Exhibition
Let None Be Excluded: The Origins of Equal School Rights in Salem
On view April 23, 2022 to April 14, 2024
In the nineteenth-century, Salem residents celebrated the city’s early public school system for welcoming and educating all children. Despite the system’s success, the Salem school committee decided in 1834 to establish separate schools for Black children.
This sudden decision and its implementation angered Black residents who launched a near-decade long struggle for the educational rights of their children. Their valiant efforts convinced the Salem school committee to abolish racially separate public schools in 1844. Salem was one of the first US municipalities to do so. A decade later, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts would become the first state to pass a law forbidding school committees from classifying students by race.
On view in the James Duncan Phillips Trust Gallery, this exhibition features documents that capture the impassioned activism of young Black leaders, including Sarah Parker Remond and Robert Morris. These youth, as agents in their own education, sparked the national equal school rights movement by tethering education rights to democracy and racial equality. These Salem voices and their spirited words and actions changed the course of our schools and our nation.
Let None Be Excluded: The Origins of Equal School Rights in Salem is organized by the Peabody Essex Museum. The exhibition is made possible by the generosity of Carolyn and Peter S. Lynch and The Lynch Foundation. Additional support was provided by individuals who support the Exhibition Incubation Fund: Jennifer and Andrew Borggaard, James B. and Mary Lou Hawkes, Kate and Ford O'Neil, and Henry and Callie Brauer. We also recognize the generosity of the East India Marine Associates of the Peabody Essex Museum.
Follow along on social media using #PEMLetNone
Plan of the City of Salem, 1836, in The Salem Directory, and City Register (detail), 1837. Phillips Library, gift of Henry Wheatland, F74.S1 S2M.
Plan your visit
PEM is open Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays & Sundays 10 am–5 pm.
Learn what steps are being taken to ensure the health and safety of our community at pem.org/safety.
Visitors may purchase advanced general admission tickets at pem.org/tickets or by calling 978-542-1511.
Admission: Adults $20; seniors $18; students $12; youth, members, and Salem residents free.
Location: East India Square, 161 Essex Street, Salem, MA 01970.