The Charles Sumner School housed elementary and secondary school classes for African American students. The first high school graduation for African American students in the United States was held here in 1877. The site now serves as the home of the official museum and archives of Washington, DC Public Schools.
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Emancipation Day in the schools
This is a page from a Record Book for Intermediate School No 3, which was inside the Stevens School (still standing at 1050 21st St, NW in Foggy Bottom). As you can see, on April 14, 1872, all activity (attendance, marks, and grades) have been blocked out because school was out! The teacher’s note reads: “No School-cause ‘Emancipation Celebration’ Schools closed to attend ‘Emancipation Celebration’”. Just 10 years after it was signed into law, freed slaves and residents of the city celebrated their day of emancipation with a district-wide holiday.
The Stevens School, named for Congressmen Thaddeus Stevens (PA), opened as one of the first publicly funded schools for African Americans in 1868. At the time of its closing in 2008, it was the longest continuously operated school building in DC.
The Sumner School archives contains a large series of historical record books dating as far back as the mid-1800s. These books were mass produced and given to teachers at the beginning of the school year to record the daily grades and attendance of students. Other classroom related things that were recorded include lists of visitors, inventory of supplies, list of suspension and corporal punishment, and materials sent home to sick students. The books also contain detailed annual registers of pupils. The register recorded information about each student including: student’s age, home address, parents names and occupations, and admission dates. This last element of the Record Books could be a valuable resource for family and local historians.
RG General Records of DCPS; series: Record Books
April 16th is Emancipation Day in Washington, DC. The National Archives (as the depository of our national permanent records) holds the original act passed by Congress and signed by Abraham Lincoln that granted slaves in the nation’s capital freedom eight months before the more well-known Emancipation Proclamation was issued in 1863. The Act has been transcribed here.
Senator Charles Sumner (MA) did not fully support the Act because it endorsed compensated emancipation. Sumner felt that if the government allowed slave owners to be monetarily compensated for freed slaves, it would further the notion of enslaved persons as property and not human individuals. After the DC Emancipation Act was passed, Sumner continued his efforts in trying to secure civil rights for African Americans, mainly by chipping away at repressive Black Codes.
