Sumner School was one of 18 white schools in Topeka and was located only a few blocks away from Oliver Brown’s home. With encouragement from the NAACP, Brown took his daughter, Linda, to enroll at Sumner Elementary instead of the all-black Monroe School, which was more than 20 blocks away. Brown was denied the opportunity to go to Sumner Elementary and was told to she must go to her previous school, Monroe. This was the spark that civil rights activists needed to ignite the debate – and litigation – that led to desegregating America’s public schools and institutions.