D.C.’s Eastern High celebrates 100 years of memories and milestones

[DCSportsFan.com]

Joyce Garrett admired the decades-old photo. In it, a younger version of herself was directing an award-winning Eastern High School choir that traveled to Vienna and wowed audiences at the Kennedy Center and White House.

Instead of a cropped Afro, Garrett now wears her hair past her ears. The old photo showed a barefaced choir director; she now dons a pair of wide-frame glasses.

“I feel like I have DNA in this building,” said Garrett, who returned recently to Eastern — known also as “The Pride of Capitol Hill” — to help celebrate its 100-year anniversary. “Every time I turn a corner, I remember something.”

Dozens of former Eastern students shared memories of their own at a recent event that marked not only the school’s centennial, but celebrated its inaugural class of Hall of Fame inductees. The Friday evening began with the unveiling of an exhibit that documents Eastern’s long history — from its opening on 17th and East Capitol streets in Northeast Washington in 1923, to its desegregation in the 1950s, to a multimillion-dollar renovation in 2009.

Read more here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/04/04/eastern-high-school-dc-100-year-anniversary/

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