The City of Independence had four schools. The Knox family lived in the city’s Second Ward, but eight-year-old Bertha and ten-year-old Lilly weren’t allowed to attend the Second Ward school because it only admitted white children. The Knox girls had to walk past the school and a good distance farther to get to the Fourth Ward school that Black children were permitted to attend. Their father, Jordan Knox, sued the Board of Education and Superintendent Nees in the Kansas Supreme Court. The Court found that no white children who lived in the Second Ward were required to attend the Fourth Ward school, but all the Black children were. This divide was clearly because of the children’s race. The Court cited the Board of Education v. Tinnon (1881) case, suggesting that the Board did not have the power to create separate schools by any classification. The Court ruled in the Knox family’s favor saying Bertha, Lilly, and other Black students were entitled to be admitted to the Second Ward school.