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

Washington, D.C.

Published December 11, 2022

Rats in Washington, D.C. have always been bad – in the 1960s, the city had as many rats as people — but one local civil rights activist Julius Hobson decided to do something about it: to protest the lack of rat patrols in Black neighborhoods, he would capture rats in Shaw and near Northeast and release them in swanky, upscale Georgetown. Alive.

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Sketch of the mythical fuan by Pearson Scott Foresman. [Source: Wikipedia]

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A group from Ecuador marches to Kalorama Park during 1971 Latino Festival. (Source: Reprinted with permission of the DC Public Library, Star Collection © Washington Post)

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Painting of George Washington on white horse with British soldiers walking alongside. Groups of soldiers stand on either side of the frame.

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Abraham Lincoln, bearded man wearing suit and bowtie.

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Woody Guthrie, 1943 (Library of Congress)

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The Washington Mall from behind the Washington Monument, with the museums and other buildings visible in the distance

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German actress Hedwig Reicher wearing costume of "Columbia" with other suffrage pageant participants standing in background in front of the Treasury Building, March 3, 1913, Washington, D.C. (Source: Library of Congress)

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Mary Church Terrell stands with three African American men in 1953. (Reprinted with permission of the DC Public Library, Star Collection, © Washington Post.)

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