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Give me the money that has been spent in war and I will clothe every man, woman, and child in an attire of which kings and queens will be proud.  I will build a schoolhouse in every valley over the whole earth.  I will crown every hillside with a place of worship consecrated to peace.

~   Charles Sumner

Charles Sumner

Photo of the Charles Sumner School

The Charles Sumner School, Museum and Archives

1201 17th Street (M and 17th Street), NW, Washington, DC

The Charles Sumner School, Museum and Archives is located across from the National Geographic Society, on the corner of “M” and 17th Streets NW, Washington, DC.

GPS: 385421N 77218W

It is the official museum and archives for the DC public school system and houses pertinent memorabilia and artifacts.

The Museum is open to the public free of charge Monday-Friday, 10:00am to 5:00pm

The archives are open by appointment only, Monday-Thursday 10:00am to 4:00pm. 

Call 202-730-0478 to schedule an appointment or inquire about tours.

Built in  1872

Architect: Adolf Cluss and Robert I. Fleming 

Added to the National Register of Historic Places, Dec. 20, 1979.

 

The Charles Sumner School, established in 1872, was one of the earliest schools for African Americans in Washington, D.C. Named for the prominent abolitionist and United States Senator Charles Sumner, the school became the first teachers college for black citizens in the city and the headquarters of its segregated school system for African American students. It currently houses a small museum, a research room, art exhibits, and the archives of the District of Columbia Public Schools.

 

 

 
War is a  resort to brute Force, whereby each nation strives to overpower the other.  Reason, and the divine part of our nature, in which alone we differ from the beast, in which alone we approach the Divinity, in which alone are the elements of justice, the professed object of War, are dethroned.
It is, in short, a temporary adoption, by men, of the character of beasts, emulating their ferocity, rejoicing like them in blood, and seeking, as with a lion’s paw, to hold an asserted right.
In more recent days, this character of War is somewhat disguised, by the skill and knowledge which it employs ; it is, however, still the same, made more destructive by the genius and intellect which have become its servants.

~  Charles Sumner, 1845

I cannot deny any human being, the humblest, any right of equality.  He must be equal with me before the law, or the promises of the Declaration of Independence are not yet fulfilled. 

~   Sen. Sumner, 20 December 1871

In the coming contest, I wish it understood that I belong to the party of freedom — to that party which plants itself on the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.  I hear the old political saw, that “we must take the least of two evils.” …For myself, if two evils are presented to me I will take neither….  There are matters legitimately within the range of expediency and compromise… But the question before the country is of a different character.  This will not admit of compromise.  It is not within the domain of expediency.  To be wrong on this is to be wholly wrong….

~ Charles Sumner speaking at a convention of anti-slavery Whigs, Worcester, May 1848

By the supreme law which commands me to do no injustice, by the comprehensive Christian law of brotherhood, by the Constitution which I have sworn to support, I am bound to disobey this Act.

~ Sen. Sumner speaking of the Fugitive Slave Law, 1852

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