St. Mark's African Methodist Episcopal Church

St. Mark's African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, built between 1914 and 1920, enjoys a powerful association with the African American twentieth-century Civil Rights Movement. The church served as a gathering place to promote African-American education and discuss the groundbreaking Brown vs. Board of Education case, which took place from 1950 to 1954. Rev. Oliver Brown, the principal plaintiff, served as the church's pastor. The case, which went before the U.S. Supreme Court, legally ended decades of racial segregation in America's public schools and provided momentum to the broader Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and '60s.

The "Great Exodus" of African Americans leaving the Southern U.S. and moving to the Great Plains, including Kansas, resulted in the development of strong Black communities (as seen in numerous Northern cities at the time) as segregation in many forms existed in the towns and cities they settled. The majority of African Americans coming to Topeka, known as Exodusters, congregated to the north beyond the railroad tracks and to the east, staying on the edges of town because many places downtown would not serve African Americans. 

Churches played an integral role in African American communities, serving as places of faith, community centers, political halls, and schools. As early as the first half of the nineteenth century, enslaved Blacks found a home in churches because they offered a sense of social and religious freedom, which gave rise to the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church. St. Mark’s AME, like several African American churches that emerged in Topeka, opened in the 1880s when the Exodusters arrived. (Although an unorganized Methodist Episcopal church had been in Topeka since 1855.) Even though the Civil War had ended two decades earlier, the segregation and racism in Topeka still limited the freedoms of African Americans. So, the churches continued to play a vital role in their lives. St. Mark’s AME arose one block north of the railroad tracks, along with two other Baptist churches in the area, placing St. Mark’s in the heart of the African American community growing in North Topeka. 

St. Mark's employed six different pastors from its first year, in 1881, to 1900. And it operated in small facilities for several decades. By the 1910s, the membership sought to build a larger structure. They laid the foundation for the now-historic church in 1915, but construction did not finish until 1920 when Rev. A.A. Allen was assigned to the church, staying with the church for five years, overseeing the completion of the auditorium and the exterior of the church building and growth of the congregation. St. Marks created different committees and clubs that encouraged sociable, charitable, and cultural activities, such as the Colored Women’s Club, All City Gospel, and the Calvary Boys & Girls Scouts. concerts, plays, and social events also took place at St. Marks.

In the early days, St. Mark’s also hosted “meetings of colored citizens of N. Topeka, which evolved into the North Topeka Colored Welfare Club. This club focused on the advancement of African American citizens. By the 1950s, a national civil rights movement emerged as Black Americans sought equality in all aspects of life, including education, with Topeka existing as one of the early hotbeds of Civil Rights activism. As had been the case with the Welfare Club, many within the community regularly gathered at St. Marks to discuss civil rights issues, including education. Indeed, Rev. Oliver Brown's predecessor, Bishop Anderson, wrote numerous books, including those that discussed the educational well-being of Topeka's African American community.

Brown was born in 1918 in Topeka, Kansas. He did not initially finish high school, but both the church and religion were important parts of his and his family’s life. So, when he became active in the ministry at Topeka's St. John’s AME church, Brown decided to finish high school at age thirty-five, which allowed him to pursue an education at Washburn College, where he studied Theology and English with the goal of becoming a pastor. And, in 1951, Brown became ordained and began his first solo pastoral assignment at St. Mark’s AME in 1953 (whilst also working for the Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe Railway). 

While he succeeded as a pastor, fundraiser, community organizer, and orator, he will mainly be remembered for his role as lead plaintiff in the segregation-ending Brown v. Board of Education case. Brown’s daughter, Linda, had to cross train tracks and travel three miles to reach Monroe Elementary School despite the all-White Sumner Elementary School being a mere two blocks from the Browns’ house. As an active member of the National Association for Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and friends with lawyer Charles Scott, Brown decided (with urging from the NAACP) to take the matter to court. Segregation ostensibly dates back, legally, to 1896 with a Supreme Court case, Plessy vs. Ferguson, deeming “separate but equal” policies as Constitutional. But "equal" proved to be a loosely defined term, allowing communities to provide Whites with better opportunities, goods, and facilities than their Black counterparts, including in schools. In 1952, the Supreme Court heard cases from Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, Delaware, and the District of Columbia, all challenging racial segregation in public schools. But, the courts ruled that inequality could not be proven. In 1951, The NAACP assisted Brown, along with a dozen other parents from the Topekan African American community, in filing a suit against the Board of Education. After first losing the case in a federal district court hearing, the group filed an appeal with the Supreme Court; they planned to hear the case on December 9, 1952, roughly the same time St. Mark's promoted Brown to Head Pastor. The court case was delayed until 1953 (and merged together with other cases and nearly 200 other plaintiffs), which allowed Brown and his team an opportunity to prepare for the case in front of the Supreme Court. Unlike previous challenges to segregation laws, the Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka lawsuit directly challenged the legality of "separate but equal." 

With the final court decision coming on May 17th, 1954, the court ruled in favor of Brown, claiming:

"To separate them from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone. Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a determined effect upon the colored children. The impact is greater when it has the sanction of the law; for the policy of separating the races is usually interpreted as denoting the inferiority of the Negro groups. A sense of inferiority affects the motivation of children to learn. Segregation with the sanction of law, therefore, has a tendency to retard the educational and mental development of Negro children. We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore, we hold that the plaintiffs and others similarly situated for whom the actions have been brought by reason of the segregation complained of, deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. We have now announced that such segregation is a denial of the equal protection of the laws."

The landmark case not only began the process of desegregation in America's K-12 school system but served as the basis for ending racial segregation and discrimination in many facets of life, providing momentum to the 1950s and 1960s American Civil Rights movement.

"Exodusters: African American Migration to the Great Plains." Digital Public Library of America. Accessed March 28, 2023. https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/exodusters-african-american-migration-to-the-great-plains.

"History - Brown v. Board of Education Re-enactment." United States Courts. Accessed March 28, 2023. https://www.uscourts.gov/educational-resources/educational-activities/history-brown-v-board-education-re-enactment.

Liu, Kelsey. "Registration Form: St. Mark’s African Methodist Episcopal Church." National Register of Historic Places. kshs.org. https://www.kshs.org/resource/national_register/nominationsNRDB/KS_ShawneeCounty_StMarksAMEChurch_Listed%2009302019.pdf.

Pratt, Robert A. Review of Brown v. Board of Education Revisited, by James T. Patterson. Reviews in American History 30, no. 1 (2002): 141–48.

"Rev. Oliver L. Brown." National Park Service. January 10, 2022. https://www.nps.gov/people/oliver-brown.htm.

Russo, Charles J., J. John Harris, and Rosetta F. Sandidge. “Brown v. Board of Education at 40: A Legal History of Equal Educational Opportunities in American Public Education.” The Journal of Negro Education 63, no. 3 (1994): 297–309.