Though unremarkable in appearance, the modest building at 1936 11th Street NW—once a Sanitary Grocery Store—looms large in civil rights history as the scene of a landmark Supreme Court decision…

Uline Arena became the largest venue in the city for sports events when it opened in 1941, but its whites-only policy in an increasingly Black city, and in a neighborhood where many African Americans…

The Seafarers Yacht Club of Washington, DC, established in 1944, is the oldest African American boat club on the East Coast and represents a step in the long process of equal access to public…

Rosedale Playground opened in 1913, yet it was restricted to whites only in a neighborhood where Black families had been living since the late nineteenth century. As the Black population in the…

Rose Park Playground was one of the first playgrounds in the District to be racially integrated. It was part of an official experiment in interracial recreation organized in 1949 by the American…

The Pigskin Club was founded by Dr. Charles B. Fisher on July 30, 1938, as a social organization of men who had participated in or contributed to collegiate football. A similar club, the Touchdown…

In the late 1940s, Park View Playground—an all-white facility in an increasingly Black neighborhood—was one of a few playgrounds selected by the Board of Recreation for racial integration. This…

“They are tax payers, they are citizens, and they have a right to play golf on public courses on the same basis as whites. To be sure, we have maintained a golf course for Negroes in Washington, but…

As summer began in 1949, African American residents of far Northeast and Southeast looked forward to finally having access to a swimming pool on their side of the Anacostia River.

“I would prefer to sell to the colored man because he has a so much harder time getting a house.”