-1184 or @timhrenchir on Twitter.

These six did Topeka proud

By Tim Hrenchir

tim.hrenchir@cjonline.com

Topeka was founded by pioneers, so it’s no surprise the capital city produced these six trailblazers whose groundbreaking accomplishments did their hometown proud: Charles Curtis became the first — and to date, only — vice president of the United States to have significant Native American ancestry.

Curtis was born in 1860 at Topeka, then lived in Kansas Territory. His ancestors included members of the Kaw, Osage and Potawatomi tribes.

Curtis served Charles Curtis in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1893 to 1907 and the Senate from 1907 to 1929. He was Senate majority leader from 1925 to 1929. Curtis was vice president under President Herbert Hoover from 1929 to 1933. He died in 1936.

Harry Colmery was primary author of the GI Bill. Colmery was born in 1890 in Pennsylvania, and moved to Topeka to practice law after serving in World War I. He wrote the first draft of the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, known as the GI Bill, which Congress approved that year to Harry Colmery make such things as college, mortgages and health care — once available only to the wealthy — available to veterans. After the war, nearly 8 million Americans benefited from the GI Bill. Colmery died in 1979.

Georgia Neese Clark Gray, the first female treasurer of the United States, was born in 1898 at Richland, southeast of Topeka. She attended high school in Topeka and graduated from Washburn University.

She spent about a decade working as an actress before reGeorgia Neese Clark Gray turning to Richland, where she became president of her father’s Richland State Bank when he died in 1937. Gray became active in the Kansas Democratic Party.

She served as treasurer for President Harry S. Truman, a Democrat, from 1949 to 1953. Gray died in 1995.

Frank E. Petersen Jr. was the first African-American pilot and first AfricanAmerican general in the U.S. Marine Corps. Born in 1932, Petersen graduated from high school and attended Washbun before joining the Navy, which he left in 1952 to become the first black pilot in the Frank E. Petersen Jr. Marines. He flew more than 350 combat missions during the Korean and Vietnam wars, and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Petersen became the first black brigadier general in the Marines in 1979. He retired as a lieutenant general in 1986, and died in 2015.

Oliver Brown, a black resident, was lead plaintiff in the landmark Brown v.

Board of Education case the U.S. Supreme Court decided in 1954 banning racial segregation in public schools.

Brown, who was born in 1918, worked as a welder for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe RailOliver Brown way and was assistant pastor of St. Mark’s AME Church.

Brown agreed to be plaintiff in a lawsuit he and 12 other Topeka parents filed while acting on behalf of the 20 children they were attempting to enroll in schools where attendance was not open to African-American children. Brown died in 1961.

Ronald Evans, an astronaut, was command module pilot for the Apollo 17 voyage that made the last manned flight to the moon in 1972. Evans was born in 1933 in northwest Kansas.

He moved as a child with his family to Topeka, where he graduated from high school. Evans Ronald Evans graduated from the University of Kansas, then served as a fighter pilot with the Navy, and completed a tour of duty in Vietnam. He was with NASA from 1966 to 1977, and set a record that still stands by spending 148 hours in lunar orbit during Apollo 17. Evans died in 1990.

Contact Tim Hrenchir at (785) 295-1184 or @timhrenchir on Twitter.

The Topeka Capital-Journal | Sunday, January 29, 2017 | 5

6 | Sunday, January 29, 2017 | The Topeka Capital-Journal

In the spotlight: Topeka makes national headlines tim.hrenchir@cjonline.com

most popular Pokemon creature, Pikachu (pronounced “PEEK-uh-chew”).

The eyes of the nation have been upon Topeka many times. Here are 10 occasions in which the capital city made the national news:

Aug. 5, 1993 Federal building attack

By Tim Hrenchir

President George Bush waves as Cheryl Brown Henderson tries to quiet the crowd before his speech during the dedication of the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site, in May 2004.

Gary McKnight, heavily armed with guns and pipe bombs, attacked Topeka’s Frank Carlson Federal Building, killing a court security officer and wounding five other people before committing suicide. McKnight, a 37-year-old Meriden man who had quit his job in the Santa Fe Railway’s accounting department and was about to be sentenced on federal drug charges, drove to the building, detonated a car bomb outside and went to the fourth floor where he fired a pistol and lobbed bombs as he walked through a hallway to a court clerk’s office. One bomb struck something in the office, bounced toward McKnight and exploded, mangling him. He then shot himself to death.

May 17, 2004 Brown historic site dedication

July 18, 1990 Death of Dr. Karl

FILE PHOTOGRAPH/THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

THAD ALLTON/THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

From left: Brandon Sheley, Brendan Jensen, Jared Starkey and Alissa Sheley were founding members of Think Big Topeka, which led the effort to bring the Google Fiber Optic Project to Topeka.

April 1, 2010 Google renames itself ‘Topeka’

As an April Fool’s prank, the popular online search engine “Google” jokingly changed its name to “Topeka” for a day.

Google responded after then-Mayor Bill Bunten signed a proclamation unofficially changing Topeka’s name to “Google” for the month of March 2010. Bunten made the move as the city of Topeka was among more than 1,100 municipalities that sought to convince Google they were the best place to launch its planned effort to build and test new high-speed broadband networks in one or more locations. The name change stunt didn’t work. Google chose Kansas City, Kan., the following year as the first city to receive Google Fiber.

On the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, President George W. Bush spoke at a ceremony to dedicate the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site in the former Monroe School building at 1515 S.E. Monroe. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer was also among speakers for the ceremony, where those on hand included the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, who was running against Bush, appeared at a separate event in Topeka the same day.

Aug. 27, 1998 Pokemon invades Topeka

Video game giant Nintendo picked Topeka to be the site of the U.S. launch of its Pokemon video game series, which had been wildly popular in Japan. Pokemon is short for “pocket monster.” The event included an airdrop in a field of 750 plush Pikachu toys, complete with parachutes. Children then rushed out and picked them up. The festivities included then-Mayor Joan Wagnon’s reading of a proclamation changing Topeka’s name for one day to “Topikachu.” The move recognized the game’s

Dr. Karl Menninger, often known as the “dean of American psychiatry,” died four days short of his 97th birthday in Topeka. He had abdominal cancer. Menninger had teamed up with his father, Dr. Charles F. Menninger, and brother, Dr. William Menninger, to found Menninger, the internationally known psychiatric center that had been based in Topeka since 1925. The clinic moved in 2003 from Topeka to its current location in Houston.

Sept. 6, 1987 Reagan visits Landon

Former Kansas Gov. Alf Landon, who’d been the unsuccessful Republican candidate for president in 1936, got a visit at his Topeka home three days before his 100th birthday from 76-year-old President Ronald Reagan, a fellow Republican. The two men sat and talked quietly on Landon’s front porch. They also took part in a ceremony in which Reagan’s wife, Nancy Reagan, presented Landon with a birthday cake bearing one candle, which he quickly blew it out. Reagan said he’d told Landon years earlier that he’d like to meet him on Landon’s 100th birthday, and Landon had replied: “You seem to be in pretty good shape. I think maybe you can make it.”

The Topeka Capital-Journal | Sunday, January 29, 2017 | 7

in the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education.

Thirteen Topeka parents had filed the case on behalf of 20 children they were attempting to enroll in schools where attendance was not open to African-American children. The 1954 ruling overturned the Supreme Court’s 1896 ruling in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson that established the doctrine of “separate but equal” treatment of African-Americans in the United States.

July 12, 1951 The flood

The Kansas River broke through the battered dike protecting North Topeka, causing water to rush into its business district. The river burst over the dikes on its south side later that day, pouring water into the Oakland neighborhood and East Topeka. The capital city was among 186 cities and towns in Kansas and Missouri damaged by the 1951 flood, which cost 40 Kansans their lives. The flood did $34 million damage in Topeka in 1951 dollars, striking 6,950 homes and 530 businesses. At least 17,000 Topekans were evacuated from their homes. About 4,000 refugees were given food and shelter downtown at Topeka’s Municipal Auditorium, the disaster relief headquarters.

FILE PHOTOGRAPH/THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

On June 8, 1966, a monster tornado tore through Topeka, killing 16 people, injuring an estimated 450 people and doing more than $100 million damage in 1966 dollars.

June 8, 1966 Topeka tornado

Contact Tim Hrenchir at (785) 295-1184 or @timhrenchir on Twitter.

A monster tornado tore diagonally through Topeka, killing 16 people, injuring an estimated 450 people and doing more than $100 million damage in 1966 dollars. The twister struck just after 7 p.m. as WIBW-TV Channel 13 newscaster Bill Kurtis warned local viewers, “For God’s sake, take cover.” It swept over Burnett’s Mound, moving from southwest to northeast. The tornado grew to a halfmile wide at times, staying on the ground for 27 minutes and traveling northeast for 22 miles. It cut directly across the Washburn University campus, destroying nine buildings and 600 trees. No one on campus was killed.

July 2, 1965 Melan Bridge collapse

Part of Topeka’s 67-year-old Melan Bridge collapsed as two of its spans, totaling about 300 feet, quickly crumbled. The accident killed one person, 53-year-old Kenneth Allen, whose car plunged 60 feet into the river and landed on its roof atop some rubble, pinning him in the driver’s seat. Multiple witnesses said they saw a second car fall in, but no other victims or vehicles were found. Seven people, including three Topeka police officers, received hospital treatment for injuries suffered during the collapse or while dealing with it.

TOPEKA CAPITAL-JOURNAL 1965 FILE PHOTO BY RICH CLARKSON

During rescue efforts after the Melan Bridge collapse, firemen held safety lines for the officers and volunteers who attempted to free Kenneth Allen from his overturned car — and then when their efforts were in vain, to remove the car and body from the river.

FILE PHOTOGRAPH/THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

May 17, 1954 Brown v. Board

The U.S. Supreme Court handed down a unanimous decision banning racial segregation in public schools

On July 12, 1951, the Kansas River broke through the battered dike protecting North Topeka, causing water to rush into its business district. Water burst over the dikes on its south side later that day, pouring water into the Oakland neighborhood and East Topeka.

8 | Sunday, January 29, 2017 | The Topeka Capital-Journal