DISD Dedicates the Thelma Elizabeth Page Richardson Elementary School

Wednesday, October 23 was a special day in Dallas as the Thelma Elizabeth Page Richardson Elementary School was formally dedicated. The school named for one of Dallas’ unsung heroines highlighted the courageous accomplishments of Richardson who filed a lawsuit in 1942 to equalize the pay of Black teachers and white teachers. The difference in pay at that time was $1800 for white teachers and $1260 for Black
teachers! Richardson represented by NAACP Chief Counsel Thurgood Marshall (later to become the first African American to sit as a Justice on the Supreme Court) prevailed in an out-of-court settlement after which DISD equalized salaries to Black and white teachers over a three year period.

A teacher at DallasISD high schools, Lincoln, Booker T. Washington and North Dallas High Schools, Richardson was known as a talented and gifted teacher, and a civil rights pioneer, and made the perfect plaintiff since the District argued that Black teachers were paid less because they were less qualified having been taught in segregated schools. Richardson attended only integrated schools in her native Colorado, and thus discredited the District’s argument for unequal pay.

Attending the ceremony were members of Alpha Kappa Alpha’s Alpha Xi Omega Chapter, leaders in the community including County Commissioner John Wiley Price, County Commissioner Dr. Theresa Daniel, City Council Member Rick Callahan and School Board Members Bernadette Nutall and Carla Ranger, civic leaders Frank Breedlove, Robert Brown and Dr. Alfred Roberts Sr., parents, students and staff.

Remarks by Board Member Bernadette Nutall, Commissioner Price and Alpha Xi Omega President Rita Cloman all focused on the courage of Richardson to stand up during a time of atrocious behavior towards Blacks. A former president of Alpha Kappa Alpha’s Alpha Xi Omega Chapter, the sorority members stood in as Richardson’s family on this special day, and reaffirmed their dedication to the principles of social justice and courageous stands as exemplified by Richardson.

Richardson Elementary School was constructed under the District’s Bond Program at a cost of $16.8 million, with a 96,250 square footage with the capacity to house 810 students.