Marietta Crichlow and Linda Crichlow White interview, 2014-10-02
Scope and Contents
Mapping Segregation in Washington DC: School and Neighborhood Desegregation in Ward 4 documents the transformation of Ward 4 neighborhoods and schools during the 1950s and early 1960s. Ward 4 was predominantly white in the early 1940s, but saw a shift in demographics as white families fled after the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Bolling v. Sharpe, in which public school segregation was deemed unconstitutional in the District of Columbia. This project primarily consists of interviews with longtime or former Ward 4 residents.
Dates
- Creation: 2014-10-02
Creator
- Crichlow, Marietta Louise Stevens, 1919-2020 (Person)
- White, Linda Crichlow, 1949- (Person)
- Shoenfeld, Sarah Jane (Person)
Language of Materials
English
Conditions Governing Access
The external hard drive DIG_BACKUP is for staff use only and contains preservation copies of this collection. This external hard drive is not publically accessible. Please see the digital collection in Dig DC for access to this collection.
Biographical / Historical
Marietta Louise Stevens Crichlow was born in 1919 in Washington, D.C. She lived with her family in Le Droit Park and attended Mott Elementary until second grade, when her mother died. She then moved to Pennsylvania to live with relatives and returned to D.C. in 1937 to attend Howard University. She later received an MS in Education at Gallaudet University. She was a longtime member of Mt. Carmel Baptist Church. In 1950, she moved with her husband and daughter Linda to 543 Randolph Street in Petworth. She remained there for the rest of her life. She worked in the D.C. Public Schools. Linda Crichlow White, Marietta’s daughter, was born in 1949. She briefly attended Petworth Elementary School and then Park View Elementary. (This interview was focused on Marietta so no further biographical information was collected on Linda.)
Extent
From the Collection: 6.25 Gigabytes
From the Collection: 50 Files
Abstract
In this interview, Marietta discusses her childhood and her years as a young woman, when she lived in her family’s Le Droit Park home while attending Howard University. She also discusses her move to Petworth in 1950 with her husband and daughter Linda. She talks about what the neighborhood was like when they first moved there, before most of the white families moved away, and in later years when she was a member of the Block Club, which met monthly. She and Linda comment on how the neighborhood has changed. Marietta also talks about her father’s job at the Library of Congress, and going to visit him there, and the stores she used to shop at downtown.
Repository Details
Part of the The People's Archive, Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library Repository