(a mural at Garrison School, Liberty Tribune, 2017)
Thesis
The triumph of Garrison was that they did not treat their segregated situation as a tragedy.
June Seat, student teacher at Garrison, 1959
During the Jim Crow era,a battle was fought to end the tragedy of school segregation. The United States Supreme Court upheld the doctrine of "separate but equal" facilities--even though separate was rarely equal. African-American schools were often poorly built and underfunded. In spite of these iniquities, a small African-American community in Liberty, Missouri triumphed with the success of the Garrison School. This school shaped children into "citizens of the world," and is still impacting the community generations later.
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