At 100 and 1/2 years, longtime Topekan Julie Reeves shares what made decades special

Julie Reeves is 100 and 1/2 years old, almost, and she celebrates like it.

While she didn’t grow up in Topeka, she still remembers arriving to the city from Kansas City by train in 1948, and living with her family for their first few days in the Kansan Hotel (now the Kansan Towers). Given the odd turns and off-kilter grid of Topeka’s downtown, she joked that it took her a while to get properly oriented.

“It took me wo years to get used to Topeka," she said, "but it didn’t take me two minutes to get used to Kansas, because we had help the minute we got off the train.”

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Reeves, a longtime Topekan and community servant, on Thursday evening was the guest of honor at a meeting of Topeka USD 501 Equity Council.

She shared much of the wisdom and insights she has received over decades of service as a Topeka volunteer and philanthropist.

Brown v. Board was more about what it started than what it ended

As a Nebraskan child of the 1920s and 1930s, Reeves saw advocacy in action from her mother, especially as the nation dealt with the lingering effects of the Great Depression.

Growing up around children of color, Reeves was keenly aware of the discrimination they faced but was pleasantly surprised to find that in Topeka, the community appeared to be much more progressive.

She and her husband, a lawyer, followed along in newspapers and magazines as the Brown v. Board case made its way from Topeka’s federal court to the U.S. Supreme Court, although she noted there was actually pretty scant, day-to-day coverage of the case at the time.

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But the legal case was more about the movement it started, and the better availability for people all over the country to understand the issue.

“Brown v. Board was the year we got our first television set,” Reeves said. “All of a sudden, instead of hearing over the radio about what was going on or reading in the newspaper … we were seeing the riots, Dr. King speaking and all the things that were going — you can’t imagine the difference if you had never seen all that and all of a sudden, you could see all the people on the Selma Bridge.”

Behind societal progress are inspiring educators

Reeves stressed to the equity council, made up of USD 501 educators, that the change that occurred in the wake of the Brown v. Board of Education decision and other civil rights laws was possible because of educated voters. With three children who went through Topeka schools, Reeves said she was always inspired by the progress teachers made in each classroom.

She encouraged the educators to keep teaching students the importance of voting.

“What we have done in this country is (is) because we have the vote, and because everyone has the vote,” she said. “(You teach them) what they need to know to be a good voter, and how exciting it is to go to the poll and think that your vote, your stroke of the pen, can change somebody else's life. Make it exciting, and make it fun.”

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Reeves, who over the years has been a prolific volunteer, joked that her legacy may simply be “living this long,” but she hoped people will remember her for endless curiosity and her support of community causes.

Reeves helped start Meals on Wheels in Topeka, when it was then known as Mobile Meals, and she has helped with Topeka’s Head Start programs. She was also an early supporter and former president of the Topeka Symphony.

Superintendent Tiffany Anderson said Reeves has had a spirit of mothering and service in her decades in Topeka. The council presented Reeves with a plaque of commendation.

“Your 100 years has shaped not only a lot of Topeka," Anderson told Reeves, "but a lot of the experiences we all are benefitting from today, so thank you for your incredible life of service.”

Rafael Garcia is an education reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached at rgarcia@cjonline.com or by phone at ‪785-289-5325. Follow him on Twitter at @byRafaelGarcia.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Topeka Public Schools visits with 100-year-old Julie Reeves