Jo Brown, first Black woman elected to Wichita BOE, dies

WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) – Josephine “Jo” Brown, the first Black woman elected to the Wichita Board of Education, died on Wednesday.

According to Wichita Public Schools, Brown joined the BOE in April of 1971 amidst great conflict in the city. Two years later, she devised the idea of splitting grade levels to create what is now middle school.

The district, in a commemorative post in 2020, said Brown supported student unions and fought for Wichita students in discussions with lawmakers.

In 2019, Brown spoke with 12 News about her personal connection with the “Green Book,” which shared a title with an Oscar-winning film from 2018.

Brown said she and her husband used the book, which helped people of color travel to places and establishments that did not discriminate, during their honeymoon in 1950.

The Green Book had listings in Wichita that were considered safe for people of color. The Lassen Hotel, which is now Market Center Apartments, is the only remaining building from The Green Book in Wichita.

“It was the idea not to be embarrassed or hurt or refused so the Green Book helped us,” Brown told 12 News in 2019.

Among those remembering Brown are former Wichita Public Schools Superintendent Alicia Thompson and Gerald Norwood, board president of ARISE, a Wichita organization spotlighted by its multicultural choir.

Thompson spoke of the encouragement she received from Brown during her service as the fist woman and person of color to lead the state’s largest school district.

“We kind of had a kindred spirit with one another, and I’ll never forget the times she would pull me to the side and talk to me about what it means to be the first, the first woman, the first person of color to serve in [the superintendent] position with Wichita Public Schools, so we had such a great relationship,” Thompson said.

Norwood discussed what support from Brown meant to many in the community.

“She didn’t give away accolades to just anybody. You had to perform in some way, whatever she was recognizing — whether it be music, your academic involvement, your participation in the community — you have to be doing something very significant for her to give you accolades. And when you heard it from her, you knew you were doing a good job,” he said.

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