This woman was among Topekans demanding civil rights for all in the 1940s and 1950s

While many know the history of the Brown v. Board of Education case and its plaintiffs in the Topeka area, countless others in the capital city also fought for civil rights.

For Elva Nadine Blackwell, fighting for what she felt was right was one of the core motivations of her life.

Because her parents weren't allowed to enter a hospital, Blackwell was born on Aug. 18, 1930, at home in Topeka. Blackwell attended Washington Grade School, East Topeka Jr. High and Topeka High School, where she graduated in 1948. She graduated from Washburn University.

She grew up on Locust Street and was a member of The Church of God and later St. John AME.

Blackwell and her future husband entered "white-only" restaurants in Topeka and demanded to be served. They had four children, and Elva Blackwell taught them to stand up for themselves.

Blackwell died Feb. 5 in Olathe. She was 93 years old.

'Opened' the door for integration at Topeka restaurants

Blackwell played a vital role in the integration of restaurants in Topeka, where people of color weren't welcome. She and future husband Albert Blackwell entered those restaurants demanding to be served.

In a 2010 StoryCorps interview conducted by her youngest daughter, Chandra Blackwell, Elva Blackwell shared her memories of segregation and the way she saw the world. She had just turned 80 years old when the interview was published.

"We went downtown to Kansas Avenue, which is the main downtown street of Topeka and parked the car," Blackwell said. "(Albert) opened the door and I started to go in, and I stopped and said, 'I'm not going in there,' because it was a white restaurant. And he said: 'Now you are going in there. Don't embarrass me, let's go.' So, I went in, and we sat down, and I was very, very nervous and upset."

She said Albert Blackwell knew the main cook would support them. If the white waiters didn't serve the couple, the cook would walk out of the restaurant with them.

"When we went to The Creamery, most of the Blacks were in the kitchen and everybody else was in the door looking at us. It was interesting, but we did open the restaurants there in Topeka," Elva Blackwell said.

The couple's efforts began downtown at The Ranch House then at The Purple Cow in the Jayhawk Hotel, which is now the Kansan Towers,100 S.E. 9th St. They also began to take friends with them.

"Those three restaurants we could go to, and gradually the restaurants opened," Elva Blackwell said. "I think it's interesting that the one that would not serve Blacks was the Jolly Cafe. They never ever ever opened to Blacks. They simply closed their doors and went out of business."

Albert and Elva Blackwell married June 17, 1951, in the garden of Elva Blackwell's parents, Charles Sheldon Sudduth and Mildred M. (Jones). Albert Blackwell was the first Black fire inspector and the first Black assistant fire chief for the Topeka Fire Department, Elva Blackwell said.

Reflecting back on time as a student in Topeka

Elva Blackwell was also the niece to McKinley Burnett, president of the Topeka chapter of the NAACP from 1948 to 1963. Burnett wanted the Topeka NAACP to push for racially integrated public schools, the Brown v. Board website said. A statue in downtown Topeka was dedicated to Burnett in Topeka in September 2018.

After the Brown v. Board ruling, the school board hadn't adhered to the ruling 10 years later. Blackwell was front and center protesting with her then 3-year-old daughter Pamela in her arms, her obituary said.

Elva Blackwell said she didn't realize how important the case would be or that her uncle's filing would be such a big part of history.

"I knew I was segregated," she said. "You were taught that you were who you were and you had to go above and beyond to get anywhere in this life. So, yes, we definitely knew that. And by going to junior high school in the seventh grade, that was a step up.

"After we got to high school, we went to class together. But when we had our parties, the Black kids had their parties up in the music room and the white kids had their parties in the cafeteria. And during the all-school party, we had a Black king and queen and a white king and queen.

"The white king and queen would go up and dance at our party in the music room. The Black queen would come down and dance with the white children in the cafeteria. It was separate. We were together, but we were not together."

Pamela Blackwell said she remembers stories about her mother participating on the swim team in high school and the struggles she faced.

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"It was a different time back then when she was in high school because the synchronized swimming thing, they could not swim with the white girl students," Pamela told The Capital-Journal. "Mom would say that after their class was done, they would hang out in the pool for another 15, 20 minutes and take up the time of the African-American female students that needed to go onto their class and be in the pool."

Elva Blackwell majored in French, Russian and Spanish languages at Washburn University, graduating in 1951. She was a member of the Upsilon chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.

She was also the last surviving original member of Les Club Commeres (“The Club Gossips”), a bridge club from 1951 to 2014. She worked 24 years for the Social Security Office as a claims representative and then worked for the state of Kansas on a semi-retired basis, her obituary said.

Daughters take pride in the history of their mother

Elva had four children — Jancy, Garland, Pamela and Chandra.

Chandra Blackwell said she had the opportunity to be born at a time of luxury to be able to "not ignore her race but to consider it a thing about her."

"I feel like everybody has to come to some realizations themselves. Your parents can talk themselves blue in the face about a lot of things, and just until you realize — you don't realize. I knew a lot of the history of Topeka, and I just considered it history," Chandra told The Capital-Journal. "And I didn't really appreciate my parents' heart in a lot of that until I became an adult. ... I take ownership of it in the sense that, wow, I came from some pretty incredible people."

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Chandra and Pamela Blackwell told The Capital-Journal the most important thing they learned from their mother was to stand up for themselves and treat others the way you would like to be treated.

"Mom had to stand up to all kinds of people, and at the same time, her working for Social Security, the things that she saw coming in the door, she always insisted that we learn typing, get a college education, do everything you can to be able to market yourself, to be able to take care of yourself as a person," Pamela Blackwell said.

"She was always like, don't let anybody take advantage of you," Chandra Blackwell said. "Being yourself is teaching people how to treat you, so be good to yourself."

Keishera Lately is the business reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. She can be reached at klately@cjonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @Lately_KT.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Elva Blackwell fought for civil rights in Topeka by sitting down