Associated Press - Famed desegregation school may be auctioned

Famed desegregation school may be auctioned

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – Topeka city staff are recommending that the former Sumner Elementary School be sold at auction. The school is the site that prompted the Brown vs. Board of Education 1954 decision in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregated schools were unconstitutional.

Despite past failures to find financing, two groups are still interested in redeveloping the former school. The city of Topeka owns the building and is trying to find a buyer.

Last year, the City Council told Pioneer Group Inc. it could convert the building into housing for seniors. But Pioneer couldn't obtain the state tax credits it needed.

Then, the city turned to Community First, which wanted to create a charter school and community hub. It missed two deadlines to line up the financing.

Ross Freeman, president of the Pioneer Group, told The Topeka Capital-Journal that his company probably would bid on the building if the conditions of the auction process aren't too onerous.

Sandra Lassiter, Community First's secretary, said she hopes the City Council rejects an auction and allows her group to buy the building.

``What is very key is that if you don't own the property, it's difficult to get loans and to get grants,'' she said.

Still, she said, if there is an auction, her group will bid.

``We're too far out there now to back down,'' Lassiter said. ``I believe we can get the backers.''

Built in 1935, Sumner was an all-white school. In 1950, local members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People decided to challenge segregated schools in federal court, and black parents tried to enroll their children in white schools.

The Rev. Oliver Brown sought to enroll his daughter, Linda, at Sumner and became a plaintiff in the resulting lawsuit. The case, consolidated with lawsuits from three other states, led to the 1954 decision in which the Supreme Court said segregated schools were unconstitutional.

Parents reopened the Brown case in 1979, and it eventually led to a court-ordered desegregation plan. Sumner closed in 1996 as part of that plan.

In May, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named Sumner as one of the 11 most endangered historic places in America.