Howard Co. Schools Apologize For Past Segregation
ELLICOTT CITY, Md. (AP) -- The Howard County school board has apologized for maintaining segregated schools through the mid-1960s.
The Baltimore Sun reports that school board members read from a proclamation Thursday expressing "profound regret" for segregation and for its treatment of black students.
The proclamation, which was received with a standing ovation, also affirmed a commitment to educating each student regardless of race, ethnicity, gender or disability.
The county did not integrate its schools until a decade after the landmark 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education.
Desegregation was completed in 1965, when officials closed the all-black Harriet Tubman High School and began enrolling all elementary school students in the schools that were closest to them.
The county today has one of the highest-performing school systems in the country.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)