Black and White image of William Syphax School. DC Inventory, 2001.

ID: 3654 ~ Source: DC Preservation League Photo Repository

This file appears in: William Syphax School: This historically black elementary school commemorates William Syphax (1825-1891), the first president of the Board of Trustees of Colored Schools of Washington and Georgetown.

William Syphax School: This historically black elementary school commemorates William Syphax (1825-1891), the first president of the Board of Trustees of Colored Schools of Washington and Georgetown.

By The DC Historic Sites team

William Syphax was born in 1825 to Charles Syphax and Maria Carter. Charles, Syphax’s father, was enslaved by a man named George Washington Parke Custis, grandson and adopted son of George and Martha…