Decades after the site of a Black vocational school was turned into a prison, Topeka community organizers want the state to return the property to its educational purpose.
The Topeka Correctional Facility uses the buildings of what was originally built as a Tuskegee-affiliated vocational school for African-American residents across the region.
Curtis Pitts, who calls himself a community servant, is pushing for lawmakers and the governor to turn the property over to Black churches.
He said the Topeka Correctional Facility occupying the buildings of a former school reinforces the school-to-prison pipeline.
“It’s a symbol of something that we need to get rid of,” Pitts said. “We can’t go from being an educational institution — built by the sweat and hard work of African-Americans, and like-minded and concerned white Americans — and then turn it into a prison.
“It’s almost like telling the community subliminally: ‘Your destination is not education. Your destination is designed to be prison.’ And I know that’s not the intent of our leadership here in this state.”
More:Beyoncé’s ex-vocal teacher hopes to turn Nick Chiles buildings into school for gifted kids
Deed required Kansas to use land as Black school
Kansas Historical Society records show the Kansas Vocational School was originally organized in 1895 as the Industrial and Educational Institute of Topeka. It was intended to prepare African-American students for agricultural, mechanical and domestic pursuits. In later years, it was known as Kansas Technical Institute.
Deborah Dandridge, a librarian and curator of African-American experience collections at the University of Kansas, said historical records indicate Black Baptist churches sponsored the school.
It was also known as the Tuskegee of the West due to its connections to the prominent Tuskegee Institute. Several of the school’s early administrators came directly from the historically Black college founded by Booker T. Washington in Alabama, Dandridge said.
The school originally operated out of rented buildings near the all-Black Washington School, she said. With the support of state funding, the African-American students as part of their vocational training built permanent buildings on the technical college’s campus — the same buildings now used as a prison.
State funding led to the governor, and later the Board of Regents, supervising the administration of the school.
Pitts’ search for historical documents turned up one that may help convince Kansas legislators.
That document stipulates that, despite state appropriations and control over the property, the facility was required to remain a school for as long as the state owned the land.
“I think it’s quite revealing,” Dandridge said. “I was shocked when I read it.”
The warranty deed filed in 1910 states the title of the school’s land is “vested by appropriate deed in the state of Kansas upon the express condition that the said property lands and appropriations should be perpetually used exclusively and solely for the industrial and educational training and development of negro youth.”
The deed transfers 109.5 acres from direct school ownership to the state for $1, subject to the condition that it remain a school. Under the terms of the agreement, the land transfer would immediately become null and void, reverting back to school ownership if the state no longer used the property to educate Black youths.
“We don’t see this as a fight,” Pitts said. “We see it as an opportunity to have a redemption.”
More:Native American boarding schools in Kansas supported US land grab and forced assimilation
Native American land transfers may set precedent
The case for a land transfer may be bolstered by recent legislation ceding land to Native American tribes.
This year, SB 405 passed the Legislature unanimously and was signed by Gov. Laura Kelly. The law returns a half-acre cemetery in Johnson County to the Shawnee Tribe.
Last year, HB 2408 ceded a 10-acre parcel of land in Doniphan County to the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska. It passed the House unanimously but faced opposition from a handful of conservative Republicans in the Senate.
The land was the site of the now-shuttered Iowa and Sac & Fox Mission near Highland. The tribe plans to turn the former Indian manual labor boarding school into a museum.
“Like we did the Native Americans, we returned things back to them,” Pitts said. “This is an opportunity to return that back to the community. Let us build something that everyone regardless of race can benefit from and grow from, and get a chance at redemptive healing that we need as a part of our culture.”
More:Corrections officials tout program putting inmates in jobs. Others say it merits scrutiny.
‘This is the time’ to live up to civil rights foundation of Kansas
From the Jayhawk mascot’s anti-slavery history to Exodusters settling in Kansas to the Brown v. Board of Education legacy, Pitts sees a strong civil rights foundation in the state.
“That’s a historically Black college out there that’s a prison,” he said. “For all of our ancestors and what this state was founded on, that cannot be. They would roll over in their grave if they knew that this abolitionist state, this free state, that shot the bow across racism in the world, turned what they believed in and supported into a prison.”
Pitts knows if a land transfer happens, the process would likely take years. Questions remain unanswered on what would happen to the current inmates, including whether the state would need to build a new prison.
He is planning a series of community meetings in the lead-up to the next legislative session to discuss how to reestablish the facility as an educational institution.
Dandridge said the vocational school was the only institution where African-American students could access higher education in technical skills and liberal arts. She wants to see a learning center that renews the legacy of providing vocational skills while “teaching and telling the story of African-Americans in Topeka.”
“This is a true opportunity to create something that has a legacy of African-American achievement and success, and has the potential for creating more of the tradition for not only African-Americans, but for all people,” Dandridge said.
Pitts said he envisions a center for improving race relations and the study of culture, in addition to vocational training. He wants it to be open to everyone, perhaps a featured stop on school field trips to the capital city.
He proposes a privately funded nonprofit institution with a loose affiliation to the Board of Regents and representatives from the Legislature and governor on the board of directors — but unlike the board representation of a century ago, the Black community would have a majority.
“In Topeka, they have the greatest opportunity ever right now,” Pitts said. “This is the time and the season for this.”
Jason Tidd is a statehouse reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at jtidd@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @Jason_Tidd.