Small group at McFarland joins white school strike: 1954
Two dozen white students at McFarland Junior High School at 4400 Iowa Ave. NW boycott classes October 5, 1954 on the second day of racially integrated schools.
Note the pieces of paper pinned to the back of some students’ heads that read “on strike.” The students were demanding a return to all-white schools.
About 500 white students boycotted 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, the strikes and school boycotts collapsed with attendance near normal.
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 then 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
Photo by Francis Routt. The image is courtesy of the D.C. Public Library Washington Star Collection © Washington Post.
Small group at McFarland joins white school strike: 1954
Two dozen white students at McFarland Junior High School at 4400 Iowa Ave. NW boycott classes October 5, 1954 on the second day of racially integrated schools.
Note the pieces of paper pinned to the back of some students’ heads that read “on strike.” The students were demanding a return to all-white schools.
About 500 white students boycotted 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, the strikes and school boycotts collapsed with attendance near normal.
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 then 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
Photo by Francis Routt. The image is courtesy of the D.C. Public Library Washington Star Collection © Washington Post.