Gardner Bishop—led school desegregation fight in D.C.: 1951
A February 1951 image of Gardner Bishop, the founder and organizer of the Consolidated Parents Group that fought for seven years for better schools in the District of Columbia and ultimately won the Bolling v. Sharpe U.S. Supreme Court decision outlawing segregated schools in Washington, D.C.
Gardner Bishop and his neighbors’ middle school-age children were crammed into a school with half the capacity of white schools, forced into part time shifts and walking blocks to annexes in order to sit at elementary school desks. There were no recreational facilities and no equipment for learning such as labs or typewriters. At the same time white-only schools had vacancies and often-lavish facilities.
Bishop organized a strike, formed a new parents organization, picketed, rallied, and filed court suits until the whole so-called “separate but equal” system came crashing down in 1954.
The lawsuit that Consolidated Parents was responsible for, Bolling v. Sharpe, not only desegregated schools in the District, but also broke new ground in interpreting the “due process” clause of the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.
Bishop was a native of Rocky Mount, N.C. He moved to the District in 1930 and lived at 1113 Montello Ave. NE during the 7-year fight for better schools. He owned a barbe3rshop at 1515 U St. NW for many years where he also cut hair.
For more information and related images, see www.flickr.com/gp/washington_area_spark/564wW3
Read the story of DC desegregation from the pickets to the courts: washingtonspark.wordpress.com/2015/08/20/dcs-fighting-bar...
The photographer is unknown. The image is an Afro American photograph published in February 1951.
Gardner Bishop—led school desegregation fight in D.C.: 1951
A February 1951 image of Gardner Bishop, the founder and organizer of the Consolidated Parents Group that fought for seven years for better schools in the District of Columbia and ultimately won the Bolling v. Sharpe U.S. Supreme Court decision outlawing segregated schools in Washington, D.C.
Gardner Bishop and his neighbors’ middle school-age children were crammed into a school with half the capacity of white schools, forced into part time shifts and walking blocks to annexes in order to sit at elementary school desks. There were no recreational facilities and no equipment for learning such as labs or typewriters. At the same time white-only schools had vacancies and often-lavish facilities.
Bishop organized a strike, formed a new parents organization, picketed, rallied, and filed court suits until the whole so-called “separate but equal” system came crashing down in 1954.
The lawsuit that Consolidated Parents was responsible for, Bolling v. Sharpe, not only desegregated schools in the District, but also broke new ground in interpreting the “due process” clause of the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.
Bishop was a native of Rocky Mount, N.C. He moved to the District in 1930 and lived at 1113 Montello Ave. NE during the 7-year fight for better schools. He owned a barbe3rshop at 1515 U St. NW for many years where he also cut hair.
For more information and related images, see www.flickr.com/gp/washington_area_spark/564wW3
Read the story of DC desegregation from the pickets to the courts: washingtonspark.wordpress.com/2015/08/20/dcs-fighting-bar...
The photographer is unknown. The image is an Afro American photograph published in February 1951.