Students at Northwestern High School and the University of Maryland have recently conducted various forms of research regarding desegregation in Prince George's County. Here are the results of their hard work, ranging from oral histories to historical fiction.
Northwestern High School in Hyattsville, MD was racially segregated until Bill Thomas became its first African American student in 1955. Some of today's Northwestern students interviewed Mr. Thomas and many other eye-witnesses to uncover the story of desegregation at their school.
As a student at the University of Maryland College Park and resident of the state of Maryland, it's almost hard to believe that I never encountered racism on a more personal level or had to deal with segregation until I came to college. The University, however, was not always so diverse. It was only in the later half of the 20th century that African Americans were allowed to attend the school, or even that white students were allowed to attend Bowie State University, the other public institution in Prince George’s County. As of today the University of Maryland College Park has a diverse student body but as I learned, things were not always that way.
Mandy Fraser, a student at the University of Maryland, has written a short story about a pair of imaginary students - one African American and one White - who experience the beginning of busing in 1973.