Loading Map....

Date/Time
Date(s) - 02/14/2019
7:00 pm - 8:30 pm

Location
Reinsch Library Auditorium, Marymount University

Categories


Panel Discussion: Forging the Way: Arlington’s Fight Toward Public School Desegregation

In 1954, Brown vs. Board of Education ended “Separate, but Equal” in the U.S., but it was not until 1959, that Arlington County Public Schools (APS) allowed the first African American students to attend it’s schools.  This panel will discuss the legal and community story behind Arlington’s struggle to desegregate APS during the mid-1950s including the difficult fight against Virginia’s policy of “Massive Resistance.”  It will focus on the role of the NAACP and local African American activists, like Dorothy Hamm and Carroll Deskins, and examine how our culture remembers and teaches desegregation. Recollections of Arlington students and their families will also be shared.

Panelists include:

  • Kimberly Springle: Director of the Charles Sumner School Museum and Archives, Washington, DC.
  • Erin Devlin: Professor of American history at Mary Washington University and author of Remember Little Rock.
  • Cathy Hix: retired head of the Social Studies Program of Arlington Public Schools

More information about these pre-desegregation events will be featured in a concurrent exhibit at the Arlington Historical Museum during February and March.  Learn more this exhibit on our events page: https://arlingtonhistoricalsociety.org/events/

This panel discussion program is free and open to the public. It is part of a monthly series of public programs sponsored by the Arlington Historical Society and Marymount University’s Department of History and Politics. For more information, please visit www.arlingtonhistoricalsociety.org, Email: info@arlingtonhistoricalsociety.org or call: 703-942-9247.

DRIVING DIRECTIONS and FREE PARKING: Attendees should enter the Marymount University campus at the library gate on N. 26th Street. On N. Glebe Road, head towards Chain Bridge and after the intersection at Lee Highway (Route 29) take a right onto N. 26th Street. After passing through the intersection at Yorktown Road, turn left onto the Marymount Campus. Take an immediate left and the library is on your right. Attendees should park in the garage at the bottom of the incline. (Handicapped parking is available at this 26th Street entrance immediately upon entry to your right as you enter the gate.)