South Park Elementary

Description

The last day of school for students at South Park was Tuesday, May 29, 2007. Students in the South Park attendance area have been assigned to Merriam Park Elementary at 6100 Mastin.

City of Merriam Website:

Perhaps one of the most recognizable historic movements in education was the 1949 Webb vs. School District 90, a lawsuit filed on behalf of 39 families whose children were rejected from the white-only school, known as South Park Elementary. Corinthian Nutter, a true pioneer in desegregation, was the key witness in the lawsuit and helped create history when the Webb case paved the way for the 1954 Brown v. the Board of Education decision to remove segregation in the public school system. Click here to view an excerpt of Ms. Nutter’s comments regarding desegregation at South Park school.

South Park Exhibit Website:

On May 3, 2002, the Johnson County Museum, in partnership with South Park Elementary, unveiled an exhibit recounting the struggle for equal education in South Park, Kansas. This exhibit originally hung in the central hallway at South Park Elementary. It has been permanently moved to the Merriam Park Elementary School at 6100 Mastin in Merriam, KS. This new school is a merger between the former South Park and Merriam elementary schools, which both closed in 2007.
The Johnson County Museum provided research, writing and supervision of the project. Exhibit production funding came from the Ewing M. Kauffman Fund for Greater Kansas City and a State of Kansas Goals 2000 Project grant. The following institutions also contributed to this project: Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, NE Chapter of the NAACP, Merriam Community Center Foundation and South Park Elementary School PTA.
On May 25, 2004, this exhibit was dedicated to the memory of Corinthian Clay Nutter (1906-2004), an inspiring educator and a civil rights leader in Johnson County, Kansas.

Wikipedia Article on the Shawnee Mission School District:

South Park Elementary school, in Merriam, Kansas played a role in school desegregation prior to the unification of the Shawnee Mission School District in 1971. South Park opened in 1948 for white students, leaving African-American students in the inadequate Walker Elementary using an outdated curriculum. Corinthian Nutter, an African-American teacher, resigned in protest and taught the students from her home. 1949's Webb v. School District 90 case paved the way for Brown v. Topeka Board of Education five years later. Skyline Elementary School was presumed to be named as such due to the fact that you could see the Kansas City, Missouri's skyline from the area around the school at the time. McAuliffe Elementary School in Lenexa, Kansas was one of the first schools in the nation to open named in honor of Christa McAuliffe.The district converted from 7-8-9 Junior High model to the 7-8 Middle School model in 1986.