District of Columbia

A walking tour through Washington D.C. history can feel like a stroll across the nation itself. Home to so many masters of American art forms and repositories of its culture, the city presents countless landmarks of national tragedy and milestones of countrywide struggle. But some capital lore is distinct to the district. Dig up D.C.’s agrarian roots and explore the wilderness of Rock Creek Park. One spin round Dupont Circle in finery from Woodies might feel like a trip across state lines, but you’re still in the same neighborhood of our District of Columbia history book catalogue. [View all District of Columbia books]
10 products
Barry Farm-Hillsdale in Anacostia
Barry Farm-Hillsdale in Anacostia
$23.99
Slave Labor in the Capital
Slave Labor in the Capital
$21.99
African American Medicine in Washington, D.C.
African American Medicine in Washington, D.C.
$21.99
Dorothy Porter Wesley at Howard University
Dorothy Porter Wesley at Howard University
$21.99
Howard University in the World Wars
Howard University in the World Wars
$23.99
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
$24.99
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
$24.99
The NAACP in Washington, DC
The NAACP in Washington, DC
$23.99
Historically African American Leisure Destinations Around Washington, D.C.
Historically African American Leisure Destinations Around Washington, D.C.
$21.99
Heroes of the Underground Railroad Around Washington, D.C.
Heroes of the Underground Railroad Around Washington, D.C.
$21.99

Barry Farm-Hillsdale in Anacostia

9781467147699

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Barry Farm-Hillsdale was created under the auspices of the Freedmen's Bureau in 1867 in what was then the outskirts of the nation's capital. Residents built churches and schools, and the community became successful. In the 1940s, youth from the community courageously desegregated the Anacostia Pool, and Barry Farm Dwellings was built to house war workers. In the 1950s, community parents joined the fight to desegregate schools in Washington, D.C., as local leaders fought off plans to redevelop the area. Both the women and the youth of Barry Farm Dwellings, then public housing, were at the forefront of the fight to improve their lives and those of their neighbors in the 1960s, but community identity was being subsumed into the larger Anacostia neighborhood. Curator and historian Alcione M. Amos tells these little-remembered stories.
Barry Farm-Hillsdale in Anacostia

Slave Labor in the Capital

9781626197213

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In 1791, President George Washington appointed a commission to build the future capital of the nation. The commission found paying masters of faraway Maryland plantations sixty dollars a year for their slaves made it easier to keep wages low for free workers who flocked to the city. In 1798, half of the two hundred workers building the two most iconic Washington landmarks, the Capitol and the White House, were slaves. They moved stones for Scottish masons and sawed lumber for Irish carpenters. They cut trees and baked bricks. These unschooled young black men left no memoirs. Based on his research in the commissioners' records, author Bob Arnebeck describes their world of dawn to dusk work, salt pork and corn bread, white scorn and a kind nurse and the moments when everything depended on their skills.
Slave Labor in the Capital

African American Medicine in Washington, D.C.

9781626196551

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The service of African Americans in defense of the Union during the Civil War required African American nurses, doctors and surgeons to heal those soldiers. In the nation's capital, these brave healthcare workers created a medical infrastructure for African Americans by African Americans. Preeminent surgeon Alexander T. Augusta fought discrimination, visited President Lincoln, testified before Congress and aided the war effort. Washington's Freedmen's Hospital was formed to serve the District's growing free African American population, eventually becoming the Howard University Medical Center. These physicians would form the National Medical Association, the largest and oldest organization representing African American doctors and patients. Author Heather M. Butts recounts the heroic lives and work of Washington's African American medical community during the Civil War.
African American Medicine in Washington, D.C.

Dorothy Porter Wesley at Howard University

9781626196445

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When Dorothy Burnett joined the library staff at Howard University in 1928, she was given a mandate to administer a library of Negro life and history. The school purchased the Arthur B. Spingarn Collection in 1946, along with other collections, and Burnett, who would later become Dorothy Porter Wesley, helped create a world-class archive known as the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center and cemented her place as an immensely important figure in the preservation of African American history. Wesley's zeal for unearthing materials related to African American history earned her the name of Shopping Bag Lady." Join author, historian and former Howard University librarian Janet Sims-Wood as she charts the award-winning and distinguished career of an iconic archivist."
Dorothy Porter Wesley at Howard University

Howard University in the World Wars

9781467138673

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Despite African Americans' lack of political, social and economic equality in the United States, the students of Howard University answered the call to service in both world wars. Howard supported its men and women in the quest to serve their nation. The university started an army training program during the First World War, and Howard faculty, staff and students pushed the War Department to begin an officer training school for African Americans. The university organized a Reserve Officer Training program in the interwar years, the first at an HBCU. Many of the famed Tuskegee Airmen of World War II were trained first at Howard. Based on a collection of letters sent by Howard students and alumni to the university, historian and archivist Lopez D. Matthews illuminates their wartime experiences.

Howard University in the World Wars

Washington, D.C.

9780738543833

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By 1963, the African American community's demand for equality could not be ignored. Following the 1954 Supreme Court decision to desegregate schools, those who were oppressed took their place at lunch counters for sit-in demonstrations, participated in freedom rides, and refused to give up their seats on public buses. In August 1963, some 200,000 people converged on the nation's capital to heed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s call for the country to change its policy of institutional discrimination. The photographs contained in Black America: Washington, D.C.: 1963-2006 chronicle that journey, from the struggle of the civil rights era to triumphs of African Americans in the most politically powerful city in the United States.
Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

9780738542409

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Since the Civil War, African Americans have broken down barriers of race and class and permeated nearly every sphere of influence in Washington, D.C. From the kitchen galleys of the U.S. Capitol to the upper echelons of the Executive Office, the contributions made by African Americans are a critical part of the history, culture, and

infrastructure of the District of Columbia.
Washington, D.C.

The NAACP in Washington, DC

9781467140522

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Founded in March 1912, DC branch of the NAACP quickly became the leading organization advocating for the city's Black community.

President Woodrow Wilson's institution of Jim Crow segregation in the federal government in the spring of 1913 galvanized the African American community of DC and the NAACP launched a formidable crusade against Wilson's racist policies. As the preeminent civil rights organization of the nation's capital, it also developed a dual role as a watchdog body to prevent the passage of legislation in Congress that negatively affected African Americans.

Archivist and historian Derek Gray chronicles and analyzes the work of the DC NAACP through the civil rights era to the achievement of Home Rule in the District.

The NAACP in Washington, DC

Historically African American Leisure Destinations Around Washington, D.C.

9781467118675

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Historically African American Leisure Destinations Around Washington, D.C.

Heroes of the Underground Railroad Around Washington, D.C.

9781625859754

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Many of the unsung heroes of the Underground Railroad lived and worked in Washington, D.C.


Men and women, black and white, operatives and freedom seekers - all demonstrated courage, resourcefulness and initiative. Leonard Grimes, a free African American, was arrested for transporting enslaved people to freedom. John Dean, a white lawyer, used the District courts to test the legality of the Fugitive Slave Act. Anna Maria Weems dressed as a boy in order to escape to Canada. Enslaved people engineered escapes, individually and in groups, with and without the assistance of an organized network. Some ended up back in slavery or in jail, but some escaped to freedom. Anthropologist and author Jenny Masur tells their stories.

Heroes of the Underground Railroad Around Washington, D.C.