Linda Brown Thompson
1942-2018
The key figure in what may well be the most significant and important case in the history of the United States Supreme Court, Linda Brown Thompson, died earlier this week at the age of 76.
Linda Brown just wanted to attend the elementary school in her Topeka, Kansas, neighborhood with her friends, but, of course, due to the segregation laws in place at the time, she was unable to do so. The legal proceedings that followed led to the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision in the case of Brown v. The Board of Education, that struck down the "separate, but equal" (1894's Plessy v. Ferguson) doctrine that had governed such matters previous, and called for full integration of schools throughout the land.
Linda Brown went on to attend Washburn University and Kansas State University, and at time chaffed under the spotlight of being such a lofty historical figure. However she did lead a life of activism, and in 1979 she led a fight along with the ACLU that said that the Topeka schools still were not fully integrated despite the Supreme Court ruling of 1954, a fight that was eventually upheld by the Court of Appeals in 1993.
History can be written by a humble Kansas school child.
RIP Linda Brown Thompson.
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