[5][6] The Topeka metropolitan statistical area, which includes Shawnee, Jackson, Jefferson, Osage, and Wabaunsee Counties, had a population of 233,870 in the 2010 census.

The city is well known for the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, which overturned Plessy v. Ferguson and declared racial segregation in public schools to be unconstitutional.

[12][13] Mixed-heritage Kansa Native American Joseph James, called Jojim, is credited with suggesting Topeka's name.

In 1762, late in the French and Indian War, France secretly ceded Louisiana west of the Mississippi River to Spain in the Treaty of Fontainebleau.

In the 1840s, wagon trains made their way west from Independence, Missouri, on a journey of 2,000 miles (3,000 km), following what came to be known as the Oregon Trail.

Soon, steamboats were regularly docking at the Topeka landing, depositing meat, lumber, and flour and returning eastward with potatoes, corn, and wheat.

Topeka was a bastion for the free-state movement during the problems in Kansas Territory between abolitionist and proslavery settlers (the latter of whom controlled the legal government based out of Lecompton).

[16][17] After a decade of abolitionist and pro-slavery conflict that gave the territory the nickname Bleeding Kansas, it was admitted to the Union in 1861 as the 34th state.

The National Park Service recognizes Constitution Hall in Topeka as headquarters in the operation of the Lane Trail to Freedom on the Underground Railroad, the chief slave escape passage and free-trade road.

Charles Sheldon, pastor of the Central Congregational Church, organized the first African American kindergarten west of the Mississippi in 1893.

Early in the 20th century, another kind of boom, this time the automobile industry, took off, and numerous pioneering companies appeared and disappeared.

Home to the first African-American kindergarten west of the Mississippi River, Topeka was the home of Oliver Brown, the named plaintiff in Brown v. Board of Education, which was the case responsible for eliminating the standard of "separate but equal", and requiring racial integration in American public schools.

In the late 1980s, a group of citizens calling themselves the Task Force to Overcome Racism in Topeka formed to address the problem in a more organized way.

It started on the southwest side of town, moving northeast, passing over a local landmark named Burnett's Mound.

(The city is home of a National Weather Service Forecast Office that serves 23 counties in north-central, northeast, and east-central Kansas).

Washburn University, which lost several historic buildings, received financial support from the community and alumni to rebuild many school facilities.

Today, university facilities offer more than one million square feet of modern academic and support space.

In 1974, Forbes Air Force Base closed and more than 10,000 people left Topeka, influencing the city's growth patterns for years to come.

In the early 1990s, the city experienced business growth with Reser's Fine Foods locating in Topeka and expansions for Santa Fe and Hill's Pet Nutrition.

In 2000, the citizens again voted to extend the quarter-cent sales tax, this time for the economic development of Topeka and Shawnee County.

In the Kansas River Corridor through the center of town, downtown Topeka has experienced apartment and condominium loft development, and façade and streetscape improvements.

[23] This was to help "support continuing efforts to bring Google's fiber experiment" to Topeka, though it was not a legal name change.

Topeka police reported a 6.4% drop in crime from 2007 to 2008, including significant reductions in business robberies and aggravated assaults and batteries, as well as thefts.

[40] On October 11, 2011, the Topeka city council agreed to repeal the ordinance banning domestic violence in an effort to force the Shawnee County District Attorney to prosecute the cases.

[43] Topeka is sometimes cited as the home of Pentecostalism, as it was the site of Charles Fox Parham's Bethel Bible College, where glossolalia was first claimed as the evidence of a spiritual experience referred to as the baptism of the Holy Spirit in 1901.

Topeka is home of the Westboro Baptist Church, a hate group according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

[46] Three of the largest employers are Stormont-Vail HealthCare (with about 3,100 employees), St. Francis Health Center (1,800), and Colmery-O'Neil Veterans Administration Hospital (900).

Top manufacturers include Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, Hill's Pet Nutrition, Frito-Lay, and Jostens Printing and Publishing.

Jostens announced plans in May 2012 to move production from its Topeka facility to Clarksville, Tennessee, affecting about 372 employee positions.

Service is via the Chicago-to-Los Angeles Southwest Chief during the early morning hours and makes intermediate stops at Lawrence and Kansas City.