• Bomb damage to US Capitol, 1915. (Library of Congress)
    U.S. Capitol Bombing
     
     
    Terrorism Hits Home in 1915
    In a span of less than 12 hours, a German college professor set off a bomb in the U.S. Capitol and assaulted J.P. Morgan at his home on Long Island.
  • The real life "Smokey the Bear," shown here frolicking in a pool at the National Zoo c.1950, was the embodiment of a fire safety public awareness campaign that started during World War II. (Photo credit: Francine Schroeder, Smithsonian Institution Archives. Used for educational purposes in accordance with the Smithsonian Archives terms of use.)
    Strange But True
     
     
    Smokey the Bear, 20252
    How did Smokey the Bear come to have his very own personal Washington, D.C. zipcode? Glad you asked.
  • Did You Know?
     
     
    The Little Italy Under the Parkway
    Before the northern section of the George Washington Memorial Parkway was built in the 1950s, Arlington was home to a village of Italian quarrymen, accessible only by footpath.
  • Washington Post Headline
    Fact or Fiction?
     
     
    Flying Saucers Over DC?
    Though the government discounted them, sightings of apparent flying saucers over Washington, DC were big news in the summer of 1952.

The First Delegate

5/5/2021 in DC by Michael Kohler
Norton Chipman

A century before Walter Fauntroy and Julius Hobson competed for the modern District Delegate seat, another man held the seat. His election and the eventual elimination of his seat are a lesser known part of the history of race and democracy in the District.

Dr. Loguen-Fraser in Puerto Plata. (Source: Wikipedia).

Dr. Loguen-Fraser's Solemn Vow

3/29/2021 in DC by Charlotte Muth

To close off Women's History Month, learn about Sarah Marinda Loguen Fraser, the first woman to receive an M.D. from the Syracuse University College of Medicine, and the fourth Black woman to become a licensed physician in the United States. While her extraordinary life took her all around the world, including New York, the Dominican Republic and France, some of the most important landmarks of her life happened in Washington, D.C.

George E.C. Hayes, Thurgood Marshall, and James Nabrit Jr congratulate each other outside of the Supreme Court on the day of the decision

James Nabrit Jr and His Uncompromising Assault on Segregation

3/25/2021 in DC by Michael Kohler

James Nabrit Jr came to the District as an up-and-coming Howard law professor. He developed the first course at an American law school on civil rights law and instilled in his students an unrelenting belief in the immorality and impracticality of the Plessy v. Ferguson decision. As the lead counsel for the District's Bolling v. Sharpe case, Nabrit championed the position of attacking segregation outright, instead of relying on equalization. He pushed Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP to sharpen their attacks on school segregation and strongly influenced the outcome of all of the Brown v. Board school cases.

Charles Hamilton Houston

Charles Hamilton Houston and His Civil Rights Brain Trust

3/24/2021 in DC by Michael Kohler

Charles Hamilton Houston is referred to as the "architect" of the civil rights movement. Before helping the Consolidated Parent Group kickoff their legal case, Houston built up the Howard University Law School into a world-class legal institution and mentored some of the most important figures of the civil rights movement, including Thurgood Marshall.

Portrait of Margaret Bayard Smith

Margaret Bayard Smith: A Writer of Washington

3/24/2021 in DC by Katherine Brodt

Anyone who reads The First Forty Years of Washington Society will form an image of Margaret Bayard Smith as a lively social butterfly and busybody. After all, her published letters seem like the nineteenth-century equivalent of a gossip column. What readers may not realize is that, just like her husband, Margaret was an accomplished writer. In nineteenth-century Washington, she was well-known as an author in her own right, not just a socialite.

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