By Sis. Shelia Clayton
Lucille E. Dale WMS is proud to share some important history with you. On May 16, 2024, President Joseph Biden commemorated the 70th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education with plaintiffs and their families at the White House. Sis. Adrienne Jennings Bennett was one of them, in fact, she is the only living plaintiff from the Bolling v. Sharpe case.
Sis. Adrienne Jennings Bennett's parents, the late James C. Jennings, Sr. and Luberta W. Jennings, were members of Campbell AME Church, and were actively involved in meetings to fight segregation in public schools, and because of their dissatisfaction with the “Separate but Equal” doctrine, they joined the Consolidated Parent Group. As concerned parents, rather than having their daughters, Adrienne and Barbara travel miles outside of their neighborhood to Langley Junior High School, it made more sense for them to attend the newly completed John Philip Sousa Junior High School in their own neighborhood of Anacostia, which was nearly empty. Sousa Junior High School was the segregated school for white children.
On September 11, 1950, which was the first day of school in the District of Columbia, Rev. Guiles and Mr. Bishop escorted 11 students, including Sis. Bennett and her sister, Barbara to Sousa Junior High School, seeking admission. However, school officials turned them away. This event served as the Consolidated Parent Group’s test case to integrate DC public schools. The Consolidated Parent Group, Inc. then partnered with the Howard University Law School to petition the DC School Board to open Sousa Junior High School as an integrated school. The stated grievance was African American students were segregated in overcrowded schools and denied admission to new, well-equipped schools for white children only.
On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court rendered its decision, overturning the "Separate but Equal" doctrine. Separating children in public schools on the basis of race was unconstitutional. Racial segregation was ruled a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. That same day, the court ruled in Bolling v. Sharpe that segregation in DC schools violated the Fifth Amendment. These rulings paved the way for integration and were a major victory of the Civil Rights Movement.
After the Bolling decision, Rev. Guiles partnered with the Anacostia Emergency Education Committee to push for the speedy admittance of African American students to Anacostia High School. Missionary. Helen Hill Thompson was in the first class of students to integrate Anacostia High School.
Pictured: Sis. Adrienne Jennings Bennett; Group photo of plaintiffs and their families at the White House; and Missionary Helen Hill Thompson.
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