Roland Park Country School exhibits at Library of U.S. State Department

05/12/2009

The Juanita Jackson Mitchell Multicultural Resource Center at Roland Park Country School Curates a Travelling Exhibit for Display at the Ralph J. Bunche Library of the U.S. State Department

Crusader for Freedom
Juanita Jackson Mitchell
A Collection of Personal Photographs

Head of School Jean Waller Brune is pleased to announce that The Juanita Jackson Mitchell Multicultural Resource Center at Roland Park Country School has produced a Travelling Exhibit comprised of personal photographs of civil and human rights advocate Juanita Jackson Mitchell which will be on display at the Ralph J. Bunche Library of the U.S. State Department. Crusader for Freedom will be installed on May 6th and will be on display during the month of May. On May 20th Micah Mitchell Hines, an RPCS alumna from the Class of 1995 and Juanita Jackson Mitchell's granddaughter, will speak about her grandmother. Jean Waller Brune will present a gift to the Ralph J. Bunche Library of a framed photograph that includes Ralph J. Bunche, for whom the U.S. State Department Library is named. Ralph J. Bunche was a political scientist and diplomat who received the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize. He was the first person of color to be so honored in the history of the Prize. He was involved in the formation and administration of the United Nations and in 1963 he received the Medal of Freedom from President John F. Kennedy.

About Juanita Jackson Mitchell

Juanita Jackson Mitchell, born in Hot Springs, Arkansas, was active throughout her life promoting human and civil rights. She received her early education in the Baltimore City Public Schools and attended Frederick Douglass High School and Morgan State College. Later, she attended the University of Pennsylvania when the color line prevented her study at Johns Hopkins University. She graduated Cum Laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Science in Education, and later received a Master of Arts in Sociology. When the University of Maryland was finally required to open its law school to blacks in the 1940s, Mitchell was among the first to attend. She graduated with a law degree in 1950. She was both the first black woman to attend the Law School and the first black woman to practice law in Maryland.

Juanita Jackson Mitchell taught in Baltimore high schools. She was special assistant to Walter White and was the National Youth Director for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Committed to teaching and inspiring Maryland youth, Mitchell founded the Baltimore City-Wide Young People's Forum in 1931 and the NAACP Youth Movement in 1935. In 1942, she directed a march on Maryland's Capitol with 2,000 citizens as well as the first city-wide "Register and Vote" campaign. The campaign resulted in 11,000 new voter registrations on the books. In 1958, she directed the NAACP's "Register to Vote" campaign which resulted in over 20,000 new registrations.

Over the years, Juanita Jackson Mitchell fought discrimination in the courts. She served as counsel in suits to eliminate segregation in municipal recreation facilities and swimming pools, restaurants and public schools in Baltimore City and other jurisdictions in Maryland. She also advocated for the prevention of mass searches of private homes without warrants. The school desegregation suits, championed by Mitchell, made Maryland the first southern state to integrate its school system after the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown versus Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. She worked diligently in support of anti-lynching bills.

In 1985 she was elected to the first Baltimore City Hall of Fame for Women by the Baltimore City Commission for Women and given the Everett J. Waring Honor by the Law Society of Howard County. In 1987 she joined her mother Dr. Lillie Carroll Jackson, without whom there would have been no civil rights movement as we know it, with her induction into the Maryland Women's Hall of Fame. The Maryland Women's Bar Association with their first and only honorary membership honored her in 1990 and in 1991 the Monumental City Bar Association created the Juanita Jackson Mitchell Scholarship Fund. Excerpted from the Maryland Commission for Women About the Juanita Jackson Mitchell Multicultural Resource Center at Roland Park Country School.

The Juanita Jackson Mitchell Multicultural Resource Center was established in 1995 to develop and house a collection of multicultural resources within the Faissler Library of Roland Park Country School. The Resource Center memorializes the late Juanita Jackson Mitchell, an internationally renowned advocate of human rights, a life-long Baltimorean and grandmother of two Roland Park Country School graduates.

Believing that through knowledge, one can develop a greater understanding, tolerance and respect for all people and cultures, our goal is to provide a place where students can study in depth the cultures that are reflected in the RPCS community, the United States and the world at large.

For the past fourteen year, through its collection of books, multi-media resources, instructional materials, exhibits and programs, the Center has been committed to fostering a deeper understanding and appreciation of the cultures that make up the fabric of America.

About the Ralph J. Bunche Library of the U.S. State Department

The Ralph J. Bunche Library of the U.S. Department of State is the oldest Federal Government library. It was founded by the first Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson in 1789. It was dedicated to and renamed the Ralph J. Bunche Library on May 5, 1997. The Library has a large and important collection of unclassified and published information sources on foreign relations.

The Bunche Library is not open to the public. Any questions about the exhibit at the Bunche Library should be directed to Elaine Cline, 202-647-3002.