Mary Bolling to speak about late husband’s role in desegregating DC Public Schools as lead plaintiff in Bolling v. Sharpe 
 
 
WHAT: DC Courts Black History Month Celebration week #2 –  “Personal Recollections of the Civil Rights Movement” 
 
WHERE: Moultrie Courthouse   Jurors’ Lounge – 3rd floor 
 
WHEN: Friday, February 18th   Noon to 1:30 PM 
 
WHO: Mrs. Mary Bolling, Wife of Late Mr. Spottswood Thomas Bolling, Jr., Plaintiff in Bolling v. Sharpe; Judge Frank Schwelb, DC Court of Appeals; Mr. James Watts, Retired DC Superior Court Probation Officer    

In the second event of the DC Courts’ celebration of Black History Month 2005, Mrs. Mary Bolling will share her late husband’s experiences as the plaintiff in the landmark Washington, DC desegregation case, Bolling v. Sharpe.  In 1951, 12-year-old Spottswood Thomas Bolling, Jr. was a DC student who could not attend Sousa Junior High School because it was reserved for white students.  The NAACP filed Bolling v. Sharpe on Spottswood’s behalf as one of the four cases consolidated before the US Supreme Court and known collectively as Brown v. Board of Education.  The Supreme Court’s 1954 decision in these cases ruled unconstitutional the system of educational segregation in this country. 
 
Judge Eric Washington of the DC Court of Appeals will open this event, entitled “Personal Recollections of the Civil Rights Movement.”  Judge Frank Schwelb of the DC Court of Appeals will share his experiences registering voters in the South in the 1960s and James Watts, a retired DC Superior Court Probation Officer, will talk about his activism in the Civil Rights movement as a college student.