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[[image - Elanor Roosevelt]]

[[image - Ann Wiggan Brown]]

[[image - Crystal Bird Fawcett]]

BLACKS IN AND UNDER 
THE ROOSEVELT ADMINISTRATION
Frederick S. Weaver

When Franklin D. Roosevelt succeeded President Herbert Hoover in January, 1932, not only did he inherit the worse depression this country had ever experienced, but a nation's capitol as rigid in its racial segregation as any village, town, hamlet or city in the deep South. He and his family took up residence in a Washington that had a dual public school system - one for Negroes [as they were then called] and one for whites. Each was divided into divisions - the Negro division under Dr. Garnet C. Wilkinson, with the title of First Assistant Superintendent. He operated under the white superintendent, Dr. Frank W. Ballou. The only high school that Blacks could go to was the old Dunbar High School, except a technical high school for those who wanted to study trades - Armstrong High School.  Negroes were banned by tradition - not law - from eating in any downtown restaurants, attending down town night clubs and theatres except for the burlesque Gaiety Theater which permitted Negroes to sit in the highest balcony, after purchasing tickets at a separate window and entering the theater via an outside fire escape.  Downtown hotels were offbeat, but when a Negro had a legitimate reason for visiting a white guest, he would be permitted to do so by using the service elevator.   

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Transcription Notes:
Washingtion s/b Washington