Euphemia and Harry: Questions of Social Justice in the Washington, D.C., Schools

• In Event: 63.084 - Roundtable Session 22
  In Roundtable Session: 63.084-21 - Methodological Knowledge and Issues in Biographical Inquiry

Abstract

Euphemia Haynes and Harry Passow were committed to urban schools during a crucial period in the search for social justice. Haynes served on the Board of the D.C. Schools; Passow founded the Talented Youth Project to investigate mathematics programs, underachievement, and grouping models. Their lives intersected briefly in 1967.

A team was mobilized to recommend actions for re-envisioning the district. Working with Dr. Haynes, the first woman to chair the school board, Harry crafted a report that garnered national attention in the press.

Using documentary evidence from the Passow archives, Teachers College, and the Haynes-Lofton archival collection, Catholic University, this historical case study explores how to best integrate biographical inquiry across two individuals and archives linked by one critical event.

Author

• Ann E. Robinson, University of Arkansas at Little Rock