DC Public Library, The People’s Archive

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of works and materials collected or authored by Paul Phillips Cooke. Items include clippings, correspondence, reports, meeting minutes, pamphlets, and publications from a variety of organizations, including the Cosmos and Torch Clubs. Additionally, there is information on Cooke's time as a student at Miners Teachers College and as President of the D.C. Teachers College.

Scope and Contents

Between 1972 and 1992 the Library conducted 29 oral history interviews with individuals who had a long association with and knowledge of Washington D.C. Topics include childhood experiences, segregation, religion, neighborhoods, education, communities, employment, demographics and social life. The interviews were organized and conducted by Marcia M. Greenlee and Roxanna Deane.

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...