This year for Black History Month we’ll review chapter by chapter Alison Stewart’s First Class: The Legacy of Dunbar, America’s First Black Public High School. This is more Truxton Circle related then this blog’s previous annual looks at Shaw resident and founder of Negro History Week (later Black history month) Dr. Carter G. Woodson’s Mis-Education of the Negro. As Dunbar High School is located in Truxton Circle currently taking up all of Square 554.
Like some of the previous it is about the things before Dunbar High School on Square 554 in Truxton Circle. Instead a lot of this chapter is about some political drama regarding the principal of the M Street School, Anna Julia Cooper, on the other side of New York Ave NW.
This chapter provides a lot of valuable background information. It recalls the life of Anna J. Cooper and the Terrells, who were also at M Street. However, nothing about the school’s move to Truxton. So I’m skipping this one as well.