In 1946, eight years before Brown v. Topeka, Harriette Curley graduated at the top of her teachers’ program at Drake University and was hired on as a kindergarten teacher at Perkins Elementary School. A group of neighbors attempted to pressure Des Moines Public Schools Superintendent Newell McCombs to remove Ms. Curley, claiming that a Black teacher at the neighborhood school would bring down property values in a white neighborhood. A formal petition was never filed, and in the end, Superintendent McCombs supported Ms. Curley, as did her school principal.
Windsor Presbyterian church was particularly vocal in favor of Miss Curley. The minister, Reverend Orr was very vocal in his support of Harriette Curley. On September 13, 1946, the Register published an article that Windsor Presbyterian Church’s congregation had passed a unanimous resolution in support of Harriette Curley hiring and retention.
AFL-CIO Union weighed in: On September 11, 1946, the Register published an article wherein the AFL-CIO issued a statement in Harriette Curley’s favor.
Ms. Curley’s hiring was the culmination of a nearly 50-year effort. In 1899, a group of Black community leaders expressed the need for a minimum of 2 Black Teachers and 1 school board seat in the Des Moines Public School system. The following year, Des Moines Public Schools went on to hire an additional five Black teachers.
Research by Kari Bassett, M.B.A. and Simone Sorteberg-Mills, PhD.
Photo from Des Moines Register Archives, September 4, 1946.
