An Education

Growth continued in the field of education through the 1930s in spite of the Depression, and new schools were constructed.

The state announced it would no longer provide funds for a county with a 12-grade system, and Anne Arundel converted to one with 11 grades.

The teaching profession was different then, said Rachel Brown, a teacher for more than 50 years in the county.

"We taught, and students learned," she said.

Finding a motivation for learning was the key, she said. "We found something they were interested in and used that to help them learn." Sometimes it was the stars, sometimes the weather, sometimes it was a season such as Halloween or Christmas.

"The idea was to find some way to want to make them learn," said Philip Brown, 90, a teacher and principal with the county for more than 50 years and a local black historian. However, it wouldn't be until 1966 that desegregation was no longer the law of the land in Anne Arundel County schools.

Blacks were waging their own battles with the school system. While there were about 40 two-room schoolhouses in the county during the '30s, pay for black schoolteachers was not equal to that of whites. In 1939, Walter Mills, then principal of Parole Elementary School, sued the county Board of Education in federal court in Baltimore to get equal pay for black teachers. He was represented by future Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall, then special counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

U.S. District Judge W. Calvin Chesnut ruled that paying black teachers less than white teachers was a breach of their constitutional rights. One of Marshall's arguments was that in 1937 the county Board of Education fixed the top salaries of white teachers at $1,250 while for "colored" teachers it was $700. The landmark case was a new example of equality for blacks, but it would be almost 30 years before the effects of school segregation would come to an end in the county.

County changes

The 1930s saw many of the distinguishing features of Anne Arundel from the previous decade gone or going. In 1935, the Washington, Baltimore and Potomac Railroad went out of operation. It had been instrumental in bringing summer visitors to resort areas in the county and causing development of planned communities.

It was bought at public auction and most if its pieces sold at bargain rates by scrap dealers. While the north county north of General's Highway remained linked to Baltimore, Annapolis was the urban center for the south and central county. A little over one-fifth of the county's residents were state or local government employees, while another third worked in trades or services.

Manufacturing and agriculture each ran about one-eighth of the population, Ms. McWilliams said. International developments would bring even bigger changes for the county and the nation. In 1930, Adolf Hitler's Nazi party emerged as the majority party in the German national elections.

After a decade of demonstrations and threatening moves in Europe, Hitler invaded Poland in 1939. Next

Published 12/05/99, The Capital, Annapolis, Md.
Copyright 2000 The Capital, Annapolis, Md.

Anne Arundel County History: Roaring Changes, Law and Order, The Depression, The New Deal, An Education, War & Remembrance.

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