Corliss Grimes - What She Gave Us

The following are some of my memories of Corliss Grimes, a talented, devoted community leader and educator who served children in the District of Columbia for many years. Corliss passed away 5 years ago. Her legacy remains very large. You can meet her in this video that has been uploaded to the Internet Archive..


In 1988 I was working at the office of the Washington Apple Pi computer club when the club received a phone call from a woman asking for help finding people to do computer activities with elementary school children after school in the Shaw neighborhood of DC. At that time I had a part-time job at a private school teaching elementary school children. I was ready to move on, though. The students I was working with just did not need my help that much.

So I went to visit Corliss Grimes to see what she was doing with her students. At a townhouse on Q St. NW, about 15 students from Garrison Elementary School gathered for afterschool academic enrichment. The students who showed up were given a snack first, and then divided up into different groups for homework help, arts activities and computer activities.

The computers on hand were three Apple IIe computers set up on narrow tables in a broom closet on the 2nd floor. The broom closet was the only location in the building which could be locked.