Topeka ? First a segregated school, then a warehouse and finally a presidential backdrop, Monroe Elementary School is viewed by many as a shrine to the nation’s civil rights movement.

“This changed the nation. It’s something that should always stand as a bold reminder of how far we have come, but also a reminder of there is a road we still must travel,” former Kansas City, Mo., Mayor Emanuel Cleaver said Monday.

For others, there’s something more than the former school becoming one of the 77 national historic sites — childhood memories.

“It was part of my life and my history. I walk in there and all the memories come back,” said Luella Minner, who was a sixth-grade student at Monroe School in 1954, when the U.S. Supreme Court issued its Brown v. Board decision declaring segregated schools unconstitutional.

Classmate Robert Warren recalled his favorite memory — the fellowship among students.

“You could fight one minute and then be friends two minutes later because school wasn’t where it ended. When you left school, you had to go back to the neighborhoods,” he said. “As opposed to the kids today, most don’t live in the same neighborhood where they go to school.”

The two-story, 13-room brick elementary school was a key factor in the decision. Now the Brown v. Board National Historic Site, Monroe School is where 9-year-old Linda Brown was forced to attend classes because she was black.

Her father, the Rev. Oliver Brown, was the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit consolidated with Virginia, South Carolina and Delaware cases that civil rights advocates now say made later successes of the nation’s civil rights movement possible.

Aside from being the symbolic home for the school integration movement, Monroe also was the backdrop for President Bush’s appearance Monday, where he praised the ruling and dedicated the historic site.

For former students, the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site is simply their elementary school. Several former Monroe Elementary School students attended Monday's site dedication in Topeka.

Built in 1926, the school operated until 1975, when it closed because of low enrollment. It was used as a warehouse and fell into disrepair before it went up for auction in 1990.

Linda Brown’s sister, Cheryl Brown Henderson, organized a group of volunteers to save the building. In 1992, when Bush’s father was president, he signed the law that turned Monroe into a national landmark.

“Putting up a monument wouldn’t be the same. Putting up a new building wouldn’t be the same,” Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP’s board of directors, said.

Bond said using the school as a museum brought the story of its students to life.

“You get to breathe the air they breathed and touch the walls they touched,” Bond said.

Darwin Barnett came from Kansas City, Kan., to see the president and enjoy a trip down memory lane. He attended Monroe in 1946-51 and, like others, said it would help people understand the history.

But he also offered another perspective.

“I’m just glad the school isn’t being torn down,” he said. “To me it’s just being able to reminisce about the good times of going to school here and playing on the school ground.”

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