Kansas City, Mo. ? Civil-rights pioneer Corinthian Nutter, who helped desegregate schools in Merriam, Kan., years before the historic Brown v. Board of Education ruling, died Wednesday night, friends of her family said. She was 97.

Nutter was the only certified teacher at Walker Elementary, Merriam’s school for black children in the late 1940s. The building was old, lacked indoor plumbing, and students used books and supplies discarded by other schools.

When the school district constructed a new building for white children nearby, Merriam’s black community rallied to form an NAACP chapter and sued the district in 1948. Nearly all of the families with children at Walker pulled them from class, and Nutter joined the walkout and taught students in private homes.

Later, she became a key witness in the lawsuit, testifying about conditions at her school.

Along with another teacher, Nutter continued to teach her students until the Kansas Supreme Court ruled in their favor in 1949. More court challenges to desegregation followed, culminating in the landmark Brown decision in 1954.

Nutter moved to Kansas City as a teenager after a failed marriage. While she was older than most of the students, she graduated from high school in 1936 and two years later earned a teaching certificate from a junior college program at Western University in Kansas City, Kan.

In 1941, she married Austin K. Nutter; they remained married until his death in 1998.

She received her bachelor’s degree in education in 1950 from Emporia State Teachers College and later earned a master’s degree.

Asked once to reflect on the role she played in the battle to desegregate schools, Nutter was humble.

“I was just the teacher who could tell the tale,” she said. “I just don’t think I’ve done anything outstanding.”