| Description |
1 online resource (1 audio file (11hr., 50 min.)) : digital. |
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digital digital recording rda |
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data file rda |
| Access |
Digital content provided by hoopla. |
| Performer |
Read by the author ; foreword read by Adenrele Ojo. |
| Summary |
Dunbar High School in Washington, DC, defied the odds and, in the process, changed America. In the first half of the twentieth century, Dunbar was an academically elite public school, despite being racially segregated by law and existing at the mercy of racist congressmen who held the school's purse strings. These enormous challenges did not stop the local community from rallying for the cause of educating its children. Dunbar attracted an extraordinary faculty: one early principal was the first black graduate of Harvard, almost all the teachers had graduate degrees, and several earned PhDs-all extraordinary achievements given the Jim Crow laws of the times. Over the school's first eighty years, these teachers developed generations of highly educated, high-achieving African Americans, groundbreakers that included the first black member of a presidential cabinet, the first black graduate of the US Naval Academy, the first black army general, the creator of the modern blood bank, the first black state attorney general, the legal mastermind behind school desegregation, and hundreds of educators. By the 1950s, Dunbar High School was sending 80 percent of its students to college. Today, as with too many troubled urban public schools, the majority of Dunbar students struggle with reading and math. Journalist and author Alison Stewart, whose parents were both Dunbar graduates, tells the story of the school's rise, fall, and path toward resurgence as it looks to reopen its new, state-of-the-art campus in the fall of 2013. "Stewart will convince you that there's cause for hope, and that the school's brightest days may still be ahead." "What an amazing story-what a great book." "A gifted journalist, Alison Stewart tells this remarkable story with depth and insight." "Drawing on interviews with alumni, teachers, and students, Stewart recalls the storied history of Dunbar, its part in the tumultuous politics of the D.C. school system, and current efforts to reconstruct the school and revive its former glory. A fascinating account of the legacy of a legendary school." "A well-reported, passionate study of the triggers for failure and success within American urban education." |
| System Details |
Mode of access: World Wide Web. |
| Subject |
Dunbar High School (Washington, D.C.) -- History.
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High schools -- Washington (D.C.)
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African Americans -- Education -- Washington (D.C.)
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African Americans -- Education.
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| Added Author |
Harris-Perry, Melissa, writer of foreword.
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Ojo, Adenrele, narrator.
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hoopla digital.
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| Added Title |
1st class |
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Legacy of Dunbar, America's first Black public high school |
| ISBN |
9781665011709 (sound recording : hoopla Audio Book) |
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166501170X (sound recording : hoopla Audio Book) |
| Music No. |
MWT14464075 |
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