Seattle Public Schools Half A Century Ago
Making Progress
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Thelma DeWitty symbolized two major changes in the Seattle area
after World War II. Suffering greatly from a shortage of male
teachers during World War II, the School Board had to relax its
rules regarding the ineligibility of married women teachers, and
eventually eliminated the rule altogether in 1947. Meanwhile, the
enormous wave of Black migration to the Seattle area included many
Black professionals seeking employment. An African American, who
also happened to be a married woman, Mrs. DeWitty was hired in 1947
to teach the second grade at Cooper Elementary School in West
Seattle.
Thelma Fisher DeWitty and her second grade
pupils at Cooper Elementary School. Miss DeWitty was one of the
first two African Americans to teach in the Seattle Public Schools.
(Photograph pictured in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer,
September 4, 1947)
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In a short while, a
second African American woman, Marita Johnson, was hired to teach
Household Service, one of the newer "school to work" courses at
Broadway-Edison Technical School. |
Marita Johnson, Household Services at Edison
Technical School. Miss Johnson was one of the first two African
Americans to teach in the Seattle Public Schools.
(Photograph pictured in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer,
September 4, 1947) |
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