Black History Sites: Washington, DC

The 300 sites associated with Black history and culture included in this Story Map have been classified into seven thematic categories. Each category, represented by a tab on the menu bar, has a map with points identifying the sites associated with that specific theme. The categories are color-coded as shown in the legend below:

While each of the thematic tabs shows only those sites associated with the identified theme, this All Sites map shows all of the sites together. In addition, another tab, African American Heritage Trail, offers online access to the African American Heritage Trail (AAHT) and its fifteen walking tours. A copy of the trail brochure in pdf form has been uploaded to that tab and can be printed out for walking and experiencing the tours in person.

To explore the sites by thematic category, click on the individual tabs shown in the taskbar across the top of the page.

To explore the individual sites, click on any point on any of the maps and a pop-up box will appear with the name, address and brief history of the site. The pop-ups also include links to additional information on the specific property.

A complete list of the sites can be found in the Excel spreadsheet included  here .

Black organizations and institutions from schools to churches to fraternal orders to non-profits, built by and for Blacks throughout the city’s history are included on this map. Churches are the oldest and most numerous of the city’s Black institutions, but other early entities, such as Howard University, founded by an Act of Congress in 1867 and the Department of Justice, established in 1870 to protect the civil and voting rights for African Americans, are also highlighted.

The number and types of institutions increased in the early twentieth century as Black leaders advanced a racial solidarity movement that contributed to a thriving Black business and institutional community. The opening of the first Black YMCA at 12th Streets NW in 1912 symbolized Black Washington’s ability to finance its own institutions just as Nannie Helen Burroughs’ National Training School for Women and Girls fostered Black economic autonomy. Black businesses and institutions flourished during segregation, but this did not deter Black leaders and residents from fighting for full rights and benefits of American citizenship.

Click on any point on the map and a pop-up box will appear with the name, address and brief history of the site. The pop-ups also include links to additional information on the specific property.

The homes, offices and other sites associated with some of the many African Americans who have been political, educational, religious and cultural leaders in Washington, DC since before Emancipation can be found on this map. The map identifies sites associated with Civil War-era orators and abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass, and with businesspersons and educators like Myrtilla Miner who fought before and after the Civil War to free and educate Black Americans, both enslaved and free.

The map also includes the homes of African American politicians and civil rights activists like Blanche K. Bruce, the first Black senator to serve a full term in Congress (1874-1880) and his wife Josephine who helped found the National Association of Colored Women, along with those of Black Washingtonians who fought for racial equality at the workplace, at educational institutions, commercial establishments, public parks and other facilities. Many of these leaders and activists were students and professors at Howard University, teachers in the city’s public schools, preachers at many of the well-established Black churches, local businessmen, clubwomen (and men), entertainers and athletes who lived in or visited DC and made their mark.

Click on any point on the map and a pop-up box will appear with the name, address and brief history of the site. The pop-ups also include links to additional information on the specific property.

Historic sites associated with African American business and commerce can be found on this map. Black Americans have been engaged in business in the District to some extent since the earliest days of the city’s existence. Enslaved workers were “hired out” by their enslavers to help build the city itself from the White House to the Capitol, just as free and enslaved Blacks toiled in the waterfront businesses of the pre- and post-Revolutionary port town of Georgetown. With certain notable exceptions like that of James T. Wormley, a Black man who operated one of the finest lodgings in Washington just after the Civil War, Black employment was largely restricted to menial or manual labor jobs in the pre- and post-Civil War years.

By the late 1880s, however, in the face of growing racial hostility, a Black business movement emerged to encourage the formation and support of Black businesses. As a result, between 1890 and 1920, the number of Black-owned, operated and patronized businesses, particularly in historically Black neighborhoods, increased dramatically. In its 1901 published directory of Black businesses, the Union League of Washington listed over 1,000 businesses run by Blacks in DC compared to the 120 listed in its 1894 directory. Not only did the number of businesses proliferate, but so too did the types and variety of businesses from the traditional barber shop to banks and other white-collar ventures.

Peruse the map to learn about some of the many historically Black-owned and operated businesses such as John Whitelaw Lewis’ Whitelaw Hotel and his Industrial Savings Bank, the first Black-owned bank in the country; the Murray Brothers Printing Company which printed the city’s leading Black newspaper; and Geneva Valentine’s Equitable Realty Company that was instrumental in breaking down discriminatory housing practices in the city.

Click on any point on the map and a pop-up box will appear with the name, address and brief history of the site. The pop-ups also include links to additional information on the specific property.

Leisure and recreation play a vital role for the quality of life for everyone. But for Black Washingtonians, who were denied access to most public entertainment and recreational venues, opportunities for leisure and play were even more crucial. As noted by Patsy Fletcher, author of Historically African American Leisure Destinations Around Washington, D.C. African Americans needed “safe havens where they could feel comfortable and able to relax without being subject to white rejection or mistreatment.” Some of these places of leisure, like Suburban Gardens Amusement Park in Deanwood were Black-owned or operated; others were white-owned but catered to Black crowds; a few others were public and open to Blacks on special days or at certain hours during the day.

This map identifies some of those places where oppression could give way to relaxation and play.

Click on any point on the map and a pop-up box will appear with the name, address and brief history of the site. The pop-ups also include links to additional information on the specific property.

In the early- to mid-20th century, Black Americans confronted racial discrimination in every aspect of life from employment and education to housing and leisure. In their fight for civil rights, Black leaders and civic activists organized themselves in a variety of ways, including staging demonstrations, protests and pickets. Though not always or immediately effective, these actions were critical in raising public awareness and visibility of discrimination in all facets of life.

In the early 1930s, the New Negro Alliance (NNA) popularized picketing when it mounted its “Don’t Buy Where You Can’t Work” campaign that employed picketing of white-owned businesses in Black communities that did not hire Black workers. The Consolidated Parent Group, a grassroots organization established by local barber Bishop Gardner, staged pickets and boycotts in 1947 demanding that students in the over-enrolled Browne Junior High School be allowed to attend a nearby and under-enrolled White junior high school.

In 1948, the national organization, The Young Progressives of America, teamed up with local residents to picket Rosedale Playground demanding entry to a segregated playground in a neighborhood that was home to a large Black population. These early and direct-action techniques in Washington achieved real and notable results that paved the way for legal challenges to segregation and to the eventual dismantling of Jim Crow laws.

Non-violent forms of protest, such as the Freedom Rides in 1961, peaked during the civil rights movement as groups sought to test compliance with civil rights-era laws and to push for greater equality. Protests organized by #BlackLivesMatter against police brutality and other forms of racial injustice, continue to take place today.

This map identifies seminal sites where protests of all sorts were staged in the fight for equality for the city and nation.

Click on any point on the map and a pop-up box will appear with the name, address and brief history of the site. The pop-ups also include links to additional information on the specific property.

This map recognizes places that were built or named to honor or officially recognize certain events or individuals who contributed significantly to the history and culture of the city or nation. These sites range in scope from Marvin Gaye Park along Watts Branch in southeast named in 2006 to celebrate the life of the internationally revered vocalist who grew up in the vicinity of the stream, to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library, named in 1971, while still under construction, to honor the recently slain civil rights hero.

Monuments, such as “The Spirit of Freedom,” the African American Civil Rights Memorial at Vermont Avenue and 9th Street NW honoring the more than 200,000 United States Colored Troops who served in the Civil War and the #Black Lives Matter Plaza on 16th Street north of the White House where protests against police brutality took place in the summer of 2020 are included on this map.

Click on any point on the map and a pop-up box will appear with the name, address and brief history of the site. The pop-ups also include links to additional information on the specific property.

This map highlights cemeteries where African Americans, both enslaved and free, were buried or re-interred, as well as sites that are no longer extant but tell critical stories associated with African American history. This includes places associated with the brutal history of slavery, such as Williams’ Slave Pen, one of the city’s most lucrative slave prisons where enslaved persons were held and shackled awaiting transport to southern markets. It also includes sites associated with the history of racial segregation, particularly as it relates to racially restrictive deeds and housing covenants.

It also includes sites with more celebratory stories, such as that of Franklin Square, where, beginning in 1866, Washingtonians began commemorating the 1862 signing of DC’s Emancipation Act with an Emancipation Day Parade.

Click on any point on the map and a pop-up box will appear with the name, address and brief history of the site. The pop-ups also include links to additional information on the specific property.