Kansas - Day 10 - Topeka

Topeka/Capital City KOA, Topeka
Saturday, 10 October 2020

On the morning news, I saw an interview with several people who think masks and other restrictions for the virus are unnecessary.  One woman said, "Covid 19 will end on November 4th."  She'd been insisting it was nothing more than a political ploy by the Democrats.  Apparently she believed the president when he said his bout with the virus was no worse than flu.

today's route

I had 2 sightseeing goals and 2 errand goals today, and it took most of the day but I got it all done, including some last-minute additions.

Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site

The National Historic Site is at Monroe School, where the kids who were plaintiffs in the case went to school.  Finding it was easy - nearly a straight shot into town from the campground.  Trying to find a parking place was impossible - there were No Parking signs all around the front and sides, and the parking lot at the rear was clearly labeled for staff only.  It looked like my choice was to park a block or two away, or to stop in the Loading Zone in front of the school.  Since it's Saturday, after all, I stopped in the Loading Zone and left the engine running.  The building is closed because of the virus, so all I could do was take photos of the signs around the front.

This photo of the front of the school is from the internet because the whole time I was there, 2 men were standing on the front steps, talking on speaker phone to somebody and I just didn't want them in my photo.

I'm sorry to say that these signs weren't very informative about the lawsuit, like when it happened and what resulted from it. The Supreme Court ruling in 1954 held that "separate" is "inherently unequal," overturning the 1896 "separate but equal" ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson.  Here's what I found at the school.

Linda Brown, the best-
known plaintiff

Some of the plaintiffs and their children -
there were 12 families involved with
the lawsuit.

This summarizes the point about
integrated schools.

A 1949 photo of Topeka's Black teachers.

Monroe 4th & 5th graders in 1949.

a 1948 show of no-support for integrations
from Topeka's Black teachers and parents

Across the street from the school I found this mural.

I wanted to get closer but all the streets were narrow and one-way and I just didn't want the hassle.  The moral of that story is: always travel with a friend who can do the driving while you take photos.

Kansas State Capitol

The dome on this building is different from any other I've seen.

Even though there wasn't much traffic, so I didn't have much trouble taking photos, I couldn't get close enough to take a useable photo of the figure on the top.  So I cribbed this one from the internet.

The top
of the Capitol.

It's a bronze sculpture of a Kansa warrior, and it's titled Ad Astra.  The official state motto is "Ad astra per aspera" (to the stars through difficulties).

The building itself dates back to 1885.

Errands and happy accidents

I went to a grocery store, finding part of what I needed, and then stumbled on the city zoo and dog park across the street.  I didn't want to visit the zoo and can't take my unruly dogs to a busy dog park (especially busy on a sunny Saturday), but we walked around the grounds and ate lunch and stumbled on several items of interest.

A memorial to commemorate the achievements
of the sons and daughters of Kansas.
It says so along the bottom.

close-up of the
figures - they
look Nordic to me

Nearby I found a military memorial.  I'd show more but the blog "interface" is fighting with me, not interfacing.  Here are a few of them.

This bench took my breath away.

Unusual to see a memorial for
national guardsmen.

Around the base was
information about medals
awarded to soldiers.

 

While we were eating lunch in the park, I saw 2 youngish couples with their children park, take signs out of their cars, and walk across the grass to a nearby busy street.  They stood by the street holding their signs for maybe a half hour, then went back to their cars, packed up their kids and left.

I saw only one of the signs: "God Hates Proud Sinners."  I suddenly remembered Topeka is the home of the Hillsboro Baptist Church, infamous for picketing funerals of dead soldiers.  A quick search online told me the church was only about 4 blocks from where we were, so I made that my next stop.

The sign at the entrance reads: Sodom gave
itself to fornication & homosexuality &
is an example, suffering the vengeance of
eternal fire.  Jude 7

The roses by the sign ("Fag 
Marriage Dooms Nations")
seem an incongruous touch.

the house across the street

I don't understand how a church can say it's Baptist, but not be Christian.  And if they are Christian, what ever happened to Jesus's specific repudiation of all this hatred by saying things like, "love your enemies, do good to them," and [God] "is kind to the ungrateful and wicked."  Those are the opposite of these signs.  I heard an interview last year with a young woman whose father was one of the founders of Westboro Baptist; she talked about how she'd gradually come to question the cherry-picking of scriptural references that church officials do.  It seems a shame to have so much fervor sent in what I believe to be a wrong, destructive direction.

I was delighted and uplifted to see the house across the street.  Those must be brave, caring people living there.

More errands

It took visits to a second grocery store and 2 liquor stores, but I managed to find most of the supplies I wanted.  Since wine is available only at liquor stores in Kansas, it's not easy to find a selection because many liquor stores cater primarily to beer drinkers and their wine is mostly cheap and sweet.

With all this running around, I ended up seeing a fair amount of the town, which seemed like a pleasant place.  For a town of 130,000, it had a small-town feel.  But it's got a Schlotzsky's.