Drawing the Color Line in Kansas City: The Creation of Sumner High School

Although the grammar schools of Kansas City, Kansas, were completely segregated by 1890, the same state law that permitted this practice in cities with more than fifteen thousand residents specifically forbade it at the high school level. Article gives the history of the reasons for the establishment of Sumner High School, "the first and only legally segregated high school in Kansas. Its enrollment would remain nearly 100 percent African American until the late 1970s." All the African Americans who spoke out opposed separation, but Sumner High School opened its doors to primarily African American students in the 1905-06 school year. Article includes pictures of the school, students, individuals involved, etc.