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Thurgood Marshall Academy is located at the gateway to Historic Anacostia, the most historic African-American neighborhood in Washington, DC. Anacostia was the home of the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass and the first homesteads set up for newly freed slaves by the Freedman's Bureau. (To learn more about Anacostia's rich and diverse history, please visit the Anacostia Museum, Cultural Tourism DC, or the National Register of Historic Places.)

In recent years, however, Anacostia has been marked by the decay that has caused the decline of so many urban areas. Ward 8, where our school is located, has, according to the 2000 Census, the highest levels of poverty and child poverty in the District along with the lowest percentages of high school and college degrees among adults. Youth in the vicinity of Thurgood Marshall Academy also have access to approximately one-tenth the non-profit support services available to students in a Northwest neighborhood with needs nearly as dire.

Despite all the educational barriers arrayed against the youth of this community, the very existence of Thurgood Marshall Academy attests to the abiding strength of the people and institutions of Anacostia and Congress Heights. Churches and other community organizations supported the creation of a public charter high school founded on the idea that no student should ever be given up as lost to achievement and excellence. Students and their families agreed to meet new, higher standards for parental involvement, student conduct, community citizenship, and academic improvement. More than 200 individuals serve the school as volunteers, and scores of organizations provide the tutors and mentors so crucial to erasing educational deficits built up over many years. Only a resilient and hopeful community could produce such determined and effective support for a new charter school.