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…

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…

“The National Theatre of Washington has the bold affront to bring to the District of Columbia a show, ‘The Green Pastures,’ played entirely by a cast of our own people, with the definite understanding…

In 1939, Lincoln Temple Congregational Church was the site of a mass meeting to "Abolish Modern Slavery," hosted by the National Negro Congress (NNC). With a goal of focusing attention on police…

Since the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial in 1922, the larger-than-life-size, seated statue of the “Great Emancipator” has witnessed many milestones in the fight for civil rights. The dedication…

The Victorian rowhouse at 817 Q Street NW was, for more than three decades between 1943 and 1978, the local chapter office of the International Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP). Socialist…

"If we’re going to have civilization in Washington, we need more friction."

“He was a radical among the radicals ... It is only the gentleman and the scholar who can be a radical and an agitator without being a nuisance.”

In May 1961, at the former Greyhound Bus Station on New York Avenue NW, a group of activist volunteers boarded a bus to begin what would become a tumultuous and violence-filled “Freedom Ride 1961.”

When the stately, turn-of-the 20th century rowhouse at 1727 S Street NW in Dupont Circle was sold to an African American couple in violation of a racial covenant that restricted its sale to whites,…