Washington, D.C.: A Challenge to Jim Crow in the Nation’s Capital

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Well-paid federal jobs drew thousands of African Americans to Washington and helped support a large community of well-educated professional and skilled workers. Between 1930 and 1950 the black population doubled to some 280,000, about 35 percent of the total population. Yet, along with a prosperous black community, Washington also had some of the nation’s worst living conditions. The new migration strained limited city services, schools, and housing in segregated African American neighborhoods.

Yearbooks from black and white high schools

From the Civil War on, Washington had a segregated school system. As the population grew in black neighborhoods, the gap between white and black schools widened and overcrowding became a serious problem. Many African American schools went to multiple shifts, eroding the quality of education, while some neighboring white schools remained half empty.

(Top: Yearbook from Armstrong Trade Manual School, 1950. Courtesy of Charles Sumner School Museum and Archives, District of Columbia Public Schools)

(Bottom: Yearbook from Central High School, 1950. Courtesy of Charles Sumner School Museum and Archives, District of Columbia Public Schools)

Parents protest for better schools in Washington, D.C.
(Courtesy of Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library)

Gardner L. Bishop
Gardner L. Bishop was the father of a student at Browne Junior High School. In 1947 school authorities responded to crowded conditions at Browne by choosing two run-down former white primary schools for satellite classes. The school’s PTA objected and demanded that white schools be opened for all students. Distrustful of the PTA’s leadership, Bishop called on parents to boycott the school. With others, he formed the Consolidated Parent Group to present their grievances to the school board.
(Courtesy of Judine Bishop Johnson, Ed.D.)

Consolidated Parents Group flyers
The strike at Browne brought few improvements, but launched the Consolidated Parent Group into an ongoing fight for better schools.
(Flyers lent by Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University Archives)

James Nabrit and George Hayes
Howard University law professors James Nabrit and George E. C. Hayes (above, right and left) were the attorneys in the lawsuit against segregated schools in Washington, D.C. Charles Houston, before his death in April 1950, urged Bishop and the Consolidated Parents Group to seek out Nabrit to take over the legal fight.

Sousa Junior High School
Completed in 1950, John Philip Sousa Junior High School for white students in Anacostia was a showcase, with more than 42 classrooms, a large auditorium, and a fully equipped gymnasium.

Spottswood Bolling, Jr. and mother
The first name on the lawsuit was Spottswood Bolling, Jr., a 12-year-old student. His mother, Sara, worked as a bookbinder in the General Services Administration. On September 11, 1950, Gardner Bishop escorted Bolling and 10 other African American students to Sousa Junior High. School officials refused to admit the black students.
(Courtesy of Historical Society of Washington, D.C.)

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