Hedgepeth/Williams
Through the Years
Junior High No. 2 was a predominantly white school with almost no African American students. At the time, Trenton placed students into schools closest to their homes, with the exception of Black students.
Leon Williams and Janet Hedgepeth, Black middle schoolers, were forced to attend the closest all-Black school, New Lincoln School, which was 2.5 miles away from them.
1940s
At the start of the school year, Janet and Leon went to Junior High No. 2, wanting to attend school with their white friend Dolores. Dolores had been admitted, while Janet and Leon were turned away. The principal told them the school "wasn't built for negroes".
Their mothers, Gladys Hedgepeth and Berline Williams, aided by lawyer Robert Queen, filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against the Trenton Board of Education.
September
1943
1943
The case made its way up to the New Jersey Supreme Court, who declared that Junior School No. 2 had "unlawfully discriminated" against the students. This was in direct violation of N.J.S.A 18:14-2[2], which stated that it is "unlawful for boards of education to exclude children from any public school on ground that they are of negro [sic] race".
Leon and Janet were immediately enrolled in Junior School No. 2. The court also ordered Trenton Board of Education to admit all Black students to all Trenton public schools.
1945
The New Jersey Division Against Discrimination is established to protect people's civil rights on the basis of race
in schooling, employment,
and housing.
Related Victories
January 31,
1944
1950
Discrimination in every form is prohibited in every arena of public life in New Jersey.
Related Victories
At the time, the Hedgepeth/Williams decision was the only anti-segregation legal precedent in the country. The Honorable Thurgood Marshall and his team of NAACP attorneys used the Hedgepeth/Williams decision as a precedent in the historic Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case.
The Brown v. Board of Education decision famously declared that racial segregation of schools is unconstitutional, paving the way to overturn the 1896 Separate But Equal Doctrine that was used to create the Jim Crow laws.
May 17,
1954
1955
New Teachers 1957-1958
1957
1969
The Trenton, New Jersey Board of Education renames the former "whites only" Junior School No. 2. The school is renamed Hedgepeth/Williams, in honor of the families whose bravery set the wheels of history in motion.
1991