New online exhibit displays effort to desegregate Cincinnati public schools

By Julianna Witt, assistant archivist, and Catherine Cubera, digital archivist

On December 10th, 1973, the seven-member Board of the Cincinnati Public Schools adopted a resolution to end segregation of the city’s public school system — a resolution that would go unfulfilled and prompt a lawsuit by the Cincinnati branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

A new online exhibit created by the Archives and Rare Books Library (ARB) showcases the NAACP Bronson v. Board of Education of the City of Cincinnati records, and documents the library’s efforts to create a finding aid for the collection.  

The exhibit gives users the opportunity to learn more about the collection virtually. StoryMaps, a story-authoring platform, allows for an interactive and engaging experience for users, combining digital narrative capabilities of platforms like WordPress or Omeka, but with additional features such as embedded timelines and dynamic, customizable maps. These capabilities made StoryMaps an ideal platform for bringing the Bronson exhibit to life. For example, by using this technology, we were able to design an interactive map that uses embedded cartographic points to highlight the 19 suburban Cincinnati school districts involved in the Bronson court case, helping to create spatial context and greater meaning for users as they make their way through the digital exhibit.

The focus of the exhibit is on the context surrounding the case, the history of the case and key figures and events. The exhibition is broken down by a history of segregation in Cincinnati Public Schools, an interactive map on the suburban school districts that were involved, biographical information on the expert witnesses, notes on the settlement agreement and a timeline of key events leading up to the case filing and turning points throughout the 10-year legal battle. To supplement the digital exhibition, there are photographs of key documents and links to previous blog posts, the completed finding aid, ARB’s online catalog and the initial press release announcing the project.  

The NAACP Bronson v. Board of Education of the City of Cincinnati exhibition is a permanent addition to ARB’s and the University of Cincinnati Libraries websites. 

The Bronson v. Board collection contains the Cincinnati Chapter of the NAACP’s records related to the case, including correspondence, court filings, background research on segregation in education in Cincinnati and Hamilton County, the conditions of schools, curriculum and how the Cincinnati Public Schools addressed the decree that was agreed upon as a result of the case.