Boundary Stones | WETA's Washington DC Local History Website

Activists at drug store counter in Arlington. (Source: Washington Area Spark on Flickr.)

Sit-ins Come to Arlington

In June 1960, a biracial contingent of college students from the Non‑Violent Action Group staged sit‑ins at Arlington lunch counters—facing taunts, arrests, and even a counter‑demonstration by American Nazi Party leader George Lincoln Rockwell. Their persistence forced local stores to integrate within days and marked a major victory in the local civil rights movement.

“A Great City to Be”: Architect Leon Krier’s Plan to “Finish” Washington D.C.

Should the National Mall really be a National Lake? Leon Krier thought so! The Luxembourgish architect came to D.C. in the 1970s and saw Washington as an unfinished sketch waiting to be painted in...
The Legacy of the Annapolis Liberty Tree

During the Revolutionary War, many communities adopted Liberty Trees -- living symbols of opposition to British rule. The trees became a target for destruction by British soldiers, but unlike many...
Women in Maryland and Virginia Were Valuable Fundraisers and Organizers for the American Revolution

Though they may fall by the wayside of textbooks, without the efforts American women made toward the Revolution, the Continental Army would have been in dire straits indeed. Luckily, the women of...

Police officer escorts five young African American men out of the Alexandria, VA Library on August 21, 1939.

Black History Month

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Dunbar: The Evolution of America's First Black Public High School

Northwest D.C.'s Dunbar High School transcended humble beginnings in the basement of a church to become, as W.E.B. DuBois' The Crisis put it, the "greatest negro high school in the world." Its commitment to black academic excellence made it the alma mater of many prominent African Americans. 
November 14, 2024
- Washington, D.C.
By Christal Wilson
"I am free now:" Ona Judge's Escape from Slavery and George Washington's Hunt to Get Her Back

After serving as Martha Washington's ladies' maid for most of her life, Ona Judge escaped from slavery in 1796. While with the family in Philadelphia, she boarded a ship headed north to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. For years she would evade efforts by President Washington to return her to bondage at Mount Vernon.
May 21, 2024
- Virginia
By Kira Quintin
After Bolling: School Desegregation in DC

Most chronologies of the fight for school desegregation often leave off at the Supreme Court decision, a nice bow-on-top finish to a long struggle against segregation, but in reality, the process of integrating the schools was far from over.
March 3, 2021
- Washington, D.C.
By Michael Kohler

Watch & Learn

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How a D.C. Civil Rights Activist Fought Racism with Rodents

In the 1960s, Julius Hobson used a new tactic to fight racial inequality: rat relocation rallies.
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The 1939 Alexandria Library Sit In Opened a New Front in the Civil Rights Movement

Libraries had not been a big part of the civil rights movement but that changed in Alexandria, VA.
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A Black Arlington Neighborhood was Destroyed to Build the Pentagon

To build the Pentagon, the Black community of East Arlington was razed with 30 day's notice.

The Beatles Play Their First U.S. Concert

The Beatles play their first U.S. concert at the Washington Coliseum in NE Washington, less than 48 hours after the band's appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.

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