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	Franklin County, Kansas, USA

2009-07-03

2009-07-01

2009-06-30

Agriculture

Lifestyles

Area history connects to broader American story

By BRIAN WILLIAMS, Herald Staff Writer

The Franklin County Historical Society will begin its drive through 2008 in park.

Dennis Vasquez, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka National Historic Site superintendent and superintendent of the Kansas National Park system, will speak at the historical society’s 71st annual meeting 2 p.m. Sunday at the Franklin County Records & Research Center, 1124 W. Seventh St. Terrace, Ottawa.

Vasquez said he will speak about the stewardship of the American legacy, what the National Park System does and Kansas and Franklin County sites that have connections to larger national events.

“Kansas has an extremely important place in national history,” he said.

Vasquez has worked at 11 national historic sites during his more than 25-year career in the national park service. Sites include Yosemite, the Grand Canyon and Harpers Ferry, W.V.

“There’s great history and great stories in those places,” he said.

Vasquez said he first learned about pre-civil war anti-slavery activist John Brown while he was at Harpers Ferry and then his next stop brought him to Kansas where Brown also had made a historical impact. Harpers Ferry was where Brown led a group of 22 men in an attack on the U.S. arsenal there. He had hoped to use the captured weapons to start a slave revolt. Brown was tried and hanged for treason.

By working at the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka site, Vasquez said he gets to experience American civics in action.

“It’s a landmark in civil rights history,” he said about the site where Oliver Brown and 12 others challenged segregation in Topeka public schools in 1951. The case ultimately ended in the U.S. Supreme Court where it was unanimously ruled in 1954 that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”

Vasquez said the best part of working for the National Park System is he is able to learn every day.

“I get a chance to educate myself and enrich my life with this country’s history.”

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