School's Out for Sumner

MAD is so out of practice that I almost forgot to write this post.

Today was supposed to be the Textile Museum with Judy but turned into the Charles Sumner School Museum and Archive. The official repository of the Washington DC Board of Education's history, the Sumner School is a beautifully restored 1873 building that was the first permanent school for African-American children in DC. Shiny brass railings, high ceilings and wide stairways make this place feel and even smell like a school. I wonder if this schools was as well taken care of when children were running up and down those stairs.

The first floor displays artifacts and memorabilia from DC schools that have closed as well as a special exhibit of art "Local Color" by Martha J. Smith whose paintings quietly explore relationships between people, many between women and especially between women of color. Some of these paintings are hung in a lecture hall that feels like the students and lecturer have just walked out.

Another room contains an exhibit dedicated to the life and work of Adolph Cluss designer of both the Sumner School itself and the Franklin School. One of the reasons these were a big deal was because they contained multiple classrooms and teachers could divide the students by age level instead of teaching them all together in the same room (They were also divided by race with Sumner being for "colored" and Franklin for "white"). Cluss had enormous influence on the look of the District and we see his work everywhere we go.


Of special note is a hand made timeline of the history of DC schools that is hanging on the wall. In 1870 the DC government began to provide free public education to children of color and only when Brown v Board of Education was decided in 1954 was an end put to racial segregation in the DC Public Schools.

oh - the other decoration in the Sumner School today is bright and engaging art created by the diverse and talented population of current students in the DC Public Schools.