Living History

One educator aims to bring history full circle by pushing to revive a historic school.

By Danielle Woods

Silence fills the halls and classrooms of Sumner Elementary School in Topeka, Kan.—the building where the landmark 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education school-segregation case originated. Despite its historic role in the country's education system, Sumner closed its doors as a school in 1996. Since then it has been used as a storage unit, a police training facility, and an art project for vandals. But now one educator is fighting to reopen the site as an affordable private school.

“Sumner’s the first in integration, and Sumner should be the first in innovation,” Sandra Lassiter, a former Topeka elementary school principal who is spearheading the effort, said in an interview. Lassiter hopes a revamped Sumner will breathe life into what she says is a blighted Topeka neighborhood with one of the highest crime...