(16 May 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Topeka, Kansas – 28 March 2024
1. Superintendent speaking to class
2. Exterior of Monroe High School
3. Close up of students in class
4. Students sitting on classroom floor
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Malaya Webster, Williams Science & Fine Arts Magnet student:
“When it was like back in the days when the schools were segregated white people and black people couldn’t be next to each other. But like time now, black people and white people could be in the same type of school and next to each other.”
6. Superintendent speaking to class
7. SOUNDBITE (English) MaKenzie Johnstone, Williams Science & Fine Arts Magnet student:
++PARTIALLY COVERED++
“We usually do talk about it. Just with the like after having like a lesson or two about it, we usually talk about it at recess, and then we kind of push it off and then like, we get back to it, want to start more class time because we’re like, oh, well, we can have more time for recess to like, hang out with each other. But yes, we do have different conversations about the Brown v. Board and lessons that we had just had.”
8. Superintendent speaking to class
9. Exterior of Williams Science & Fine Arts Magnet School
10. Superintendent greets students in hallway
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Tiffany Anderson, Topeka Public Schools superintendent:
“Just being here in this magnet school environment, you get to see an array of diversity. But if you drive 20 minutes down the road, which is where she (Linda Brown) was, you might not see any diversity in the student population or the staff population.”
12. Close up of students in class
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Jamari Lyons, Williams Science & Fine Arts Magnet student:
“Like it’s okay to be black and it’s okay to be white and you can still be friends and neighbors.”
14. Teacher speaking to students
STORYLINE:
On May 17th, 1954, the United States Supreme Court overturned the doctrine of separate but equal in the landmark decision of Brown versus Board of Education of Topeka. On the 70th anniversary of a historic Supreme Court decision, experts, teachers and even the youngest of students are contemplating what it all means.
SOUNDBITE (English) Malaya Webster, Williams Science & Fine Arts Magnet student
“When it was like back in the days when the schools were sitting red and white people and black people couldn’t be next to each other. But like time now, black people and white people could be in the same time as going next to each other.”
SOUNDBITE (English) MaKenzie Johnstone, Williams Science & Fine Arts Magnet student
“We usually do talk about it. Just with the like after having like a lesson or two about it, we usually talk about it at recess, and then we kind of push it off and then like, we get back to it, want to start more class time because we’re like, oh, well, we can have more time for recess to like, hang out with each other. But yes, we do have different conversations about the Brown, Brown, Brown v. Board and lessons that we had just had.”
Most of the court ordered desegregation plans have now ended. That includes the one in Topeka. Although the district has tried to maintain magnet schools like Williams Science and Fine Arts that was built to attract white students to historically black neighborhoods.
SOUNDBITE (English) Tiffany Anderson, Topeka Public Schools superintendent
“Just being here in this magnet school environment, you get to see, array of diversity. But if you drive 20 minutes down the road, which is where she was, you might not see any diversity in the student population or the staff population.”
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