| The papers (c. 1965-1970) of Ann Mae Driscoll include clippings, correspondence, drawings, legal briefs, state and county publications, reports, and manuscript material relating to the desegregation/integration of the public school system in Anne Arundel County. As one of the leaders of the group, “Citizens for Better Schools,” Driscoll’s collection centers on the activities they took to bring legal action against the Board of Education of Anne Arundel County for its rezoning/redistricting/ relocation of boundaries of the Parole Elementary School.
Specifically, Ms. Driscoll’s organization, under the advisement of their legal team, Hogan & Hartson with Robert C. Maynard as counsel, charged the County with gerrymandering. In defense, Dr. David Jenkins, the Superintendent of the Board, countered those charges by explaining that the redistricting proposed under the Paydon Plan (devised by US Naval Academy mathematician, Dr. Joseph F Paydon) violated the “neighborhood school concept.” Other parties involved include the: Committee for Responsible Education, Committee for the Betterment of Public Schools in Anne Arundel County, Maryland State Department of Education, the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, and the U.S. Commission on Education.
Further, the collection contains many newspaper articles regarding other parties and events related to integration/desegregation of the public school system in Anne Arundel County. They include reports about the controversy surrounding the election process for both the County Board of Education and the Anne Arundel County School Board. There are also clippings reporting on the social climate at Wiley H. Bates High School--renamed Annapolis Middle High School when it integrated in 1966. Some of the remaining articles and editorials make charges of re-segregation/ de facto segregation using the student population at Tyler and Germantown Elementary Schools specifically.
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