Topeka Constitution

(noun)

The Topeka Constitution, drafted by the Topeka Constitutional Convention, banned slavery in Kansas. The Convention was held in October 1855 in the town of Topeka and was the first effort to establish Kansas under a state constitution. The Topeka Constitution was approved by voters in Kansas on December 15, 1855.

Related Terms

Examples of Topeka Constitution in the following topics:

  • The Lecompton Constitution

    • The Lecompton Constitution, drafted by proslavery factions, was a state constitution proposed for the state of Kansas that rivaled the constitution proposed by the Free-Soil faction.
    • The Lecompton Constitution was the second of four proposed constitutions for the state of Kansas.
    • It was produced in September 1857 by the territorial legislature, which consisted mostly of slaveowners in response to the antislavery position of the 1855 Topeka Constitution drafted by the Free-Soil faction.
    • Both the Topeka and Lecompton Constitutions were placed before the people of the Kansas Territory for a vote, and both votes were boycotted by supporters of the opposing faction.
    • Nevertheless, both the Lecompton and Topeka Constitutions were sent to Washington for approval.

  • Brown v. Board of Education and School Integration

    • Constitution.
    • In 1951, a class action suit was filed against the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas in the U.S.
    • The plaintiffs were 13 Topeka parents who, on behalf of their 20 children, called for the school district to reverse its policy of racial segregation.
    • This aspect was vital because the question was not whether the schools were "equal," which under Plessy they nominally should have been, but whether the doctrine of separate was constitutional.

  • The Brown Decision

    • Ferguson confirmed a legal doctrine in United States constitutional law known as "separate but equal."
    • According to it, racial segregation did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, adopted in 1868, which guaranteed equal protection under the law to all citizens.
    • The plaintiffs were 13 Topeka parents on behalf of their 20 children.
    • The plaintiffs had been recruited by the leadership of the Topeka NAACP.
    • While all but one justice personally rejected segregation, the judicial restraint faction questioned whether the Constitution gave the Court the power to order its end.

  • The Warren Court

    • The Warren Court's decisions were also strongly federal in thrust, as the Court read Congress's power quite broadly and often expressed an unwillingness to allow constitutional rights to vary from state to state.
    • Board of Education of Topeka (1954) declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional.
    • As a result, de jure racial segregation was ruled a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.
    • Constitution to provide counsel in criminal cases to represent defendants who are unable to afford to pay their own attorneys.
    • In other cases, the Court also ruled that the Constitution protects a general right to privacy (Griswold v.

  • The Meiji Constitution

  • The 1947 Japanese Constitution

  • Conclusion: WWII and the U.S.

    • Board of Education of Topeka (1954) and other critical cases led to a shift in tactics, and from 1955 to 1965, "direct action" was the strategy—primarily bus boycotts, sit-ins, freedom rides, and social movements.
    • Board of Education of Topeka was a landmark case of the United States Supreme Court which explicitly outlawed segregated public education facilities for black and white Americans, ruling so on the grounds that the doctrine of "separate but equal" public education could never truly provide black Americans with facilities of the same standards available to white Americans.
    • Board of Education of Topeka was a landmark case of the United States Supreme Court, which explicitly outlawed segregated public education facilities for black and white Americans.

  • Problem Solving

    • 15% of people in Topeka have unlisted telephone numbers.
    • You select 200 names at random from the Topeka phone book.

  • Article VI

    • Article Six of the United States Constitution establishes the Constitution and the laws and treaties of the United States made in accordance with it as the supreme law of the land.
    • All debts contracted and engagements entered into, before the adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation.
    • This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.
    • The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.

  • The State Constitutions

    • In the United States, each state has its own constitution.
    • Many state constitutions, unlike the federal constitution, also begin with an invocation of God.
    • Some states allow amendments to the Constitution by initiative and many states have had several constitutions over the course of their history.
    • These constitutions are subject to congressional approval and oversight, which is not the case with state constitutions.
    • 1st Constitution of the Territory of American Samoa, 1 July 1967.