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Class Action Reads! Nothing Less Than Equality
Join the DC History Center for a highly anticipated lecture from historian Tikia K. Hamilton about her new book Nothing Less Than Equality: The Battle over Segregated Education in the Nation’s Capital.
School desegregation was not inevitable. Before the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education and its companion case in DC, Bolling v. Sharpe, Black Washingtonians built a remarkable school system for their children. Led by outstanding educators with a curriculum designed for Black students, some local activists argued that the issue wasn’t segregation; it was a need for resources to address overcrowding, crumbling facilities, and lack of materials and supplies. Some Black Washingtonians believed that the federal government should be compelled, instead, to fulfill its own Jim Crow mandate of “separate but equal,” ensuring that Black schools received the same resources as white schools.
We know about the legacy of desegregation. But this complex, lesser-known history complicates the questions and pushes us to think differently about “equality” both in the past and in our schools today. Join the DC History Center on Tuesday, March 31 to welcome Dr. Tikia K. Hamilton, whose work informed and shaped our exhibit Class Action: Education and Opportunity in the Nation’s Capital.
Register here
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