Voting Station

Linda Brown

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Student

The Resume

    (circa February 20, 1943-March 26, 2018)
    Born in Topeka, Kansas
    Married name was Linda Brown Thompson
    Resided in Topeka, Kansas
    Student at Monroe Elementary School in Topeka, Kansas
    Father became plaintiff on her behalf in Brown vs Board of Education case in an attempt to desegregate Topeka's public schools (June 1951)
    Case was appealed to Supreme Court (October 1951)

Why she might be annoying:

    Her 'poster child' status overshadowed nearly 200 plaintiffs in the Brown vs Board case, which combined five separate school segregation cases from four states.
    Misconceptions regarding the case involved the use of her surname and the belief that the case was the first legal challenge to school segregation.
    She and her siblings had to walk 21 blocks and through a railway switch yard to get to a bus stop for her black school, despite a white elementary school being only 7 blocks from her house.
    The black elementary schools in her area generally had overcrowded classrooms, with inadequate textbooks and low school supplies.
    The principal at the white school refused Linda's father's attempts to enroll her there.
    The Board of Education's defenses for segregated schools were that they prepared ethnic children for segregated lifestyles, and that Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and George Washington Carver became successful despite segregated schooling.
    The Kansas District Court ruled in favor of the Board of Education due to the Plessy vs Ferguson ruling, which allowed 'separate but equal' segregation in public areas.
    It took the U.S. Supreme Court over 18 months to decide that segregated schools were unconstitutional (May 17, 1954).
    Linda had already graduated elementary school by the time the Supreme Court made it's decision.

Why she might not be annoying:

    She lived in an ethnically mixed neighborhood, and Linda desired her playmates to also be her classmates.
    Despite elementary school segregation, Topeka's middle and high schools were ethnically integrated at the time.
    Topeka's NAACP chapter assisted Linda's family in legally challenging school segregation.
    Despite ruling in favor of segregated elementary schools, the District Court admitted that segregation had a negative effect on ethnic children.
    The Topeka case was strengthened by its combination with other cases that challenged school segregation (October 1951).
    The case led the Supreme Court to strike down the Plessy vs Ferguson segregation ruling, along with declaring mandatory school segregation unconstitutional.
    Her situation helped to begin the process of public school desegregation across the nation.
    She continued activism as an adult, and she stressed the significance of all civil rights achievements.
    Monroe Elementary School became a National Historic Site (October 26, 1992).

Credit: Pr31wnb


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 5 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 14 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 11 Votes: 18.18% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 5 Votes: 40.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 88 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 10 Votes: 40.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 70 Votes: 52.86% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 16 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 9 Votes: 55.56% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 27 Votes: 59.26% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 19 Votes: 68.42% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 43 Votes: 67.44% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 58 Votes: 53.45% Annoying
    In 2008, Out of 205 Votes: 75.61% Annoying