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1870s

DC
Blanche Bruce's Washington

Blanche Bruce's Washington

07/21/2021 in DC by Ben Miller

The first Black man to win a full term in the Senate came to D.C. in 1875. When white supremacists retook his home state of Mississippi, Blanche Bruce built a new life in the nation's capital.

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DC
The First Delegate

The First Delegate

05/05/2021 in DC by Michael Kohler

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.

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DC
Dr. Loguen-Fraser's Solemn Vow

Dr. Loguen-Fraser's Solemn Vow

03/29/2021 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.

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Maryland
What's in a Name? Bethesda

What's in a Name? Bethesda

08/17/2020 in Maryland by Katherine Brodt

Bethesda has become one of Washington’s busiest, most populated suburban communities. It’s hard to believe that, only 150 years ago, it was a little roadside stop haphazardly named after its general store!

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DC
Fowl Play in Washington: the City’s History of Chicken Thievery

Fowl Play in Washington: the City’s History of Chicken Thievery

05/15/2020 in DC by Karis Lee

Washington has seen its fair share of crimes: mafia operations, drug networks, triple murder… But in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, one of the city’s most pervasive crimes was one we today might find difficult to imagine: chicken thievery. In today’s urban landscape, the phenomenon may seem difficult to imagine; but 150 years ago chicken robbery was widespread -- and serious business. The practice was dangerous and, at times, even fatal.

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DC
A Tale of Two Photographers: Mathew Brady and Alexander Gardner

A Tale of Two Photographers: Mathew Brady and Alexander Gardner

04/17/2020 in DC by Katherine Brodt

If you lived in nineteenth-century D.C. and wanted your picture taken, you couldn’t just whip out your own camera — you’d visit Pennsylvania Avenue NW, known locally as “photographer’s row.” This stretch of the avenue, between the White House and the nearly-finished Capitol building, was home to a cluster of photography studios and galleries. Between 1858 and 1881, the most fashionable and famous was Brady’s National Photographic Art Gallery. It was run by Mathew Brady and his manager, Alexander Gardner, whose partnership endured its own civil war. 

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DC
The 1868 Mayoral Election, African-American Vote, and Riots That Followed

The 1868 Mayoral Election, African-American Vote, and Riots That Followed

03/12/2020 in DC by Karis Lee

On January 8, 1867, Congress passed the District of Columbia Suffrage Bill, granting African-American men the right to vote for the first time in U.S. history. D.C.’s black community was ecstatic. But though this was certainly an exciting start, the stakes surrounding the black vote escalated in June 1868, when the two candidates for Washington’s new mayor promised vastly different futures for the city.

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DC
The White House Easter Egg Roll: A Washington Tradition Since 1878

The White House Easter Egg Roll: A Washington Tradition Since 1878

04/02/2018 in DC by Laura Castro L…

Nearly every year since 1878, children and their parents have flocked to the White House grounds on the Monday after Easter to roll eggs at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll. In the era of Jim Crow, it was one of the few social events where people from all races, and classes could mingle. But how did the tradition get started?

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DC
The Survival of Eastern Market

The Survival of Eastern Market

02/23/2018 in DC by Anne Hollmuller

Eastern Market has been a place of social gathering in Capitol Hill since its construction in 1873. Despite many efforts to shutter the market and a devastating fire in 2007, the market endures as a Southeast institution.

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DC
Eat Anywhere! Mary Church Terrell, the Lost Laws, and the End of Segregation in D.C. Restaurants

Eat Anywhere! Mary Church Terrell, the Lost Laws, and the End of Segregation in D.C. Restaurants

06/08/2017 in DC by Mark Jones

On Friday, January 27, 1950, Mary Church Terrell met three friends for a late lunch in downtown Washington. Terrell, then 86, entered Thompson’s Restaurant on 14th Street NW around 2:45 pm with Rev. William H. Jernigan, Geneva Brown and David Scull. Their party was integrated – Scull was white while the others were black – however, Thompson’s Restaurant was not. Like most other D.C. eating establishments at the time, it was whites only.

As the group went about selecting entrees along the cafeteria line, Manager Levin Ange emerged and informed them that Thompson’s did not serve “colored” people. Terrell clarified, “Do you mean to tell me that you are not going to serve me?” When Ange confirmed that was the case, the group left the restaurant.

The chain of events was, of course, entirely expected. As a leader of Washington’s civil rights movement for half a century, Mary Church Terrell was well aware of Thompson’s policy. But she and the others didn’t go to the restaurant to be served. Rather they went with the expectation of being turned away – the necessary, if also demeaning, first step toward bringing a new sort of legal challenge, which they hoped would topple segregation in the nation’s capital.

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Boundary Stones explores local history in Washington, D.C., suburban Maryland and northern Virginia. This project is a service of WETA and is supported by contributions from readers like you.

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