The 1881 murder of two children in Washington County set off a storm of newspaper coverage, centering on a poor, illiterate African American woman.
Tag: racism
DC’s schools were strictly segregated until the Brown v. Board decision of 1954. Hugh Price was one of the first Black students to integrate Taft Junior High School that September. He went on to a remarkable career.
In 1967, the city began to demolish the Taylor Street Bridge to make way for the North Central Freeway. It was part of a Congressional plan for new highways through the city. Protests erupted and would challenge powerful forces for control of the city’s future.
A short, photo-rich history of the Brookland neighborhood in Washington DC.
Little Isabel Wall was kicked out of the Brookland School in 1909. Whether she was white or black was a question that roiled the neighborhood.
Loïs Mailou Jones, acclaimed artist and professor of design and watercolor at Howard University, lived in Brookland, where she set up the “Little Paris Studio,” to work with artists of color.
Racially-restrictive housing covenants were a vicious tool to keep neighborhoods white. A block of Kearny Street provides an example.
There were many tools the establishment used to keep people of color out of particular neighborhoods. Racially-restrictive housing covenants was one of the most powerful.
Bygone Brookland 