DALLAS–Dallas ISD will hold a dedication ceremony for the new Thelma Elizabeth Page Richardson Elementary at 10 a.m., Wednesday, October 23, at the school located at 7203 Bruton Rd.
Dallas ISD Trustee Bernadette Nutall, District 9, will be joined by Dallas ISD Chief of School Leadership Sylvia Reyna, Executive Director Israel Cordero, Richardson Principal Courtney Thomas and Rita Cloman, president, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Inc., Alpha XI Omega Chapter, to celebrate the occasion.
Student performances featuring the school’s fourth- and fifth-grade choirs and the John B. Hood Middle School JROTC will highlight the event.
Richardson opened this fall and currently serves 600 students in prekindergarten through fifth grade. The two-story, 96,250 square-foot building is one of three new buildings to open this school year under the 2008 Bond program.
The school is named for longtime Dallas educator and plaintiff in a successful 1942 lawsuit that led to equal pay for white and black teachers. A world languages teacher, Thelma Elizabeth Page Richardson (1911-1996) made history with a groundbreaking lawsuit filed Dec. 23, 1942, with the Negro Teachers’ Alliance of Dallas. With assistance from NAACP Chief Counsel Thurgood Marshall, she sought to equalize the salaries of black and white Dallas teachers who had the same qualifications.
Her goal was achieved and salaries were made equal in the years that followed the successful lawsuit. Throughout the remainder of her career, Richardson’s reputation as a civil rights pioneer grew to match her stature as a much-revered teacher at Lincoln, Booker T. Washington and North Dallas high schools.
