‘Emancipation to Integration’ Series Kicks Off Feb. 24
Peerless Rockville celebrates the fight for educational equality in Rockville with a series this spring highlighting the efforts of the local African-American community to secure quality educational opportunities for their children.
February marks the 150th anniversary of a petition by 20 Rockville men who pledged to fund a school and teacher to educate black children. Learn about these brave men and early efforts in black education at an exhibit and reception at 7 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 24 at Rockville Memorial Library, 21 Maryland Ave., in Rockville Town Square.
The 1867 petition occurred three years after a new state constitution freed slaves throughout Maryland. Morgan State University professor David Taft Terry will discuss what emancipation actually meant for newly freed slaves, including the changes, challenges, and opportunities of their daily life in “The Experience of Emancipation in Maryland.”
The event will kick off the “Emancipation to Integration: 150 Years of Advancement in Educational Equality” series. The series will examine efforts at educational equality through the challenges of separate and unequal segregated schools and the experiences of desegregation following Brown v. Board of Education, including early 20th century efforts in black education, Williams Gibbs and Thurgood Marshall in Rockville, Carver High School and Junior College, and desegregation.
Visit www.peerlessrockville.org for details of additional series events throughout the spring.