From The New York Times: It has been more than a half-century since Sumner Elementary School, now an abandoned shell of a building in Topeka, Kan., had a brief and ignoble moment in the spotlight for what it would not do: allow a black father from the surrounding neighborhood, Oliver L. Brown, to enroll his daughter Linda in the third grade. Brown, along with a group of similarly rejected black parents, brought a lawsuit against the school board here that went on to become one of the landmarks of this country’s legal history: Brown v. Board of Education, the outcome of which banned segregation in public schools across the country and set off an era of civil rights progress. Sumner’s own future was less auspicious, however. Closed in 1996, used as storage space, neglected and vandalized, it barely escaped the wrecking ball. But now, a new owner hopes to bring the spotlight back again, and this time the result would be more flattering: plans call for Sumner to be opened to the public as a community center and human rights memorial after renovation next year.
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