Brown v. Board of Education StoryCorps - Maxine Patterson and husband, Melvin Patterson
Channel: TopekaLibrary
Date: 2016-05-18

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Maxine and her husband, Melvin, talk about segregation and their decision to purse an education at the Kansas Technical Institute.

Maxine Patterson interviewed Melvin Patterson.  Both attended the Kansas Technical Institute, an African American vocational school in Topeka.  The school was regarded as the “Tuskegee of the West” until its closure in the 1950s.  Some claim the school was closed as a result of desegregation.  The two met at KTI and later married.

About the Project: 
To honor the changes in Topeka's schools over the past 60 years, thirty-six Topekans participated in a special StoryCorps national oral history project to document, preserve, and share their reflections, school experiences, and perspectives. Over three days, conversations were held about school experiences, perspectives, friendships, hardships and life in Topeka post-Brown.  

The interviews were recorded May 2014 in Topeka, Kansas.  Conversations are archived at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. and locally at the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library. 
The project is a collaboration among the Kansas Humanities Council, Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site, and the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library. 

StoryCorps is a national nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share, and preserve the stories of our lives. Since 2003, tens of thousands of people have participated while millions listen to weekly StoryCorps broadcasts on the radio and at storycorps.org.