Lafayette Matthews

Lafayette Matthews is a recent graduate from Princeton University where he majored in history. Raised in Manassas Park, VA, he enjoys poring over archives and piecing together stories. He liked the founding fathers and Broadway musicals before it was cool.

Posts by Lafayette Matthews

Jeannette Rankin

The Jeannette Rankin Brigade

8/24/2016 in DC by Lafayette Matthews

In 1916, Jeannette Rankin made history as the first woman elected to Congress. A renowned pacifist, Rankin was the only member of Congress to vote against U.S. involvement in World War II. At age 87, Rankin made one final push for peace by leading an anti-Vietnam march: the Jeannette Rankin Brigade.

Photograph of Mary Church Terrell as a young adult.

Impressions of Washington: Mary Church Terrell’s Activism

7/26/2016 in DC by Lafayette Matthews

Educator, author, and activist Mary Church Terrell was the first president of the National Association for Colored Women, the first African-American woman elected to a major city school board, and a founding member of the NAACP. A lifelong advocate for equality, Terrell participated in sit-ins well into her eighties. But out of all of her activism, one 1906 speech stands out as an insightful and damning critique of racial dynamics in the nation's capital.

Helen Hayes as Queen Victoria in 1936 (Source: Performing Arts Archives)

How Helen Hayes Helped Desegregate the National Theatre

6/22/2016 in DC by Lafayette Matthews

There are two things that all D.C. residents love: the first lady and the performing arts. It’s no surprise then that in the capital, “First Lady of American Theatre” Helen Hayes is an icon. Born in 1900 in Washington D.C., Hayes’s career spanned nearly eighty years. She was the first EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony) recipient to be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Ronald Reagan in 1986. But out of all her accomplishments, perhaps one of the most overlooked is Helen Hayes’s involvement in the desegregation of the National Theatre.