The Brown vs. Board of Education ruling of 1954 was one of the most significant U.S. Supreme Court decisions of the 20th century, outlawing racial segregation in public schools.
But over half a century earlier, a different legal fight here in the Central Valley helped pave the way for that landmark civil rights decision. Today on KVPR’s Central Valley Roots, the story of Edmond Wysinger and his historic fight for equality in Visalia.
Wysinger was born enslaved around 1816 in South Carolina, to African American and Native American parents. His white enslaver brought him to California’s gold fields 1849. Wysinger eventually purchased his freedom, settling in Visalia. The Tulare County town was known during the Civil War as a hotbed for pro-slavery sympathizers.
But the racism didn’t end with the war. In 1888, Wysinger’s son Arthur was denied admission to Visalia’s whites-only public school. The district insisted he attend an inferior school for colored students. Wysinger sued the school, and the case went all the way to the California Supreme Court. In 1890 the court ruled in favor of Wysinger, saying local schools didn’t have the authority to exclude black students. Decades later the case was cited in the proceedings that led to the Brown decision.
