The Topeka Correctional Facility sits on the site of a former Black vocational school affiliated with the Tuskegee Institute.
Curtis Pitts would like to see the site returned to its original purpose.
Pitts, a self-described community servant, told The Topeka Capital-Journal’s Jason Tidd the Topeka Correctional Facility occupying the buildings of a former school reinforces the school-to-prison pipeline.
“It’s a symbol of something that we need to get rid of,” Pitts said. “We can’t go from being an educational institution — built by the sweat and hard work of African-Americans, and like-minded and concerned white Americans — and then turn it into a prison.”
Records from the Kansas Historical Society and the University of Kansas show the school has roots dating back to the late 1800s, when it was known as the Industrial and Educational Institute of Topeka. It later was called Kansas Technical Institute — colloquially as the “Tuskegee of the West” because of its connections to the prominent Tuskegee Institute. The institute had affiliations with Black Baptist churches.
Tidd reports Pitts’ search for historical documents turned up one that may help convince Kansas legislators. That document stipulates that, despite state appropriations and control over the property, the facility was required to remain a school for as long as the state owned the land.
Clearly this didn’t happen.
But perhaps it should. Regardless, it merits a serious discussion. Especially now during Juneteenth.
There’s certainly a precedent for it. Land seized from Native Americans has been returned to tribes through state action. Last year, two bills returned land to the Shawnee Tribe and the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska.
From where Pitts stands, this is an opportunity for restorative justice. An opportunity to return this state to the free state ideals it was founded on.
“That’s a historically Black college out there that’s a prison,” he said. “For all of our ancestors and what this state was founded on, that cannot be. They would roll over in their grave if they knew that this abolitionist state, this free state, that shot the bow across racism in the world, turned what they believed in and supported into a prison.”
Additionally, Pitts is very aware a transfer could take years. Tidd reports he is planning a series of community meetings in the lead-up to the next legislative session to discuss how to reestablish the facility as an educational institution.
We need to hear him out.
