Equality in Public Education

Jefferson Junior High School was built in 1940 after area residents persuaded the city to abandon the original dilapidated building, hoping the new structure, which included a branch library, would begin section-wide improvements. In September 1954, African American students took their seats next to white students in Washington's public schools for the first time when black students from nearby Randall Junior High came to Jefferson after the Supreme Court ruled that separate but equal facilities were unconstitutional. Washington's school integration was surprisingly peaceful; former Jefferson student Carl Cole recalled that integration had no concerns for him because he had played with white children all of his early life there. Washington's separate school system had required many buildings, but they did not always meet needs: in 1954 Southwest had five overcrowded colored elementary schools, four under-enrolled white elementaries, and a junior high for each group. When integration began, the school-age population had already declined because urban renewal had been announced, and planners expected residents of the new Southwest to be older and or childless. Seven elementaries were demolished, leaving the new Southwest with William Syphax, Anthony Bowen, and a new Margaret Amidon, and by 2003 there were two, with Syphax adapted for residential use. Because this street ends at the waterfront, in the 1800s Seventh Street became a commercial thoroughfare, with businesses locating here and along Seventh into far Northwest Washington, and omnibuses carried passengers up and down Seventh until 1862, when Congress chartered a horse-drawn street railway with a line along Seventh to the wharves.

Washington, District of Columbia · United States