Biography of oliver brown

In 1952, the Supreme Court agreed to hear five cases collectively from across the country, consolidated under the name Brown v. Board of Education. This grouping of cases from Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, the District of Columbia, and Delaware was significant because it represented school segregation as a national issue, not just a southern one. Each case was brought on the behalf of elementary school children, involving all-Black schools that were inferior to white schools.

In each case, the lower courts had ruled against the plaintiffs, noting the Plessy v. Ferguson ruling of the United States Supreme Court as precedent. The plaintiffs claimed that the "separate but equal" ruling violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. In 1954, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that state-sanctioned segregation of public schools was a violation of the 14th Amendment and was therefore unconstitutional.

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas

(Brown et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka et al.)

Linda Brown
Linda Brown, who was born in 1943, became a part of civil rights history as a third grader in the public schools of Topeka, KS. When Linda was denied admission into a white elementary school, Linda's father, Oliver Brown, challenged Kansas's school segregation laws in the Supreme Court. The NAACP and Thurgood Marshall took up their case, along with similar ones in South Carolina, Virginia, and Delaware, as Brown v. Board of Education. Linda Brown died in 2018.

Oliver L. Brown
Oliver Brown, a minister in his local Topeka, KS, community, challenged Kansas's school segregation laws in the Supreme Court. Mr. Brown’s 8-year-old daughter, Linda, was a Black girl attending fifth grade in the public schools in Topeka when she was denied admission into a white eleme

ReverendOliverLeonBrown

Son of Charles Frank Brown and Lutie I (Bass) Brown

Brother of Opal Frances (Brown) Johnson, Emerald Maxwell Brown, Beryl Odessa Brown, Charles Brown, Clarence Brown, Ruby Jeannett (Brown) Walker, Mary Louise Brown and William Lyle Brown

Husband of [private wife (1920s - unknown)]

Father of Linda Carol (Brown) Brown Thompson

Profile last modified | Created 27 Mar 2018

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Biography

Oliver Brown was a civil rights activist and the namesake of the Supreme Court Case ending the concept of "separate but equal," Brown v. the Board of Education (Topeka, Kansas).

Oliver Leon Brown was born on August 2nd, 1918 in Topeka, Kansas. Oliver was the youngest of eight children of Charles Francis Brown and Lutie I. Bass. His parents divorced in 1921. His mother raised Oliver and his siblings in Topeka.

Oliver was married to Leola Williams. They were living with her parents in Topeka, Kansas at the time of the 1940 US Census and had probably just gotten married as she was only 18. He was working as a waiter at the Elks Club and earned more money than her father and brother, combined. They went on to have three daughters, including Linda Carol Brown (1943-2018). In 1950, they lived in their own home in Topeka.

As a young man, Oliver worked as a waiter at the Elks Club and then a welder for the Santa Fe Railroad. He later became a pastor in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) denomination, pastoring St. Mark's AME Church in Topeka, Kansas from about 1953-1959 and then the Benton Avenue African Methodist Church in Springfield, Missouri from 1959 until his death in 1961.

While Oliver's oldest daughter Linda was in elementary

Charles Oliver Brown lived to the age of 93 (1848–1941). His life experiences began early when at the age of 11 he drove a team on the canal from Toledo to Cincinnati (Miami and Erie Canal). He served as a bugler in the American Civil War at age 13, became a minister, was a noted speaker in the United States and Canada, and became a key figure in the controversy around General William Tecumseh Sherman's famous remark, "War is Hell." Following the Civil War, Brown survived a highly publicized blackmail incident in San Francisco, became a sought after speaker, and was frequently quoted on his writings on the development of Congregational churches.

From Michigan to Ohio

Charles Oliver Brown was born in Battle Creek, MI on July 22, 1848, but moved to Toledo, OH at the age of 4 where his father had a blacksmith shop. At the age of 11, he drove a team on the canal from Toledo to Cincinnati (Miami and Erie Canal). He attended the Toledo Grammar School.

The "Boy Bugler" of Sherman's Army

After the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, Brown's father, Major Oliver M. Brown, was involved in organizing Company C of the 3rd Ohio Cavalry. Charles Oliver Brown went off to war with his father as a bugler at the age of 13 and saw action in 25 battles. He was wounded in action and earned the nickname, "The Boy Bugler" of Sherman's Army. At age 16 he was made chief of the regiment's 26 buglers, the youngest chief bugler in the Union forces at that time.

Young Brown blew the cavalry charge that sent 3,000 men into battle at the Battle of Lovejoy's Station during Sherman's sweep on the Atlanta Campaign. At the Battle of Selma he carried a message through the thick of fire, and for that act of bravery, Congress in later years voted him a pension increase. The young bugler was a member of the historic expedition which captured the Confederate president,

Rev. Oliver Leon Brown served as lead plaintiff, one of 13 plaintiffs, in the Brown v. Board of Education U.S. Supreme Court case.

The Brown decision determined that "In the field of public education, the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal," beginning the process of de facto overturning Plessy v. Ferguson.

It was both the culmination of a century of personal struggles and legal battles; and the legal, social, moral, and philosophical underpinning for the major civil rights actions to come.

Rev. Brown led a relatively normal life at the time as a family man, homeowner in an integrated neighborhood, assistant pastor at St. Mark AME church, and union welder for the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad at the time.

However, because his oldest daughter, Linda, was unable to attend their local all-white school and was forced to travel 24 blocks to the nearest African American school, Monroe Elementary, brown was recruited by the NAACP through his childhood friend, attorney Charles Scott, to participate in a class-action lawsuit against the Board of Education of Topeka.

His youngest daughter, co-founder of the Brown Foundation for Educational Equity, Excellence and Research -- Cheryl Brown Henderson, would later say he was an 'ordinary' man, who "Simply was called to engage in something extraordinary."

Though Rev. Brown was not the first to join the suit, or the first plaintiff alphabetically, the case was filed in Rev. Brown's name and he was assigned the role of Lead Plaintiff, representing his daughter Linda. Though the reason for this assignment was never explicitly stated, and several theories - such as being the only male plaintiff - prevail, the fact remains that the name Brown became etched in American history as a quintessential civil rights figure.

In 1959, Brown and his family moved to Springfield, Missouri, where he served as pastor of Benton Avenue A.M.E Church.

Brown abruptly d