Linda Brown, Central High Graduate, dead at 76 (Springfield, Benton: transfer, high school)

[Arrby]

It should be remembered here that Linda Brown, one of the lead figures in the 1954 landmark case "Brown vs. Board of Education" has died. She was a graduate of Central High School, Springfield, Mo.

While Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus was closing the Little Rock schools rather than accept desegregation, the Springfield Mo. School Board simply transfered black children to the formerly whites-only schools. There were no organized protests, no marches, no Federal troops were called out. There was not even much discussion; one day the Springfield School system was segregated, the next it was not.

In 1959 her father, Oliver Brown, became pastor at the Benton Ave. A.M.E Church in Springfield and enrolled Linda Brown in Central High School. She was graduated in 1961; her father died suddenly just a few weeks later.