Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park: Archaeological Investigations and Geophysical Survey

Summary

This is an abstract from the "New and Emerging Geophysical and Geospatial Research in the National Parks" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park commemorates the US Supreme Court’s 1954 decision to end legal racial segregation in public education and preserves significant resources like Monroe Elementary School in Topeka, Kansas. Before opening to the public on the ruling’s 50th anniversary, the Midwest Archeological Center completed several investigations of the former school and adjacent grounds. Among them were a geophysical survey in 1999, ground-truthing excavations in 2000, and eight archeological monitoring projects between 2001 and 2003. A new series of ground-penetrating radar and resistance surveys were undertaken in 2021, the results of which were tested as part of a field school last year. Among the findings are the foundation of the first Monroe Elementary School, which served African American students from 1874 to 1927; remnants of contemporaneous homes that stood where the extant school building would later be constructed; and outbuildings, likely a series of privies associated with the first school. Combined with the Center’s earlier investigations, this research sheds light on a working-class African American neighborhood from the turn of the twentieth century that developed in association with the Civil Rights movement of Topeka.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• New and Emerging Geophysical and Geospatial Research in the National Parks   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39101.0