Topeka, Kansas serves as the capital city and county seat of Shawnee County. The city is situated within the northeast portion of Kansas State along the Kansas River. The city of Topeka has a current population of about 128,000. The Topeka Metropolitan Statistical Area has a population of 230,824. Other counties within the metro area are Jackson, Jefferson, Osage, Wabaunsee and Shawnee.
The city was the location of the landmark legal Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, where it was declared that it was illegal to declare racial segregation within public schools. Three Navy ships have been named after the city in order to honor its importance.
"Topeka" is word taken from the Kansa and Loway which means "to dig good potatoes." The Native Americans who inhabited the region utilized the prairie potato as a major food source. The Kansa people called what is currently called the Kansas River as "Topeka." The name was initially recorded during 1826, but the settlement was not called Topeka until the year 1855 when the founders declared it "novel, of Indian origin and euphonious of sound." Joseph James (Jojim) was a mixed-blood Kansa Indian who thought of the name. Topeka was a Free-State town founded by Eastern antislavery men following the passage of the Nebraska-Kansa Bill. Topeka was chartered as a city during 1857.
A lot of the economy within Topeka is based around the sectors of services and government. Roughly 25 percent of the labor force is employed by city, county and state governments, with Kansas State being the biggest employer in Topeka. 30 per cent of the workforce is working in services industries. A lot are employed in printing and publishing, food processing, iron foundries and flour mills. There are some Fortune 500 companies with distribution or manufacturing facilities in the city. Well-known businesses include Goodyear Tire & Rubber, Frito-Lay Inc., Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, Hallmark Cards and Payless Shoe Source.
Topeka has various art galleries with significant collections of art. Galleries consist of the Mulvane Art Museum at Washburn University and the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library. A little known fact about Topeka is that it is the home of the character Alfred E. Neuman, the logo character for Mad Magazine.