Gardner Bishop
| Gardner LaClede Bishop | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born |
January 20, 1909 Rocky Mount, North Carolina |
| Died | November 25, 1992 Washington, D.C. |
| Spouse(s) | Ethel Crutchfield Bishop |
| Profession | Barber, Activist |
Gardner L. Bishop was a barber and civil rights activist in Washington, D.C. His work for equal schools for black and white children in the 1940s and 1950s included organizing the student strike at Browne Junior High School and contributing to the historic Bolling v. Sharpe case that made school segregation unconstitutional in the District. Bishop, originally from North Carolina, was known for his outspokenness and his drive to end elitism in the black community.
Gardner LaClede Bishop was a barber and activist remembered for his contributions to the school integration movement in the District of Columbia in the 1940s and 1950s. He was born on January 20, 1909 in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.[1] He learned how to express his opinions early on, winning prizes as a high school debater in his home state. Although he attended a year of college at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, he did not graduate. In 1930 he moved to Washington, D.C.[2] He lived east of the Anacostia River and, like his father, began working as a barber.[3] After challenging the comments of racist customers on multiple occasions, he was fired. Not cowed, he opened B&D Barber Shop at 1515 U Street NW in 1940, which he owned and operated through his retirement in 1985. His black clientele could get both “a haircut and an earful” from the “barber of U Street.”[4] He was a member of the Presbyterian Church and was married for 58 years to Thelma Crutchfield Bishop, who died in 1989. They had three children: Judine Bishop Johnson, Anita Harley, and Gardner L. Bishop Jr. He died of kidney failure on November 25, 1992 at age 82.[5]
Bishop focused not only on the inequalities between black schools and white schools, but also on the differences between upper and lower class black schools and attitudes. He was appalled by the snobbishness of the elite black Washingtonians. Part of his motivation for organizing a strike at Browne Junior High School came from his rebuffed requests to transfer his daughter to Banneker Junior High. Middle class black officials informed him that because he was only a barber, his daughter could not go to Banneker, a school meant for the middle class. This rebuke infuriated Bishop, and fueled his mistrust of some of the activist organizations he saw as furthering the agendas of the upper classes of society, including the NAACP. Bishop verbalized his sense of frustration and oppression, saying, “We were on the bottom shelf. I’m black and I’m poor, so I’m segregated twice.”[6]
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