White supremacist meets with Anacostia students: 1954
White supremacist leader Bryant Bowles, center with jacket and tie, meets with Anacostia High School students October 6, 1954 during protests against integration at the school following the Bolling v. Sharpe U.S. Supreme Court decision that barred segregation in public schools.
Bowles had been active in Baltimore the previous few days advocating for school segregation of the races there where he recruited for the National Association for the Advancement of White People during a rally by 500 people against school desegregation..
In Baltimore Bowles held his rally at the Ritchie Raceway and urged white parents to boycott the schools and recruited members to his organization for a $5 membership fee.
In Washington, D.C. he was a late arrival with white parents and students conducting a boycott of schools October 4-5th that involved 500 white students boycotting classes at Anacostia and about 300 at McKinley High School on October 4th, the first day of integration. There were some minor scuffles at Anacostia between black and white students on the first day of the integration of classes.
The student strike spread to Eastern and six junior high schools on October 5th.
McKinley students marched to the Board of Education building October 5th and were herded into Franklin Park by police. A delegation of three students met with assistant school superintendent Norman J. Nelson.
Eastern and Anacostia students attempted marches to link up to build support for a school boycott October 5th, but were largely prevented from joining forces by District of Columbia police who halted them on the Sousa Bridge on Pennsylvania Ave. SE.
By October 6th when Bowles visited the students, the strikes and school boycotts had collapsed with attendance near normal.
Bowles gained some fame by leading a boycott of Milford High School in Milford, DE. The ensuing unrest, which included cross burnings, contributed to desegregation in some parts of Delaware being delayed for another ten years.
At one white supremacist rally Bowles is reported to have said that his daughter "will never attend a school with Negroes as long as there is breath in my body and gunpowder will burn."
Bowles was tried in 1955 in Dover for inciting to riot. After brief deliberation the jury found Bowles not guilty. Many years later it was learned that one of the jurors was a member of Bowles' organization.
Bowles later went to prison for killing his brother in law during an argument in 1958. He was paroled in 1973, but re-incarcerated for a year for a parole violation in 1994. Bowles died at age 77 in 1997.
The District of Columbia was one of the few major segregated school systems that moved quickly to integrate schools in the wake of the four May 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decisions outlawing school segregations, including the Bolling v. Sharpe decision banning Jim Crow public schools in Washington, D.C.
However, the school system quickly implemented a track system where black students were placed in the lowest tracks that included no college preparation courses and effectively segregated most black students within the schools.
The June 1967 Hobson v. Hansen decision broke up the track system, but by when white flight to the suburbs had effectively re-segregated District of Columbia public schools.
For a background post on the fight to break up D.C.’s Jim Crow schools, see washingtonareaspark.com/2015/08/20/dcs-fighting-barber-th...
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHskivJu7g
The photographer is unknown. The image is a Washington Daily News photograph courtesy of the D.C. Public Library Washington Star Collection © Washington Post.
White supremacist meets with Anacostia students: 1954
White supremacist leader Bryant Bowles, center with jacket and tie, meets with Anacostia High School students October 6, 1954 during protests against integration at the school following the Bolling v. Sharpe U.S. Supreme Court decision that barred segregation in public schools.
Bowles had been active in Baltimore the previous few days advocating for school segregation of the races there where he recruited for the National Association for the Advancement of White People during a rally by 500 people against school desegregation..
In Baltimore Bowles held his rally at the Ritchie Raceway and urged white parents to boycott the schools and recruited members to his organization for a $5 membership fee.
In Washington, D.C. he was a late arrival with white parents and students conducting a boycott of schools October 4-5th that involved 500 white students boycotting classes at Anacostia and about 300 at McKinley High School on October 4th, the first day of integration. There were some minor scuffles at Anacostia between black and white students on the first day of the integration of classes.
The student strike spread to Eastern and six junior high schools on October 5th.
McKinley students marched to the Board of Education building October 5th and were herded into Franklin Park by police. A delegation of three students met with assistant school superintendent Norman J. Nelson.
Eastern and Anacostia students attempted marches to link up to build support for a school boycott October 5th, but were largely prevented from joining forces by District of Columbia police who halted them on the Sousa Bridge on Pennsylvania Ave. SE.
By October 6th when Bowles visited the students, the strikes and school boycotts had collapsed with attendance near normal.
Bowles gained some fame by leading a boycott of Milford High School in Milford, DE. The ensuing unrest, which included cross burnings, contributed to desegregation in some parts of Delaware being delayed for another ten years.
At one white supremacist rally Bowles is reported to have said that his daughter "will never attend a school with Negroes as long as there is breath in my body and gunpowder will burn."
Bowles was tried in 1955 in Dover for inciting to riot. After brief deliberation the jury found Bowles not guilty. Many years later it was learned that one of the jurors was a member of Bowles' organization.
Bowles later went to prison for killing his brother in law during an argument in 1958. He was paroled in 1973, but re-incarcerated for a year for a parole violation in 1994. Bowles died at age 77 in 1997.
The District of Columbia was one of the few major segregated school systems that moved quickly to integrate schools in the wake of the four May 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decisions outlawing school segregations, including the Bolling v. Sharpe decision banning Jim Crow public schools in Washington, D.C.
However, the school system quickly implemented a track system where black students were placed in the lowest tracks that included no college preparation courses and effectively segregated most black students within the schools.
The June 1967 Hobson v. Hansen decision broke up the track system, but by when white flight to the suburbs had effectively re-segregated District of Columbia public schools.
For a background post on the fight to break up D.C.’s Jim Crow schools, see washingtonareaspark.com/2015/08/20/dcs-fighting-barber-th...
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHskivJu7g
The photographer is unknown. The image is a Washington Daily News photograph courtesy of the D.C. Public Library Washington Star Collection © Washington Post.