Foot Steps

“A step to the past to step to the future”

Our project, “The School Desegregation and Segregation in Maryland” timeline, is about the segregation in schools that took place between the early 19th century and late 21st century. It goes into detail about the start of legal segregation and how it is still around to this day. For example, in 1862 the Maryland General Assembly created white only schools. Blacks had to pay taxes to support the white schools, but were unable to attend them. This was the start of school segregation, which has led to many problems in the African American community. In our timeline we address the effects that segregation had on young black children who couldn't attend white schools. They experienced a lack of education and parents lost money to support schools that their kids couldn't even attend. In addition, schools that were accessible to black students had poor maintenance, making them an unfavorable learning environment.

The education system was not a good one for the young black children of America to benefit from - it kept them down, it kept them poor, and worst of all it kept them ignorant to the true evils that they had to endure by getting denied the proper education. In addition to dates, the timeline also features key historical figures that fought to make change in the education system, so that the black community could rise and become more powerful with the proper education that they needed. Blacks such as Donald Murry and Ruby Bridges walked into all white schools and set a path for the rest of their community to follow behind there remarkable foot steps.

My team and I created this project using “timeline.knightlab.com”, a website that provides a variety of different tools and features to make timelines. (This website was suggested to us by Sean Mussenden from the University of Maryland.) The format and easy to use tools were a great help in making this project possible. Each team member had a specific role: Gyasi and I conducted research on the dates of significant events from the 19th - 21st Century. Amir was responsible for organizing and placing our paraphrased text from the research in the timeline, and occasionally our roles would switch as needed.

A lot of time, effort, and revisions have been made to this timeline. We received feedback to refine it and the finished product looks fantastic from the setup, to the organization, all the way to the message. The timeline displays our history and the effects of school segregation on black youth in America. It all started from an idea that my team had and brought to life. I hope that the reader can view this timeline and take a lot from it because it is important to know your history and learn from it in order to be aware of the present and improve it.

Kynel Rogers is a junior at Baltimore Design School. He is currently enrolled in graphic design as his career pathway and will be graduating in the year 2020. He loves to draw and learn new things everyday, is a charismatic person from head to toe, and likes to encourage others around him to always do better. He is grateful to shed a little backstory on the timeline and is hoping it will give its readers a chance to learn something new and use the information for the greater good. Thank you for your time.

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This project was created by students in Wide Angle Youth Media and supported by Open Society Institute-Baltimore. Designed by Gysai Mitchell (Baltimore City College), Kynel Rogers (Baltimore Design School, Ahmir Asli (Green Street Academy). Special thanks to David Armenti (Maryland Historical Society), Morna Mcdermott and Gray Homana (Towson University School of education), Sean Mussenden (University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism), and Dena Robinson.