Equality in Public Education
, Seventh Street,was built in after area residents per- suaded the city to abandon its original dilapidated building onVirginia Avenue. They hoped the new structure, which included a branch library,would be the beginning of section-wide improvements. In September , for the first time, African American students took their seats next to whites in Wa s h i n g t on’s p ubl i c sc h o o l s . Th e Su pre m e Court had just ruled that “separate-but-equal” facilities were unconstitutional, so black students f rom nearby Randall Junior High all came to Jefferson.Integration was surprisingly peaceful. Form er Jefferson student Ca rl Cole recen t ly recalled that integration“had no concerns for me. I had played with wh i te children all of my early life here.” Washington’s system of separate sch ools required many buildings, but they didn’t alw ays meet com m u n i t y n eed s . In Southwest had five overcrowded“colored”elementary schools,four under-enrolled white elementaries, and a junior h i ghfor each group. On the eve of integration, the school-age population had already declined con- siderably because Southwesters were leaving in response to urbanrenewal. Planners ex pected that n ew Southwesters would be older and/orchildless, given the high er costs for most new housing. So s even elementary schoolsweredem o l i s h ed , leaving just three:William Syphax,Anthony Bowen,and a new MargaretAmidon.By there were two, with Syphax being adapted for residential use. Because Seventh Street ends at the waterfront,in the s businesses began locating here and into far Nort hwest Washington. Omnibuses (horse- drawn wagons) carried passengers along Seventh u n til , wh en Con gress chartered a horse-drawn street railway on Seventh from Boundary Street, NW (now Florida Avenue) to the river.
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