The Galarza family returned to Washington, D.C. so that Ernesto could continue his work for the Pan-American Union. In his capacity as an organizer for the Pan American Union, he was developing a booklet that “told the story of America” which would aid new immigrants in becoming “better acquainted with one another’s customs, habits and modes of dress.” While meeting with people he hoped would assist him in this project, he was introduced to Mrs. Cordelia Wharton who taught dressmaking at the Margaret Murray Washington Vocational School. Galarza and Wharton developed a friendship, and when his daughter expressed a desire to take a course in dressmaking, Galarza enrolled her in Wharton’s class at the M.M. Washington Vocational School. In addition to their growing friendship, Wharton’s particular skill-set made the M.M. Washington school an appealing place for Karla to learn dressmaking.
...
On February 3, 1947 Karla enrolled at the Margaret Murray Washington Vocational High School to take Wharton’s course on dress design and costume making. However, one month into her attendance at the M.M. Washington school, Assistant Superintendent Dr. Garnet C. Wilkinson, requested that Karla voluntarily withdraw and enroll instead at the white vocational school, Burdick Vocational High School. During their March 10, 1947 meeting, Dr. Wilkinson informed Karla that, in his assessment, she was white and as a result not “entitled to attend” the M.M. Washington Vocational school.
...
As a result of Karla’s refusal to leave the school voluntarily, the school board met on April 2nd, 1947 to make a decision regarding her attendance. The Superintendent, Hobart M. Corning, submitted a report to the board that outlined his case for removing Karla from M.M. Washington. He opened the report by writing: “Since the admission of Karla Rosel Galarza to the Margaret Murray Washington Vocational High School question has arisen to her racial status and as to whether she is entitled to the privilege of attending the Margaret Murray Washington Vocational High School.”... Corning argued that Karla, because of her prior attendance at white schools in the area, was “not entitled” to attend M.M. Washington. The schools she attended “do not admit Negroes as students,” and her attendance, Corning went on, “indicates that she is not a Negro.”
...
The white newspapers reported the case as a white girl being barred from a black school. The Toledo Blade referred to Karla as a “pretty, 22-year-old white girl,” The Times-Picayune chronicled “a white girl ousted from a Negro public school,” and The Sunday Oregonian introduced Karla as a “white girl” and the “daughter of former educational adviser to the PanAmerican union.” For the white media this was an interesting story of a reversal of the traditional
No comments:
Post a Comment