Plaintiffs Fought Discrimination ; Some Students Felt Comfortable in Segregated Schools but Lost Out On Education

Summary

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Darlene Jackson, 72, can sing the Buchanan School song she learned in the late 1930s without forgetting a word.

She can recite the names of her teachers: Dorothy Crawford, Althea McBrier, Edna Vance, Mildred North, Mamie Williams and Minerva Washington. She even remembers J.B. Holland, the principal.

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Extract

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Plaintiffs Fought Discrimination ; Some Students Felt Comfortable in Segregated Schools but Lost Out On Education

She can recall prized Big Chief tablets and pencils, and soaring high on the playground swings. She can remember the 1 1/2-block walk from her home in Tennessee Town to Buchanan School, where she attended grades 1 through 6.

What she doesn't remember is feeling that she was missing out on a higher-quality education because she went to a segregated school.

She loved Buchanan, one of four black elementary schools in Topeka at that time. The others were Washington, Monroe and McKinley.

"I was growing up in an all-black community so I didn't miss it," she said. "The othe...

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