The John Philip Sousa Middle School, formerly the John Philip Sousa Junior High School, is a public school located at 3650 Ely Place in SE area of

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Located in the city's Fort Dupont neighborhood, it serves grades 6–8. Its school building, built in 1950, was the scene of civil rights action not long after its construction. Twelve

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

student A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution. In the United Kingdom and most commonwealth countries, a "student" attends a secondary school or higher (e.g., college or university); those in primary or elementar ...

s were denied admission to the all-

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

school. This action was eventually overturned in the

landmark A landmark is a recognizable natural or artificial feature used for navigation, a feature that stands out from its near environment and is often visible from long distances. In modern use, the term can also be applied to smaller structures or f ...

1954

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

decision in ''

Bolling v. Sharpe ''Bolling v. Sharpe'', 347 U.S. 497 (1954), is a List of landmark court decisions in the United States, landmark Supreme Court of the United States, United States Supreme Court Legal case, case in which the Court held that the Constitution proh ...

'', which made segregated

public school Public school may refer to: * State school (known as a public school in many countries), a no-fee school, publicly funded and operated by the government * Public school (United Kingdom), certain elite fee-charging independent schools in England an ...

s illegal in the

District of Columbia ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

. The defeat of the legal doctrine "

separate but equal Separate but equal was a legal doctrine in United States constitutional law, according to which racial segregation did not necessarily violate the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which nominally guaranteed "equal protecti ...

" marked an early victory in the modern

Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...

. The school was declared a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 2001 for its role in this action.Susan Cianci Salvatore and John H. Sprinkle, Jr. (March 8, 2001) , National Park Service and In 2022 it was designated an affiliated area of ''Brown v. Board of Education'' National Historical Park.

Description

The John Philip Sousa Middle School is located in Southeast Washington, on the north side of Ely Place opposite

Fort Dupont Park Fort Dupont Park is a wooded park under the management of the National Park Service located in Washington, DC. The name of the park comes from the old Civil War earthwork fort that lies within the park. The fort was one of several designed to ...

. It is a roughly L-shaped building with a brick exterior and Moderne styling, ranging in height from one to five stories. Perpendicular to the street is a wing three stories in height, which houses administrative offices and classrooms. The main entrance faces the street at the front of this section, whose street-facing end has a curved half-round elements on the right side. Extending along the road is a wing housing the school's larger spaces, the gymnasium and auditorium.

History

The school was built in 1950, at a time when the district's schools were segregated. Schools serving African-American students were chronically over capacity and poorly funded, while those serving white students were not. African American district residents had been agitating for some time for integration or improved conditions in their schools. A group of parents of Browne Junior High School students organized in 1949 to mount a demonstration and legal challenge to the district's segregation policies. When the new John Philip Sousa Junior High School opened in September 1950, twelve students, accompanied by parents, lawyers, and a police escort, sought to gain entry to the facility, but were denied by the principal. The ensuing legal action resulted in the landmark 1954 decision in ''

'', where the Supreme Court struck down the district's segregation policy on the grounds that it violated

due process Due process of law is application by state of all legal rules and principles pertaining to the case so all legal rights that are owed to the person are respected. Due process balances the power of law of the land and protects the individual pers ...

(in contrast to the more well-known ''

Brown v. Board of Education ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segregat ...

'', in which state-legislated segregation was struck down on

equal protection The Equal Protection Clause is part of the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The clause, which took effect in 1868, provides "''nor shall any State ... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equa ...

grounds).

References

External links

School web site

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sousa, John Philip, Junior High School National Historic Landmarks in Washington, D.C. Public middle schools in Washington, D.C. African-American history of Washington, D.C. School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington, D.C.

Junior High School A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary school ...

Southeast (Washington, D.C.)