Hidden Stories: The Webb Family

The Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v Board of Education desegregated schools across the country in 1954. But did you know that a Kansas Supreme Court case did the same in Johnson County, five years earlier? In 1948, the Webb Family sued to have their children attend a brand new school built in the South Park school district with taxpayer bonds but limited to attendance by white children. The family’s struggle for civil rights and equal educational opportunities for their children, the origins of the county’s first NAACP chapter, and the work of community advocates combine in the exhibit, “Hidden Stories: The Webb Family.” First displayed as a digital interactive exhibit in 2020, it is now available online.