Biography

Reverend Oliver Brown

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Black and white portrait of an African American man with short hair and a thing moustache wearing a priest's collar and smiling at the camera.
Portrait of Rev. Oliver Brown.
Source: U.S. National Park Service.

Reverend Oliver Leon Brown served as the lead plaintiff in the Oliver L. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Supreme Court case. Rev. Brown worked as the assistant pastor at St. Mark AME church and a union welder in Topeka, Kansas. His childhood friend, attorney Charles Scott, shared the local NAACP’s plan to challenge segregation in local schools with Brown and his wife, Leola. After encouragement from his wife, Brown walked his oldest daughter, Linda, to their local all-white school and attempted to enroll her. After the NAACP’s victory arguing in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, Brown and his family moved to Springfield, Missouri in 1959, where he served as pastor of Benton Avenue A.M.E. Church. He sadly died of a heart attack two years later.

Featured in

  • Black‑and‑white photograph of a classroom filled with young students seated at wooden desks. Many students have one arm raised, as if responding to a question. In the foreground, one student sits at a desk facing the camera while others behind and to the sides raise their hands. The room includes a chalkboard or bulletin board along the back wall with several papers pinned up, a doorway at center-right, and large windows on the right side letting in light. Books and classroom materials are stacked near some desks, and the overall setting suggests an older, traditional schoolroom.

    Lesson Plan

    Separate & Unequal: Investigating the Road to Brown v. Board

    Students explore Investigation Stations to better understand the pivotal Brown v. Board of Education case that recognized the human and civil rights of all students by declaring school segregation unconstitutional.

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