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So one time...I had to drive to DC to do some research and I grabbed a quick rental spot to stay in.
4th floor. The building was newly renovated, but the brick outside gave away the history.
When I woke up, I looked out of the window and this is what I saw...
So one time...I had to drive to DC to do some research and I grabbed a quick rental spot to stay in.
4th floor. The building was newly renovated, but the brick outside gave away the history.
When I woke up, I looked out of the window and this is what I saw...
(
The other pic is the front of the building.)
I’ve done enough investigating to know that the house had been there for quite some time, but the way the buildings curved around it created a courtyard of sorts...pre-construction.
And only a few buildings have courtyards...
The other pic is the front of the building.) I’ve done enough investigating to know that the house had been there for quite some time, but the way the buildings curved around it created a courtyard of sorts...pre-construction.
And only a few buildings have courtyards...
Rich folx dwellings, schools, prisons, and your occasional nerdy institution...
I was curious...so I started to search the address in the archives...
I was curious...so I started to search the address in the archives...
And voila there it is...
I'm staying at what was formerly a Children's Receiving Home...the government's attempt to rebrand one of their juvenile detention centers. And the fourth floor...where I was staying...was for girls.
I'm staying at what was formerly a Children's Receiving Home...the government's attempt to rebrand one of their juvenile detention centers. And the fourth floor...where I was staying...was for girls.
Starting in 1928-1930...the "receiving home" was open to children from infancy to 17 y.o.---some there for "petty crimes and others placed there by parents who could not care for them."
As you can see...the newspaper tries to paint a "cheerful" picture of the place in 1934.
As you can see...the newspaper tries to paint a "cheerful" picture of the place in 1934.
As I began to dig deeper into the history of the place...I realize that this prison repackaged as a school starts dealing with criticism about Black and white children living there together. Eventually, different accommodations are made for most of the white children...
...and most of the Black children are left behind. In fact, they begin to pack the place with so many of our children...and then comes the commentary about overcrowding.
And that leads me to "The National Training School for Girls": Another institution where Black girls were imprisoned in D.C., under the guise of school.
They wanted to move the girls (CHILDREN) from the space to a women's prison, so "the receiving home" could move to their bldg.
They wanted to move the girls (CHILDREN) from the space to a women's prison, so "the receiving home" could move to their bldg.
And I'm furious.
I'm coming across numerous articles of the shortest school-to-prison pipeline I've ever seen.
How many pretend schools did DC (read: America) have where they imprisoned our children until the 1950s and sometimes beyond?
I'm coming across numerous articles of the shortest school-to-prison pipeline I've ever seen.
How many pretend schools did DC (read: America) have where they imprisoned our children until the 1950s and sometimes beyond?
Oh! And TO BE CLEAR...this school is NOT the same school as "National Training School for Women and Girls," founded by Nannie Helen Burroughs in DC. (1909)
Here's an image of police officers arresting Black girls for "inciting a riot" and taking them to the "National Training School for Girls."
(Image: DC Public Library, Evening Star)
(Image: DC Public Library, Evening Star)
Before it was "The Ntnl Training School for Girls" it was called "Reform School for Girls." (1896)
The article claims there was a "mutiny" when a teacher was "roughly handled" and there was an "attempted fire." In 1904, a school leader grabbed a gun to keep the girls in order.
The article claims there was a "mutiny" when a teacher was "roughly handled" and there was an "attempted fire." In 1904, a school leader grabbed a gun to keep the girls in order.
There are articles about regular escapes and police canvassing the neighborhood. (Many girls were successful at escaping.) The "school" was not providing education and locked the girls in their rooms all the time—solitary confinement.
But then in 1936...Dr. Carrie Weaver Smith showed up. She stepped in as Director of the "school." And while a lot of her pedagogy doesn't align with mine (heavy respectability)...she called BS from the moment she walked through the door.
She's on the right.
She's on the right.
She abolished the practice of locking the girls in.
Whatever faculty ate...the students ate.
She created courses.
She petitioned for the school to be moved to the country.
You know...LIKE A REAL SCHOOL.
Whatever faculty ate...the students ate.
She created courses.
She petitioned for the school to be moved to the country.
You know...LIKE A REAL SCHOOL.
At conferences and in newspapers, she emphasized that prison wasn't the answer; eradication of systemic issues and "love and tenderness" was. And then she invited Eleanor Roosevelt to the "school" so she could see the disgusting conditions...
I can imagine her telling Roosevelt, "Oh, you see that rat that ran over your foot? That's rat 15. We kill 38 a day. Just step on over here."
Look at the details of that excerpt. It's just a clip. Carrie walked them through every nook and cranny of that god-forsaken place.
Look at the details of that excerpt. It's just a clip. Carrie walked them through every nook and cranny of that god-forsaken place.
And then when the newspapers tried that "riot" crap again...so they could transfer the girls to a women's prison...she clapped back.
Carrie was ousted as superintendent for not following the status quo and opened a book shop, after a long career in social work/education.
She wrote in her bio:
“Physician and completely discredited social worker in the field of juvenile delinquency. Dubbed an impractical dreamer and a theorist. Unable to get a job in any field, so I’m running a book shop...”
“Physician and completely discredited social worker in the field of juvenile delinquency. Dubbed an impractical dreamer and a theorist. Unable to get a job in any field, so I’m running a book shop...”
She said she restarted her life at 54. She lived in the back of her book shop.
In the 1960s...the school was moved, as the area became an affluent white suburb of DC.
Sibley Memorial Hospital is now in the school’s former location.
Sibley Memorial Hospital is now in the school’s former location.
“The Children’s Receiving Home,” wasn’t shut down until the 90s after several hearings where a 15-year-old girl testified that she was being starved there...
67 years after the atrocities of the home began.
67 years after the atrocities of the home began.
“As another has well said, to handicap a student by teaching him that his Black face is a curse and that his struggle to change his condition is hopeless is the worst sort of lynching.”
— Carter G. Woodson
Abolish the juvenile justice system. https://www.npr.org/2021/03/29/979986304/covid-19-lockdowns-have-been-hard-on-youth-locked-up
— Carter G. Woodson
Abolish the juvenile justice system. https://www.npr.org/2021/03/29/979986304/covid-19-lockdowns-have-been-hard-on-youth-locked-up
This is still America.
Here are some schools that served Black children, in D.C., during the same time periods. Research their leaders, their alumni, and the ways that they stood up for our kids time and time again.
1) National Training School for Women and Girls was founded in 1909.
1) National Training School for Women and Girls was founded in 1909.
It was the FIRST school in the nation that had vocational training for Black girls. The picture below is of their basketball team.
The founder of the school was Nannie Helen Boroughs (left). She was denied a teaching job in DC public schools due to colorism/racism and started her own school before 30.
Learn more about Nannie's incredible legacy here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/02/28/nannie-helen-burroughs-black-teacher/
Learn more about Nannie's incredible legacy here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/02/28/nannie-helen-burroughs-black-teacher/
"...Black...girls from across the country enrolled in her school...She taught vocational skills, but...also emphasized subjects such as literature and Latin. To graduate, all students were required to take a Black history course."
(Picture was taken during the founding year.)
(Picture was taken during the founding year.)
. @freeblackgirl talks about Nannie's legacy in her work #LiftingAsWeClimb, alongside the work of many Black suffragettes. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/598796/lifting-as-we-climb-by-evette-dionne/
Another DC school that served as a memorial & extended legacy for the Black scholar, educator, and writer Alexander Crummell was The Crummell School. It was one of the first public schools for Black children in that area. Opened in 1912.
The school was closed in 1977 after several pleas from grassroots orgs to expand/renovate it to no avail. In 2012, the Mayor tried to turn the school and lot into a bus depot.
The neighborhood fought back: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/ivy-city-tired-of-being-a-dc-dumping-ground-takes-on-gray-over-bus-depot/2012/08/12/7442e968-d804-11e1-b8ce-16e9caa8b86a_story.html
The neighborhood fought back: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/ivy-city-tired-of-being-a-dc-dumping-ground-takes-on-gray-over-bus-depot/2012/08/12/7442e968-d804-11e1-b8ce-16e9caa8b86a_story.html
"Empower DC sued the DC government, and won injunctions preventing the city from actually using the historic schoolyard, dedicated to the teaching of African Americans, as a parking lot."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Crummell_School
Visit Empower, here: https://www.empowerdc.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Crummell_School
Visit Empower, here: https://www.empowerdc.org/
DC said that it would restore the school for public use, under Mayor Bowser.
I just did a Google Earth search for the school. From what I can gather...nothing has begun, while the neighborhood is being rapidly gentrified.
https://twitter.com/tomsherwood/status/1377046937292144643?s=20
I just did a Google Earth search for the school. From what I can gather...nothing has begun, while the neighborhood is being rapidly gentrified.
https://twitter.com/tomsherwood/status/1377046937292144643?s=20
Yet in recent years the city has gathered the funds for "an 88-bed "Youth Services Center" for delinquents on Mount Olivet Road and the popular Love nightclub, next to the Crummell School."
A center that reads just like the repackaged "Children's Receiving Center."
A center that reads just like the repackaged "Children's Receiving Center."
