Washington, D.C.

By Timothy

Justitia Omnibus

Washington, D.C. is not just a beautiful, modern, and cosmopolitan city. It is the capital of the United
States of America. America is the country of my birth. D.C. is a city that is part of no state, but it is the
federal District of Columbia. The suburbs and other communities surrounding Virginia and Maryland are
near Washington, D.C. Its population is about 672,228 people with almost 69 square miles of land.
Washington, D.C. means so much to so many people. Full of history, culture, and architecture, I respect the
people of D.C. too. The city hosts 176 foreign embassies and the headquarters of many international
organizations, professional associations, etc. The Washington, D.C. metropolitan area has a population of
over 6 million people. That is the sixth largest metropolitan statistical area in America. It is very common for
commuters from surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs to come into D.C., which increases the citys
population to more than one million during the workweek. National museums and monuments are
hallmarks of the cultural motif of Washington D.C. Many field trips take students into Washington, D.C.
during Spring Break and during other times of the year too. Right now, D.C. has a locally elected mayor and
a 13 member council which has governed the District since 1973. Yet, the Congress has the majority of the
power over the city and it can overturn local laws. The Twenty Third Amendment to the United States
Constitution (as ratified in 1961) allows Washington, D.C. to receive three electoral votes in the Presidential
elections.
I love geography a great deal. To understand a quick way to know where monuments and other locations
are in Washington, D.C. is to find the Washington Monument first. Directly north of the Washington
Monument is the White House. Left of the Washington Monument is the Lincoln Memorial. South of the
Washington Monument is the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial is found
southwest from the Washington Monument too. Right of the Washington Monument is that National Mall
where protests have famously happened for years and decades. Directly to the right of the Washington
Monument is also the United States Capitol (which has the Congress or the legislative body of the federal
government). To the right of the U.S. Capitol is the Supreme Court of the United States, the Library of
Congress, and the Folger Shakespeare Library. Northeast of the Washington Monument is the Smithsonian
National Museum of American History and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. The
Vietnam Veterans Memorial is found slightly northeast of the Washington Monument. Howard University is
found right near McMillan Reservoir and on Georgia Avenue NW (or to the Northeast of Downtown D.C).
Georgetown University is found near the Potomac River Northwest of Downtown D.C. George Washington

University is found directly north from the Lincoln Memorial. Washington, D.C. is divided into four
quadrants of unequal area. They are called Northwest (NW), Northeast (NE), Southeast (SE), and Southwest
(SW). The axes bounding the quadrants radiate from the U.S. Capitol building. Washington, D.C. is growing
in population and its known for its beautiful row houses. So, Washington, D.C. is a beautiful city with a lot
of wonderful people. Consequently, we cherish the value of human dignity and the richness of human
diversity. Its arts, culture, and history are certainly dynamic and interesting. The citys motto is Justitia
Omnibus or Justice for All in Latin. That is the same principle that were all fighting for today. From the
White House to the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, Washington D.C. is filled with great historical plus
cultural significance. To understand America itself is to understand the great city of Washington, D.C.

Early Times
The first people of Washington, D.C. were the Native Americans. Native Americans settled in the D.C. area
for at least 4,000 years ago on the Anacostia River. The Anacostia River travels in the southeastern area of
Washington, D.C. The area of Washington, D.C. was inhabited by the Algonquian speaking people called the
Nacotchtank. Early European exploration of the region took place in the 17th century including explorations
by Captain John Smith in 1608. During this time, there were the peoples of the Patawomeck (who were
loosely affiliated with the Powhatan) and the Doeg who lived in the Virginia side. They lived on the
Theodore Roosevelt Island too. The tribe of the Piscataway (also known as Conoy) tribe of the Algonquians
lived in the Maryland side. The Nacotchtank, who lived in D.C., were affiliated with the Conoy. Another
village was found between Little Falls and Georgetown. The English fur trader Henry Fleet documented a
Nachotchtank village called Tohongs on the site of the present day Georgetown. The first European colonial
landowners in the present day District of Columbia were George Thompson and Thomas Gerrard, who were
granted the Blue Plains tract in 1662, along with Saint Elizabeth, and other tracts in Anacostia, Capitol Hill,
and other areas down to the Potomac River in the following years. Thompson sold his Capitol Hill properties
in 1670, including Duddington Manor, to Thomas Notley. The Duddington property was handed down over
the generations to Daniel Carroll, of Duddington. As European settlers arrived, they clashed with the Native
Americans over grazing rights. In 1697, Maryland authorities built a fort within what is now the District of
Columbia. In that same year, the Conoy relocated to the west, near what is now The Plains, Virginia, and in

1699 they moved again, to Conoy Island near Point of Rocks, Maryland.
The Carroll family of Maryland had a relationship with Georgetown too. Daniel Carroll lived from July 22,
1730 to July 5, 1796. He was one of the Founders and a well-known Roman Catholic of Washington, D.C.
The colonial Catholic families have a great influence in the region. His younger brother was Archbishop John
Carroll (1735-1815) and he was the first Roman Catholic bishop in America (from 1790). Archbishop John
Carroll was the Archbishop of Baltimore and he was the founder of Georgetown University. Their cousin
Charles Carroll of Carrolton (1737-1832) signed the Declaration of Independence. Charles Carroll was an
active supporter of the Revolutionary War. Carrollton was the 10,000-acre estate in Frederick County,
Maryland, that Charles Carroll's father had given him on his return to America from his education in
Europe. Back during the 1600s, many Catholics couldnt hold public office or vote, even in heavily Catholic
Maryland. Daniel Carroll was one of the five men to sign both the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual
Union (1778) and the United States Constitution (1787). Daniel Carroll was a planter and a slaveholder. He
owned a lot of land. He gradually supported the Patriot cause, and was a friend plus ally of George
Washington. He also wanted a strong central government and he fought in the Constitutional Convention
for a government directly responsible to the people of the country. Out of gratitude for John Carroll's
support during the war, George Washington gave a modified version of the seal of the United States to the
institution that is now Georgetown University. That seal is still in use.
Georgetown then and now is a heavily Jesuit-influenced University. They educate many world leaders.
Jesuit Georgetown University, whose seal proclaims a Roman eagle grasping the world and the cross, State
and Roman Catholic Church with a banner in its beak, "Utraque Unum,"-"Both Together." Of course, I
believe in the separation of church and state as no church (especially the Roman Catholic Church) has the
right to dominate the human conscience of any person in an authoritarian, oppressive way. Even the
early mayor of the District of Columbia was Carroll's nephew Robert Brent. Daniel Carroll provided land for
the Capitol and Charles Carroll as War Commissioner, controlling all the executive duties of the military
department, with its ammunition supplies of cannon balls, shot, kettles, spikes and nails to the army. John
Carroll was a close friend of Franklin, even living in Franklin's house. District of Columbia donor and Capitol
Commissioner Daniel Carroll was close to George Washington. Georgetown was established in 1751. It
came about when the Maryland legislature purchased sixty acres of land for the town from George Gordon
and George Beall at the price of 280, while Alexandria, Virginia was founded in 1749. Georgetown is found
at the fall line. Georgetown was the farthest point upstream to which oceangoing boats could navigate the
Potomac River. Gordon had constructed a tobacco inspection house along the Potomac in ca. 1745.
Warehouses, wharves, and other buildings were added, and the settlement rapidly grew. The Old Stone
House, which was located in Georgetown, was built in 1765, and it is the oldest standing building in the
District. It didnt take long before Georgetown grew into a thriving port. It facilitated trade and shipments
of tobacco including other goods from colonial Maryland.

The Founding
The United States capital at first was located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia was the city where
the First and Second Continental Congress met followed by the Congress of Confederation upon gaining
independence. Back in June of 1783, an angry group of soldiers came into Independence Hall. They wanted
payment for their service during the American Revolutionary War. Congress had requested that John
Dickinson or the governor of Pennsylvania call up the militia to defend Congress from attacks by the
protesters. This action was called the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783. Dickinson sympathized with the
protesters and refused to remove them from Philadelphia. As a result of these events, Congress was forced
to flee to Princeton, New Jersey on June 21, 1783. Dickinsons failure to protect the institution of the
national government was discussed the Philadelphia Convention in 1787. The delegates therefore agreed in
Article One, Section 8 of the United States Constitution to give the Congress the power:
To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles
square) as may, by Cession of Particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the
Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of
the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dockYards and other needful Buildings
From James Madisons Federalist No. 43, he wanted the national capital to be distinct from the states, so
the nation can have its own safety and maintenance. The Constitution didnt have a specific site for the
location of the new District. Many state legislatures (from Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Virginia)
have issued proposals for the location of the national capital. Northern states wanted a capitol in one of
their locations. Conversely, Southern states desired that the capital to be located closer to their agricultural
interests. James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton agreed that the selection of the area
would be around the Potomac River (which was the boundary between Maryland and Virginia, which were
both slave states back then). Hamilton proposed that the new federal government would take over debts

accrued by the states during the Revolutionary War. Yet, by 1790, Southern states had largely repaid their
overseas debts. Hamiltons plan would require Southern states to assume a share of Northern debt.
Jefferson and Madison agreed to this proposal and in return secured a Southern location for the federal
capital. On December 23, 1788, the Maryland General Assembly passed an act. This act allowed Maryland
to cede land for the federal district. The Virginia General Assembly followed suit on December 3, 1789.
The signing of the federal Residence Act on July 6, 1790, mandated that the site for the permanent seat of
government, "not exceeding ten miles square" (100 square miles), be located on the "river Potomac, at
some place between the mouths of the Eastern-Branch and Connogochegue. The Eastern-Branch is
known today as the Anacostia River. The Connogocheque (or Concocheague Creek) empties into the
Potomac River upstream near Williamsport and Hagerstown, Maryland. The Residence Act limited to the
Maryland side of the Potomac River the location of land that commissioners appointed by the President
could acquire for federal use. The Residence Act authorized the President to select the actual location of
the site. Yet, President George Washington wanted to include the town of Alexandria, Virginia within the
federal district. In order to make this happen, the boundaries of the federal district would need to
encompass an area on the Potomac that was downstream on the mouth of the Eastern Branch.
The U.S. Congress amended the Residence Act in 1791 to permit Alexandria's inclusion in the federal
district. However, some members of Congress had recognized that George Washington and his family
owned property in and near Alexandria, which was just seven miles (11 km) upstream from Mount Vernon,
Washington's home and plantation. The amendment therefore contained a provision that prohibited the
"erection of the public buildings otherwise than on the Maryland side of the river Potomac. The final site
was just below the fall line on the Potomac or the furthest inland point navigable by boats. It included the
ports of Georgetown and Alexandria. Many landowners objected to the plan like David Burns. He owned a
large 650 acre tract of land in the district. So, on March 30, 1791, Burns and 18 other landowners relented
and signed an agreement with Washington. This allowed the landowners to be compensation for any land
taken for public use. Half of the remaining land would be distributed among the proprietors and the other
half to the public.
President George Washington followed by the Residence Act by appointing three commissioners (who were
Thomas Johnson, Daniel Carroll, and David Stuart) in 1791. The commissioners jobs were to supervise the
planning, design, and acquisition of property in the federal district and the capital city. By September 1791,
the three commissioners agreed to name the federal district as The Territory of Columbia, and the federal
city as the City of Washington. Major Andrew Ellicott worked under the supervision of the 3
commissioners and at the direction of President Washington. So, Andrew Ellicott was assisted by his
brothers Benjamin and Joseph Ellicott, Isaac Roberdeau, Isaac Briggs, George Fenwick, and an African
American, Benjamin Banneker to survey the borders of the Territory of Columbia with Virginia and
Maryland during 1791 and 1792. The survey started at Jones Point, which was a cape located at the
confluence of Hunting Creek and the Potomac River south of Alexandria. The survey team enclosed within a
square an area containing the full 100 square miles (260 km2) that the Residence Act had authorized. Each
side of the square was 10 miles (16 km) long. The axes between the corners of the square ran northsouth
and eastwest. The center of the square is within the grounds of the Organization of American States
headquarters west of the Ellipse. The survey team placed sandstone boundary markets at or near every
mile point along the sides of the square. Many of these markers still remain. The south cornerstone is at
Jones Point. The west cornerstone is at the west corner of Arlington County, Virginia. The north
cornerstone is south of East-West Highway near Silver Spring, Maryland or west of 16th Street. The east

cornerstone is east of the intersection of Southern Avenue and Eastern Avenue.

The Plan of the City of Washington, D.C.

In early 1791, President Washington appointed Pierre Charles LEnfant to create a plan for the new city in
the area of the land at the center of the federal territory (that lay between the northeast shore of the
Potomac River and the northwest shore of the Potomac's Eastern Branch). L'Enfant then designed in his
"Plan of the city intended for the permanent seat of the government of the United States..." the city's first
layout, a grid centered on the United States Capitol, which would stand at the top of a hill (Jenkins Hill) on a
longitude designated as 0,0. The grid filled an area bounded by the Potomac River, the Eastern Branch
(now named the Anacostia River), the base of an escarpment at the Atlantic Seaboard Fall Line along which
a street (initially Boundary Street, now Florida Avenue) would later travel, and Rock Creek.
The North-south and east-west streets formed the grid. There were wider diagonal grand avenues which
were later named after the states of the Union which crossed the grid. When these grand avenues
crossed each other, LEnfant placed open spaces in circles and plazas that were later named after famous or
well-known Americans. LEnfant broadest grand avenue was a 400 feet (or 122 meter) wide garden lined
esplanade, which he expected to travel for about 1 mile along the east-west axis in the center of an area
that the National Mall now occupies. There is the narrower avenue (or Pennsylvania Avenue) that
connected the Congress House (the Capitol) with the Presidents house (or the White House). Later on,
Pennsylvania Avenue developed into the capital citys present grand avenue. LEnfants plan also included
a system of canals, one of which would travel near the western side of the Capitol at the base of Jenkins
Hill. To be filled in part by the waters of the Tiber Creek, the canal system would traverse the center of the
city and would enter both the Potomac River and the Eastern Branch. On August 19, 1791, LEnfant
presented his plan to President George Washington. Yet, L'Enfant subsequently entered into a number of
conflicts with the three commissioners and others involved in the enterprise.

During a particularly contentious period in February 1792, Andrew Ellicott informed the commissioners that
L'Enfant had not arranged to have the city plan engraved and had refused to provide him with an original
plan that L'Enfant was then holding. Ellicott, with the aid of his brother, Benjamin Ellicott, then revised the
plan, despite L'Enfant's protests. Ellicotts revisions realigned and straightened Massachusetts Avenue. It
eliminated five short radial avenues and added two others. It removed several plazas and straightened the
borders of the future Judiciary Square. Shortly thereafter, Washington dismissed LEnfant. Ellicott gave the
first version of his own plan to James Thakara and John Vallance of Philadelphia. John Vallance engraved,
printed, and published it. This version was printed in March of 1792 and it was the first Washington city
plan that received wide circulation. After LEnfant departed, Ellicott continued the city survey in accordance
with his revised plan. There are also larger and more detailed versions of which were also engraved,
published, and distributed. As a result, Ellicotts revisions became the basis for the capital citys future
development. In the year 1800, the seat of government was finally moved to the new city. By 1800,
President Adams moved into the White House. The capitol moved from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C.
The United States Capitol building was constructed, Washington Navy Yard was established. Its population
in 1800 was 14,093.
On February 27, 1801, the District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801 placed the District under the
jurisdiction of Congress. The act also organized the unincorporated territory within the District into two
counties: the County of Washington on the northeast bank of the Potomac, and the County of Alexandria
on the southwest bank. On March 4, 1801, Thomas Jefferson was inaugurated as President. On May 3,
1802, the City of Washington was granted a municipal government consisting of a mayor appointed by the
President of the United States.

*There is another side to Washington, D.C. that many people dont know about or talk about. There is an
esoteric influence to D.C. Washington D.C.s architecture has been heavily influenced by Freemasonry,
Deist ideologies, and Enlightenment principles. That is why the city is filled with Zodiac symbols, mysterious
faces, and various Greco-Roman god and goddess images. Many of the people who existed in early America
were not conservative Christians. Many of them were Deists or those who followed many esoteric
principles. People know how I think about Freemasonry. I disagree with Freemasonry, because I dont
believe in swearing oaths involving death (even if they are symbolic), I dont believe in using deception
among the Blue Degrees, I dont agree with experiencing a sharp object touching my chest, I don't agree
with calling a grown man "Worshipful Master," and I dont believe in the spiritual syncretism that Masonry
embraces.
One of the easiest ways to discover the Masonic influence of many parts of D.C. has to do with the corn and
wine ceremony on September 18, 1793. This was the groundbreaking ceremony of the construction of the
Capitol. Back then, George Washington was in Masonic attire to lay the cornerstone (on the site where the
U.S. Capitol building is to be built) in a corn, wine, and oil ceremony. Freemasons are pictured next to
George Washington in a picture of the ritual. The word "Capitol" comes from the Latin word Capitolium and
is associated with the Roman temple to Jupiter Optimus Maximus on Capitoline Hill. "Capitoline Triad" is
the name of the three Roman gods and goddess worshiped in the same hill in ancient Rome consisting of
Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. The Capitol is influenced from many temples to Greco-Roman gods. Also, we
know that many Europeans stole the wisdom from ancient Africa, the ancient Middle East, ancient China,
etc. and manipulate it as way for them to promote control over society.

Benjamin Latrobe was involved in the construction of the U.S. Capitol building and he was a Freemason.
Latrobe was initiated in the Lodge of Antiquity No. 2, London from 1788. He served as Junior Warden from
1789-1790. Freemason Thomas Ustick Walter flanked the wings and the dome of the Capitol too.
Freemason James Hoban was the architect of the White House. Many Greco-Roman paintings are found all
over the Capitol building. There are images of Mercury, Minerva, etc. Also, the famous apotheosis image of
Washington is there too. Apotheosis is a word meaning becoming a god, so the painting signifies
Washington going into the realm of godhood or perfection, which is outright blasphemous in my view. The
influence of Freemasonry and Rosicrucianism pervade many places in America including Washington,
D.C. President Bush said that he was fulfilling the "Ancient Hope" of the "New Order of the Ages." For
centuries, Utopians wanted to establish the perfect society and some want Washington, D.C. to be the
representation of the beginning of that process to create the Utopian world society (or the new world
order as has been talked about by world leaders for a very long time). This information is increasingly being
known by folks in our generation. As for me, I believe in independence of thought and liberty without
Utopian visions. I believe in the liberation of the international proletariat and all people. Likewise, I don't
believe in the creation of a new world order or the creation of global government. I believe in human
sovereignty and justice for all.
There has been the 200th year anniversary of laying the cornerstone on the Capitol, which was held on
September 18, 1993. Many Masons of many races were there to reenact the corn, wine, and oil ceremony.
To the Masons, corn meant plenty, wine meant refreshment, and oil meant joy and gladness. George
Washington was part of the first ritual and the Masonic George Washington Memorial is found in
Alexandria, Virginia. Yet, we know that pagan religions and the ancient Mystery religions had such corn,
wine, and oil rituals for thousands of years. Corn or grain in Hebrew is dagan. There is the word of Dagon
(the images of Dagon have this god with fish scales on it. Baal is the son of Dagon). Freemasonry has been
debated for years and centuries about its intentions and agenda. The William Morgan incident was about
when William Morgan was murdered after revealing many secrets of Masonry. Also, one conspirator in the
murder confessed that Masons were involved in William Morgans murder. In 1848, Henry L. Valance
confessed to his part in the murder on his deathbed, a story recounted in chapter two of Reverend C. G.
Finney's book entitled, The Character, Claims, and Practical Workings of Freemasonry (1869). Morgan's
evil murder caused a huge backlash against Freemasonry for spiritual and moral reasons during the 19th
century. In fact, one password in one Masonic degree is Jahbulon (which is a mixtures of names for a
deity). There is the Statue of Freedom with stars on top of the U.S. Capitol building. State Capitols

nationwide have mysterious, arcane symbols too.

These images are from the Library of Congress. The Library of Congress has some of the most
esoteric images in Washington, D.C. From the outside of the building to the inside, there are images of
ancient gods and goddesses, zodiac patterns, and various sayings that relate to the ancient world. One
picture in the Library of Congress can cause a book to be written about it. The image to the left is the
Great Hall. It has the floor where the Giant Zodiac greets people coming into the location. The sun is
found in the center of the floor. The image to the right (according to scholars) is the representation of
Iris of the goddess of the Rainbow. Iris in ancient Greek mythology was the female messenger of the
gods. Hermes was the male messenger to the gods. The rainbow symbolizes the connection of touching
heaven and Earth. As for me, I dont bow before idols of mans creation.
I worship the Most High God.
There are more information about the architecture of Washington, D.C. that deals with esoteric influences
and Enlightenment philosophies. First, Secret Societies have always been part of American and world
history. Many members of these organizations exist in D.C. One example is the Skulls and Bones secret
society. Its secret initial ritual takes place in Yale University in a place called the Tomb (where people
confess their deep secrets and are given a nickname). Its founders were William Huntington Russell and
Alphonso Taft. It was created in 1832. Symbols exist all around Washington, D.C. locations. According to Dr.
Robert Hieronimus (who is a member of Co-Masonry), there are multiple levels of meanings to symbols.
Symbols reveal and conceal secrets or information. Many symbols pervade the landscape of D.C. One
example is the Washington Monument. The architect of the Washington Monument was the Freemason
Robert Mills. The Washington Monument also had a cornerstone Masonic ceremony before it was built
back in July 4, 1848. Robert Mills wanted to show many Greco-Roman images around the monument, but
George Perkins Marsh (who was an early environmentalist) caused the Monument to be just an obelisk.
Marsh studied obelisks in Rome and in the Vatican where obelisks from Egypt were placed in Italy and
throughout Europe. In Ancient Egypt, the obelisk represented the sun god Ra. It also in reference of a
phallic image.

Obelisks readily have a pyramid on top of it. There is not an exact North South parallel between the
Washington Monument and the White House. Yet, there is the N-S parallel among the Washington
Monument and the Masonic House of the Temple (which is the Scottish Rite headquarters in America). The
Washington Monument was finished by the late 19th century. Freemason David Ovason wrote of his theory
that the architecture of Washington, D.C. was influenced by the star Sirius. Sirius is talked about in the
occult including in Freemasonry. Sirius is the Dog Star and the ancient Egyptians gave Sirius strong
connotations since it was in the sky prominent during July and August (or in the peak of the summer
season). Sirius is found in Masonic Lodges (33rd Degree Freemason Albert Pike praised Sirius as the Blazing
Star in his Morals and Dogma book on pg. 486). Pike also wrote that: The Sun and Moonrepresent the
tow grand principlesboth shed their light upon their offspring the Blazing Star, or Horus (Morals and
Dogma, pgs. 13-14). Some believe that the planet Venus is linked to the Pentagram image, because the
planet Venus forms a Pentagram image during its travels around the Solar system after a certain period of
time.

According to the Masonic scholar Rex Hutchins, here is his view on the Pentagram:
is the symbol of the Divine in manThe five pointed star with a single point upward represents the
Divine. It also symbolizes man for its five points allude to the five senses, the five members (head, arms,
and legs) and his five fingers on each hand, which signify the tokens that distinguish Masons He also
wrote that the Pentagram: is the symbol of the Microcosm, the universe where humans dwell. Since the
Pentagram which encloses the pentagram may be formed by connecting the five points of the human body,
for many centuries the symbol was used to represent humanity in general
This quotation is similar to the Hermetic maxim as above, so below. That means that which is manifested
in the heavens is manifested in the Earth (i.e. to esoteric scholars, a human being is a miniature version of
the outer Universe). The Pentagram inverted is used in the Eastern Star organization as a logo too. Albert
Pike talks about the Pentagram in the following terms: .The Blazing Star in our Lodges, we have already
said, represents Sirius, or Mercury, Guardian and Guide of Souls. Our Ancient English brethren also
considered it an emblem of the Sun. In the old Lectures they said: The Blazing Star or Glory in the centre
refers to us that Grand Luminary the Sun, which enlightens the Earth, and by its genial influence dispenses
blessings to mankind. It is also said in those lectures to be an emblem of Prudence. The word Prudentia
means, in its original and fullest signification, Foresight: and accordingly the Blazing Star has been regarded
as an emblem of Omniscience, or the All Seeing Eye, which to the Ancients was the Sun. (Albert Pikes
Morals and Dogma, pg. 506). Also, much of the esoteric paintings in the Library of Congress has been
influenced by Elihu Vedder. In the Library of Congress building, esoteric statues and paintings exist. Also,
some words there exist there like: The true Shekinah is Man. Of course, I don't agree with that. The
Shekinah glory belongs to the Most High God alone.
Sirius rises in the east in Egyptian latitudes. So, Davis Ovason in his book believes that the date of the
signing of the Declaration of Independence saw Sirius high in the sky. On pages 4-5, Ovason tells us that this
star, Spica, is really Sirius, "represented in hieroglyphics that resembled an obelisk and a five-pointed star.
David Ovason tells us something about the Declaration of Independence: "These [Astrological]

computations clearly show that on the day the Declaration of Independence was agreed in Philadelphia,
the Sun was on Sirius." [Page 138].
Sirius according to Pike is referred in these terms: "Isis was aided in her search [for the slain body of Osiris]
by Anubis, in the shape of a dog. He was Sirius, or the Dog-Star, the friend and counselor of Osiris, and the
inventor of language, grammar, astronomy, surveying, arithmetic, music, and medical science; the first
maker of laws; and who taught the worship of the Gods, and the building of Temples." [Albert Pike, Morals
and Dogma, p. 376, Teachings of the 24th Degree, Prince of the Tabernacle].
According to the occult writer M. Temple Richmond, writing in his book, Sirius, p. 29:
"The Euphrateans, Persians, Phoenicians, and the peoples of Vedic India called Sirius, The Leader, while the
Romans knew Sirius as Janitor Lethacus, or Keeper of Hell, both of which titles are perhaps reminiscent of
Anubis, the Egyptian god who led the deceased through the underworld. The Egyptians themselves
reverenced Sirius under several other names as well, including Sothis, Sothi, Sept, Sepet, Sopdet, Sot, and
Sed." David Ovason writes the following information: Had you stood on this water-edge of Foggy Bottom
on April 3, 1791 ... you would have witnessed remarkable event -- one which seems to have been involved
in the magic of the building of Washington, D.C. On the morning of that day...there would be an eclipse,
when the Sun ... would be blacked out by the body of the MoonThe eclipse of 1791 was in Aries -- a
certain portent that the destiny of Washington, D.C., would be filled with pioneering endeavor and
excessive (not to say belligerent) enthusiasms ... the augury of that morning ... was remarkable. The Sun
and Moon were not the only pair in Aries at that time: no fewer than five of the known planets were in
that zodiacal Ram -- the sign which favors brave undertakings. Such cosmic curiosities are a sign that the
city had begun in a kind of dream -- as in a vision." [Page 6-7].
The Utopian vision of many occultists and political leaders have been written about by Dr. James H.
Billingtons Fire in the Minds of Man book. He wrote about the Pythagorean Passion where many
occultists according to Dr. Billington believed followed politics in order to achieve their goals. David Ovason
(who wrote about the Pythagorean Y and Virgo) believes that the city of Washington, D.C. was built
according to specific star or constellation patterns. David Ovason also wrote in his book entitled, The
Secret Architecture of our Nations Capital: The Masons and the Building of Washington, D.C. more
information and his book has been praised by C. Fred Kleinknecht, 33 Degree, Sovereign Grand
Commander, The Supreme Council, 33 Degree (Mother Council of the World), Southern Jurisdiction, U.S.A.,
Washington, D.C. David Ovasons theory is very interesting and we know for a fact that cities in America
were influenced by many Freemasons, etc.

The War of 1812

The War of 1812 was between America and Britain. During the War of 1812, British forces conducted an
expedition between August 19 and 29, 1814. The British forces took and burned the capital city of
Washington, D.C. On August 24, the British routed an American militia, which had gathered at Bladensburg,
Maryland to protect the capital in the Battle of Bladensburg. The militia then abandoned Washington
without a fight. President James Madison and the remainder of the U.S. government fled the capital shortly
before the British arrived. The British then entered and burned the capital during the most notably
destructive raid of the war. British troops set fire to the capital's most important public buildings, including
the Presidential Mansion (the White House), the United States Capitol, the Arsenal, the Navy Yard, the
Treasury Building, and the War Office, as well as the north end of the Long Bridge, which crossed the
Potomac River into Virginia. The British spared the Patent Office and the Marine Barracks. Dolley Madison
was the first lady during that time. She or members of the house staff rescued the Lansdowne Portrait (or a
full length painting of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart) as the British approached the Mansion. The
War of 1812 ended with America having a victory miraculously. After the war, the B&O opened a rail line
from Baltimore to Washington in 1835. Passenger traffic on the Washington Branch had increased by the
1850's, as the company opened a large station in 1851 on New Jersey Avenue NW, just north of the Capitol.
More railroad development continued to exist after the Civil War (with the new B& O line called the
Metropolitan Branch). That line connected Washington to the west and the introduction of competition
from Baltimore and Potomac Railroad in the 1870s. By 1907, Union Station opened as the citys central
terminal.

Early 19th Century

There was the District of Columbia retrocession too. The D.C. retrocession was about the event to return
part of the land that was once ceded to the federal government of the Union States (for the purpose of
creating the national capital). As early as the 1830s, many people in Virginia wanted the southern portion
of the District to unite with Virginia. Some wanted this for many reasons. One is that Alexandrias economy
stagnated when they are competing with the port of Georgetown, D.C. Many people of Congress and local
federal officials lived in the Georgetown area. The Residence Act banned federal offices from locating in
Virginia. Alexandria was a known center of slave trading. There was talk during the 19th century of the
abolition of slavery in the nations capital. Alexandrias economy was unfortunately tied to slavery, but it
was good news that slavery would eventually be outlawed in D.C. There was an active abolition movement
in Virginia, and the pro-slavery forces held a slim majority in the Virginia General Assembly. (Eighteen years
later, in the Civil War, the most anti-slavery counties would secede from Virginia to form West Virginia). If
Alexandria and Alexandria County were retroceded to Virginia, they would provide two new pro-slavery
representatives. The Alexandria Canal, which connected the C&O Canal to Alexandria, needed repairs. The
federal government was reluctant to fund. Also, during the early 1800s, Alexandrias residents lost
representation and the right to vote at any level of government.

There was a referendum about what to do. After the referendum, Alexandria Countys citizens petitioned
Congress and Virginia returned the area to Virginia. By an act of Congress on July 9, 1846, and with the
approval of the Virginia General Assembly, the area south of the Potomac (39 square miles; 101 km) was
returned, or "retroceded," to Virginia effective in 1847. The retrocessed land was called Alexandria County,
Virginia. It included a portion of the independent city of Alexandria and all of Arlington County, the
successor to Alexandria County. A large portion of the retroceded land near the river was an estate of
George Washington Parke Custis. He supported the retrocession and helped develop the charter in the
Virginia General Assembly for the County of Alexandria, Virginia. The estate (Arlington Plantation) would be
passed on to his daughter (the wife of Robert E. Lee), and would eventually become Arlington National
Cemetery.
The area of D.C. belonging to Virginia was returned to Virginia in 1846. The land was about 31 square miles.
So, the District became 69 square miles, which was originally ceded by Maryland. Today, D.C. is still 69
square miles.

The Antebellum Period

The new city of the District of Columbia has grown. It relied on Congress to develop its capital improvement
and economic development initiatives. Yet, Congress lacked the loyalty of the citys residents. So, Congress
was reluctant to provide support to D.C. Congress did send funding for the Washington City Canal in 1809
after earlier private financing efforts were unsuccessful. Construction started in 1810 and the canal opened
in 1815 connecting the Anacostia River with the Tiber Creek. The construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio
Canal (C&O) started in Georgetown in 1828. Construction westward through Maryland existed slowly. The
first section from Georgetown to Seneca, Maryland opened in 1831. In 1833, an extension was built from
Georgetown eastward, connecting to the City Canal. The C&O reached Cumberland, Maryland in 1850,
although by that time it was obsolete as the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) had arrived in Cumberland
in 1842. The canal had financial problems, and plans for further construction to reach the Ohio River were

abandoned.

The Civil War

Back in 1859, a portion of the Washington Aqueduct was opened. It provided drinking water to city
residents and reduced their dependence on well water. The aqueduct was built by the US Army Corps of
Engineers. It or the aqueduct was opened for full operation in 1864, using the Potomac River as its source.
Back then during the Civil War, Washington, D.C. remained a small city of a few thousand residents.
Washington, D.C. during the American Civil War was a huge logistics, civilian, and military headquarters of
the Union forces. The Union War Department wanted to protect D.C. It was virtually deserted during the
summertime (because of the weather) until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. The U.S. Capitol was not
finished as its dome was in construction during the time. In February 1861, the Peace Congress, a last-ditch
attempt by delegates from 21 of the 34 states to avert what many saw as the impending Civil War, met in
the city's Willard Hotel. The strenuous effort failed and the War started in April 1861. The Confederates in
April 1861 wanted to conquer D.C., so to end the war quickly and have independence. Many Union
volunteer regiments and artillery batteries from the North came into the city of D.C. Washington, D.C. only
had 75,800 people by 1860. President Abraham Lincoln created the Army of the Potomac to defend the
federal capital and thousands of soldiers came into the area. There was a significant expansion of the
federal government to administer the war and its legacies, such as veterans' pensionsled to notable
growth in the city's population from 75,000 in 1860 to 132,000 in 1870.
Slavery was abolished throughout the District of Columbia on April 16, 1862, which was eight months
before Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. The law that banned slavery in D.C. was the
Compensated Emancipation Act. That is why the city became a popular place for freed slaves to
congregate. Most Washington citizens supported the Union, but some had apathy and sympathized with
the South. The 1860 Census put the population at just over 75,000 persons, but by 1870 the District
population had grown to nearly 132,000. Warehouses, supply depots, ammunition dumps, and factories
were established to provide and distribute materiel for the Federal armies, and civilian workers and
contractors flocked to the city. The power of the federal government grew massively during these times.

Throughout the war, the city was defended by a ring of military forts. These forts mostly deterred the
Confederate army attacking. There was an exception like the Battle of Fort Stevens, which took place in July
1864. This was when Union soldiers repelled troops under the command of Confederate General Jubal A.
Early. This battle was only the second time that a U.S. President came under enemy fire during wartime
when Lincoln visited the fort to observe the fighting. (The first had been James Madison during the War of
1812). Meanwhile, over 20,000 sick and injured Union soldiers were treated in an array of permanent and
temporary hospitals in the capital. By 1865 the defenses of Washington were most stout, amply covering
both land and sea approaches. At war's end the now 37 miles (60 km) of line included at least 68 forts, over
20 miles (32 km) of rifle pits, and were supported by 32 miles (51 km) of military use only roads and four
individual picket stations. 93 separate batteries of artillery had been placed on this line, comprising over
1,500 guns, both field & siege varieties, as well as mortars. By the end of the war, hospitals in the
Washington area grew. They provided medical services to wounded soldiers who wanted long term care
after being transported to the city from front lines. Among the most significant of these Civil War hospitals
were the Armory Square Hospital, Finley Hospital, and the Campbell Hospital.
More than 20,000 injured or ill soldiers received treatment in an array of permanent and temporary
hospitals in the capital, including the U.S. Patent Office, and, for a time, the Capitol itself. The American
Red Cross founder Clara Barton, Dorothea Dix, and other female nurses helped people. The war ended in a
Union victory. On April 14, 1865, just days after the end of the war, President Lincoln was shot in Fords
Theater (in Washington, D.C.) by the murderer Jon Wilkes Booth during the play of Our American Cousin.
The next morning, at 7:22 am, President Lincoln died in the house across the street, the first American
president to be assassinated. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton said, "Now he belongs to the ages."
People were stunned, sadden, and angered. Stanton closed off most major roads and bridges. The city had
martial law. Residents and workers were questioned. Abraham Lincolns body was displayed in the Capitol
rotunda and thousands of Washington residents including many visitors saw the President. People filled
hotels and restaurants. Washington was the site of the trial and execution of many of the assassins. By the

time Andrew Johnson was President in May of 1865, many federal armies marched in D.C. for a review and
celebration.
The Civil War transformed Washington, D.C. from a semi-rural city into an urban center of infrastructure,
public plus private buildings, and the growth of the power of government.

Reconstruction in D.C.
During the Reconstruction period of Washington, D.C., the city has grown. By 1870, the Districts population
had grown 75% from previous census to nearly 132,000 residents. Despite the citys growth, Washington
D.C. still had dirt roads and lacked basic sanitation. The situation was so bad that some members of
Congress suggested moving the capital further west. Yet, President Ulysses S. Grant refused to consider
such a proposal. There were poor conditions in the capital. So, Congress passed the Organic Act of 1871.
This law revoked the individual charities of the cities of Washington and Georgetown. It created a new
territorial government for the whole District of Columbia. The act provided for a governor appointed by the
President, a legislative assembly with an upper house composed of eleven appointed council members and
a 22 member house of delegates elected by residents of the District. The law allowed an appointed Board
of Public Workers charged with modernizing the city.
President Grant appointed Alexander Robey Shepherd (who was an influential member of the Board of
Public Works) to the post of governor in 1873. Shepherd authorized large scale municipal projects, which
greatly modernized Washington, D.C. Yet, the governor spent three times the money that they had been
budgeted for capital improvement and it ultimately bankrupted the city. In 1874, Congress abolished the
District's territorial government and replaced it with a three-member Board of Commissioners appointed by
the President, of which one was a representative from the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The
three Commissioners would then elect one of themselves to be president of the commission. Another act
of Congress in 1878 made the three members Board of Commissioners the permanent government of the
District of Columbia.

The act also had the effect of eliminating any remaining local institutions like the boards on schools, health,
and police. The commissioners would maintain this form of direct rule for nearly a century. Motorized
streetcars in the District started to begin service in 1888 and it gave service in areas beyond the City of
Washingtons original boundaries. In 1888, Congress required all new developments within the District to
conform to the layout of the City of Washington. The City of Washington's northern border of Boundary
Street was renamed Florida in 1890, reflecting growth of suburban areas in the County of Washington. The
city's streets were extended throughout the District starting in 1893. An additional law passed in 1895
mandated that Washington formally absorb Georgetown, which until then had maintained a nominal
separate identity, and renamed its streets. With a consolidated government and the transformation of
suburban areas within the District into urban neighborhoods, the entire city eventually took on the name
Washington, D.C.

During Reconstruction, Howard University was founded in 1867 and black males were given the right of
suffrage (or the right to vote) in the same year. Howard University is one of the most famous Historically
Black Universities (HBCUs) in America. It has great research facilities and it coeducational and nonsectarian.
It has business courses and its one of the top universities in America. Many strong, courageous African
Americans have graduated from Howard University. The new institution was named for General Oliver Otis
Howard, a Civil War hero, who was both the founder of the University and, at the time, Commissioner of
the Freedmen's Bureau. Howard later served as President of the university from 186974. Howard
University would play an important role in the Reconstruction movement and the civil rights movement. In
the year of 1869, the National Convention of the Colored Men of America which was held in D.C. and in the
same year, the American Equal Rights Association would meet in the city too. Norton P. Chipman becomes
delegate to the US House of Representatives from the District of Columbia. Telephones came to D.C. in
1878.
In the early 1880s, the Washington City Canal was covered over. Originally an expansion of Tiber Creek, the
canal connected the Capitol with the Potomac, running along the north side of the Mall where Constitution
Avenue is today. However, as the nation transitioned over to railroads for its transport, the canal had
become nothing more than a stagnant sewer, and so it was removed. Some reminders of the canal still

exist. South of the Capitol, there was a road named Canal Street, which connected Independence Avenue,
W and E Street, SE (although the northern most section of the street was renamed Washington Avenue to
commemorate the state of Washington. A lock keepers house was built in 1835 at the eastern terminal of
the C&O Canal (where the C C&O emptied into Tiber Creek and the Potomac River) remains at the
southwest corner of Constitution Avenue, NW, (formerly B Street, NW) and 17th Street, NW, The western
end of the City Canal emptied into the Potomac and connected with the C&P Canal near the lock keepers
house. One of the most important Washington architects of this period was the German immigrant Adolf
Cluss. From the 1860s to the 1890s, he constructed over 80 public and private buildings throughout the
city, including the National Museum, the Agriculture Department, Sumner and Franklin schools. The
Washington Monument, a tribute to George Washington and the world's tallest stone structure, was
completed in 1884. In 1890, D.C. had a population of 230,392. The American University was founded in
1893, the American Negro Academy was founded in 1897, and the Height of Buildings Act of 1899 was
legislated in 1899.
As W.E.B. BuDois has written so eloquently about Reconstruction: The unending tragedy of
Reconstruction is the utter inability of the American mind to grasp its real significance, its national and
worldwide implicationsIf the Reconstruction of the Southern states, from slavery to free labor, and
from aristocracy to industrial democracy, had been conceived as a major national program of America,
whose accomplishment at any price was well worth the effort, we should be living today in a different
world (W.E.B. DuBoiss Black Reconstruction in America 1860-1880 on pg. 708).

The Early 20th Century

In 1901, the Senate Park Improvement Commission of the District of Columbia (the McMillan
Commission), which Congress had formed the previous year, created the McMillan Plan. That was an
architectural plan for the redevelopment of the National Mall. The commission was inspired by LEnfants
1791 plan for the city. This hasnt been realized. The members of the commission also sought to emulate
the grandeur of European capitals such as Paris, London, and Rome. They were strongly influenced by the
City Beautiful movement. This was a Progressive ideology. It believed in the principle that folks should
want to build up civic virtue in the poor via important, monumental architecture. Several of the

Commission members (like Daniel Burnham and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.) had in fact participated in 1893
World Columbian Exposition. This was very popular and it helped to spread interest in the City Beautiful
movement. The McMillan Plan was an early form of urban renewal. It removed many of the slums that
surrounded the Capitol. It replaced them with new public monuments and government buildings. The Plan
proposed a redesign of the National Mall and the construction of the future Burnham-designed Union
Station. World War I interrupted the execution of the Plan, but the construction of the Lincoln Memorial in
1922 largely completed it. Although the McMillan Plan resulted in the demolition of some slums in the
Federal Triangle area, substandard housing was a much larger problem in the city during the early 1900s,
with large portions of the population living in so-called "alley dwellings. Progressive efforts eventually led
to the creation of the Alley Dwelling Authority in 1934. The agency, led by John Ihlder, was an early
example of a public housing agency, and was responsible for demolishing slum housing and building new
units that were affordable, modern, and sanitary. 1913 was when President Woodrow Wilson was in his
first administration. He introduced segregation in D.C. into several federal departments for the first time
since 1863. He supported some cabinet appointees in their request for segregation of employees and
creation of separate lunchrooms and restrooms. He was highly criticized for this.
The evil policy held for decades. One advantage of federal rule over the District of Columbia was that the
public school teachers were considered federal workers. Although the schools were segregated, black and
white teachers were paid on an equal scale. The system attracted highly qualified teachers, especially for
the M Street School (later called Dunbar High School), the academic high school for African Americans. In
July of 1919, whites (including uniformed sailors and soldiers) attacked black people in Washington during
Red Summer. This was when violence existed in cities nationwide. The catalyst in Washington, D.C. was
rumored arrest of a black man for rape, in four days of mob violence, white men randomly beat black
people on the street, and pulled others off streetcars for attacks. When police refused to intervene, the
black population fought back. Troops tried to restore order as the city closed saloons and theaters, but a
summer rainstorm had a more dampening effect. A total of 15 people were killed: 10 whites, including two
police officers; and five blacks. Fifty people were seriously wounded and another 100 less severely
wounded. The NAACP protested to President Wilson.
Washington, D.C. in 1922 was hit by its deadliest natural disaster. The Knickerbocker Storm dumped 18
inches of snow. This caused the roof of the Knickerbocker Theater (or a silent movie house) was collapse.
98 people were killed including a U.S. Congressman. 133 people were injured. On July 28, 1932, President
Herbert Hoover ordered the United States Army to forcibly evict the Bonus Army of World War I veterans
who gathered in Washington, D.C. to secure promised veterans benefits early. U.S. troops dispersed the
last of the Bonus Army the next day. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the city's population grew
rapidly with the creation of additional Federal agencies under the New Deal programs of President Franklin
D. Roosevelt, during which most of the Federal Triangle buildings were constructed. World War II brought
further population increases and a significant housing shortage, as existing residents were urged to rent
rooms to the influx of Federal staffers who arrived from through hout the country. During the war, as many
as 200,000 railroad passengers passed through Union Station in a single day. The Pentagon was built in
nearby Arlington to efficiently consolidate Federal defense offices under one roof. One of the largest office
buildings in the world, it was built rapidly during the early years of the war, partially opening in 1942, and
complete in 1943.

Washington D.C. and the early Civil Rights movement

The Civil Rights Movement in Washington D.C. has a long history. For a long time, Washington, D.C. had
southern influences. For decades, Washington, D.C. had segregation. Washington, D.C. had free black
people during the 19th century. One famous free black person was a Muslim man named Yarrow Mamout.
He earned enough money from his hauling business to buy a home in Georgetown in 1800. The abolitionist
movement was strong in D.C. even when Congress in 1835 banned anti-slavery literature in the city.
Segregation or legal apartheid was brutal in D.C. For example, in 1808 the city passed a series of Black
Codes that included fines for blacks out after ten pm, requirement that freedmen carry documents, fines
for playing cards or dice, and forty lashes for slaves caught at disorderly meetings. There were also cash
bonds that were required. Slavery was huge in Washington, D.C. White racist mobs in a riot destroyed the
homes, churches, and schools of free black people in 1835. In 1869, the city passed a law against racial
discrimination in places of entertainment and expanded it in 1870 to include restaurants, bars, and hotels.
People fought for voting rights for black people in Georgetown and the city of Washington in the 1860s.
In 1865, Sojourner Truth integrated the citys house cars by ignoring the conductors order to move from
the white section. This was 90 years before the Montgomery bus boycott. Black people voted for the first
time in the District in 1867. John F. Cook was a black Washingtonian being the chair of the Republican
Party. During Reconstruction, black people gained offices in D.C. Frederick Douglass was a member of the
District of Columbias upper house by 1871. Reconstruction was short lived and by the election of
Rutherford Hayes, the era of Reconstruction ended. After Reconstruction, jobs for black people in city
government declined. By 1891, only 25 African Americans were on jobs for city government. Six African
Americans who showed up in the Social Register in 1888 or the fact that President McKinley had two local
blacks on his Inauguration Committee.
By 1900, Washington D.C. had the largest percentage of African Americans of any city in America. Jim Crow
grew in D.C. and Woodrow Wilson promoted it and was one of the pro-segregation Presidents in history.
Wilson segregated federal workplaces in 1913. There were a few exceptions to the custom such as the
Library of Congress, public libraries, streetcars, and Griffith Stadium. Back during the early 20th century, the
Washingtons black community had leadership around U Street. It had resiliency and sufficiency. Black
Washingtonians owned two steamboat companies, grocery stores, heat fuel companies, and the Adams Oil
and Gas Development Company, which was looking for oil in Oklahoma. Within ten years there was a blackowned bank, Capital Savings; two black-owned insurance companies and at least 11 black employment
agencies. In 1909, the local chapter of the NAACP had over 1,000 members. Its headquarters was on U
Street and it had the largest members in the country at that time. Black institutions developed like the
Urban League. The white racists did the 1919 bloody summer riots in D.C. and in 24 other cities. It started in
part of newspaper accounts which stereotyped black people in evil ways. Over 30 people died in D.C.

including over 150 people being rounded or shot (even children). Black people, during the 1919 riots,
defended themselves against white terrorists.
There were strong schools in D.C. like Howard University, which is historically the intellectual center of
Black America. Langston Hughes, Alain Locke, ad Duke Ellington were either born in Washington, D.C. or
have ties to D.C. From the 1920s to the 1930s, there was a cultural renaissance in the city. Many black
people back then had their own churches, schools, banks, stores, food stores, department stores, etc. The
late Thurlow Tibbs recalled, "We are forced to deal with one another on every economic level. In my
block we had school teachers, a mail man, a retired garbage man, and a registrar of Howard
University." These black people promoted self-sufficiency, but they also advocated racial justice. During
the Great Depression (1929-1939) and World War II (1939-1945), the early civil rights movement gained
ground. The Washington chapter of the National Negro Congress organized against police brutality and
segregation in recreation started in 1936. By World War Two, black people wanted Double V (or Victory
Abroad and Victory Home in ending racial injustice). In 1948 the Supreme Court declared racially restrictive
housing covenants were unconstitutional in the local Hurd v. Hodge case. Beginning in 1949 Mary Church
Terrell led a multiracial effort to end segregation in public accommodations through pickets, boycotts, and
legal action. In 1957, Washington D.C.'s African American population surpassed the 50 percent mark,
making it the first predominantly black major city in the nation, and leading a nationwide trend.

Let Freedom Ring

The 1963 March on Washington, D.C. (and more Civil Rights Events)
The March on Washington happened on August 28, 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial. The march is
immortalized by the organizers, by the music, and by the speakers of different backgrounds. Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr. electrified the crowd with his I Have A Dream speech. By 1963, the Civil Rights Movement
expanded across America involving demonstrations and nonviolent direct actions. 1963 was the 100th
anniversary of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln, but black people werent
free from racism and injustice. The march was the dream of the democratic socialist A. Philip Randolph
(who was the President of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. So, Randolph believed in labor rights
and civil rights). Back during the 1940s, he said that if FDR wouldnt end discrimination in war time
workplaces, then he would organize a march on Washington. FDR feared political turmoil, so he signed an
executive order 8802 (or the Fair Employment Act) to ban discrimination based on color in wartime
industries. The crowd in D.C. for the speech in 1963 was about 250,000 people. The march was a call for
Jobs and Freedom. The people of the march didnt just want civil rights legislation to be passed federally.
They wanted voting rights, economic justice (which including living wages, adequate housing, and
investments in education on an non-segregated basis), an end to police brutality, and an end totally to Jim
Crow apartheid. Back then, the capitalist elites knew full well that it was hypocritical for them to talk to
other nations about the myth of American democracy while black people in America experienced
lynchings, murder, abuse, rape, police brutality, discrimination, and other forms of evil racism. Groups like

SNCC and the SCLC executed acts of civil disobedience, student sit ins, the Freedom Rides (who are
celebrating the 55th year anniversary of its existence), the voter registration drives, and other actions in
fighting for jobs, equality, and economic justice. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. acted as a balance of the many
factions of the civil rights movement. He wanted to balance the conservative leaders (from the NAACP and
the Urban League) and the more progressive leaders of the movement (from SNCC and CORE). SCLC back
then was in the center-left ideologically.
As early as May 17, 1957, Dr. King, Randolph, and Bayard Rustin mobilized up to 30,000 people for the
Prayer Pilgrimage for Civil Rights. It was held in the Lincoln Memorial. Many speakers were people like
Adam Clayton Powell, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, and Roy Wilkins. Mahalia Jackson performed. They desired
to strengthen the civil rights movement. In 1962, Randolph asked Rustin to form a plan for a large jobs
related march on Washington. Bayard Rustin was a democratic socialist during the early 1960s. Rustin
promoted the progressive Freedom Budget during the 1960s and her fought against Jim Crow apartheid,
but he would express disdain for the views of Malcolm X, didnt strongly oppose the Vietnam War, and later
be a radical anti-Communist. Plans continued in 1963. By 1963, protests and social activism in Birmingham
to end segregation continued. President John F. Kennedy was hesitant in supporting federal civil rights
legislation for fear of a Southern backlash against the bill. Dr. King and other civil rights leaders criticized
the Kennedy administration on the pace that it took on civil rights. Dr. King felt that Kennedy didnt go far
enough on civil rights and he made that known publicly in speeches too. After Medgar Evers was shot in
1963, then President John F. Kennedy (on June 11, 1963) made a historic speech to condemn racism and
advocate for passage of a Civil Rights federal bill. Even then in June 22, 1963, JFK wanted civil rights leaders
to call off the march. The civil rights leaders refused to do so. The Big Six of the Civil Rights Movement
agreed to proceed with the plans.
The Big Six were these men: A. Philip Randolph, Jim Farmer of CORE, Dr. King of the SCLC, John Lewis of
SNCC, Roy Wilkins of the NAACP, and Whitney Young of the Urban League. They formed the Council for
United Civil Rights Leadership in June of 1963 in order to coordinate funds and messaging. Cleveland
Robinson was a great organizer of the March too as the Chairman of the Administrative Committee.
Cleveland Robinson was born in Jamaica. He lived from 1914 to 1995 as a fighter in the civil rights
movement. Union leaders Stanley Aronowitz, Walter Reuther (of the UAW) supported the march.
On July 2, Randolph and King go into New York City to unite in their plans for the upcoming Washington for
Jobs and Freedom March. In that meeting, Roy Wilkins wanted no civil disobedience and no overt
criticism of the Kennedy administration during the rally. Bayard Rustin was chosen to head the organizing
the march because of his organizing and fundraising skills. JFK had no choice to support the march in public,
but he wanted to control it using various tactics. Some SNCC members supported the march. Other SNCC
members fear co-option and a sugarcoating of the black freedom message by the Kennedy administration.
Some SNCC organizers like Kwame Ture refuse to go to the march. March organizers themselves disagreed
over the purpose of the march. The NAACP and Urban League saw it as a gesture of support for a civil rights
bill that had been introduced by the Kennedy Administration. Randolph, King, and the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference(SCLC) saw it as a way of raising both civil rights and economic issues to national
attention beyond the Kennedy bill. Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and Congress of
Racial Equality (CORE) saw it as a way of challenging and condemning the Kennedy administration's inaction
and lack of support for civil rights for African Americans.

These images show the occurrences on the March on Washington over 50 years ago.
The March on Washington had 10 progressive demands (which was agreed upon by many people of the
civil rights movement) demanding decent housing, the right to vote, and other actions taken. Many
newspapers back then were wrong that the march would provoke rioting and violence. Buses left San
Francisco and other places of the West Coast on Saturday, August 24, 1963. Buses came from Portland,
Chicago, Milwaukee, Kansas City, NYC, Norfolk, Atlanta, etc.
The March was a strong showing. Almost 250,000 Americans were in the march. Most of the people there
were African Americans. Many white people were there as well. The marchers were entertained by
celebrities like Ossie Davis, Joan Baez, Bobby Darin, Bob Dylan, Odetta, Peter, Paul, and Mary, and Jackie
Robinson. Many celebrities were there too. They included Marlon Brando, Sammy Davis Jr., Lena Horne,
Diahann Carroll, Harry Belafonte, Charlton Heston, Burt Lancester, James Baldwin, etc. Yet, controversies
existed. Most of the speakers were men. Daisy Bates spoke briefly in place of Myrlie Evers (the widow of
Medgar Evers), because Myrlie Evers missed her flight. Although, Gloria Richardson was on the program
and had been asked to give a two-minute speech, when she arrived at the stage her chair with her name on
it had been removed, and the event marshal took her microphone away after she said hello. Richardson,
along with Rosa Parks and Lena Horne, was escorted away from the podium before Martin Luther King Jr.
spoke. That forms of exclusion and sexism is abhorrent and evil. It was wrong.

Dorothy Height was one of the great organizers of the 1963 March on Washington. She
supported civil rights, womens rights, and human justice throughout her life.
Early plans for the March would have included an "Unemployed Worker" as one of the speakers. This
position was eliminated, furthering criticism of the March's middle-class bias. Gospel legend Mahalia
Jackson sang "How I Got Over", and Marian Anderson sang "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands". This
was not Marian Anderson's first appearance at the Lincoln Memorial. In 1939, the Daughters of the
American Revolution refused permission for Anderson to sing to an integrated audience in Constitution
Hall. With the aid of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and her husband Franklin D. Roosevelt, Anderson
performed a critically acclaimed open-air concert on Easter Sunday, 1939, on the steps of the Lincoln
Memorial.
Also, John Lewis censored his speech in criticizing the government on civil rights efforts. John Lewis'
excerpts of his original speech condemned the Kennedy administration in the following terms:
"...It seems to me that the Albany indictment is part of a conspiracy on the part of the federal government
and local politicians in the interest of expediency. I want to know, which side is the federal government on?
The revolution is at hand, and we must free ourselves of the chains of political and economic slavery. The
nonviolent revolution is saying, We will not wait for the courts to act, for we have been waiting for
hundreds of years. We will not wait for the President, the Justice Department, nor Congress, but we will
take matters into our own hands and create a source of power, outside of any national structure, that could
and would assure us a victoryIn the struggle, we must seek more than civil rights; we must work for the
community of love, peace, and true brotherhood. Our minds, souls and hearts cannot rest until freedom
and justice exist for all peopleThe revolution is a serious one. Mr. Kennedy is trying to take the revolution
out of the streets and put it into the courts. Listen, Mr. Kennedy. Listen Mr. Congressman. Listen, fellow
citizens. The black masses are on the march for jobs and freedom, and we must say to the politicians that
there wont be a cooling off period.
Yet, Lewis censored many words from his speech out of respect for A. Philip Randolph's passionate speech
to him. Malcolm X criticized the March on Washington as the farce on Washington for his view that it was
co-opted by establishment figures to prevent a real black revolution in America. Dr. Martin Luther King was
inspired by Mahalia Jackson in the audience to speak about the dream in his I Have a Dream speech. He
spoke eloquently about justice and human freedom.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said the following historic words in the March:

"...Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a
dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed:
'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'...I have a dream that my
four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of
their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!...But not only that:
Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village
and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all
of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will
be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!..."

The March on Washington had worldwide coverage and it was very successful. The 1963 March on
Washington influenced the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

U Street had people like Thurgood Marshall and Charles Houston fighting for civil rights. Jim Crow was
fought against by D.C.s Julius Hobson. He organized more than 80 picket lines on about 120 retail stores in
downtown D.C. from 1960 to 1964. Some black people were employed in such areas. He initiated a
campaign that resulted in the first hiring of black bus drivers by DC Transit. In 1965, SNCC leader Marion
Barry organized a boycott in January 1965 to not allow DC Transit to raise its fares. SNCC said that DC
Transit lost about 130,000 to 150,000 fares during the boycott. 2 days later, three transit commission,
temporarily denied DC transit the fare hike. Hobson and CORE forced the hiring of the first black auto
salesmen and dairy employees and started a campaign to combat job discrimination by the public utilities
that led to a permanent court injunction to prevent Hobson from encouraging people to paste stickers over
the holes in punch-card utility bills. Hobson led a huge demonstration to fight to end housing segregation
when he led 4,500 people to the District Building. Private apartment buildings discriminated against black
people back then. He fought against segregation in the hospitals. He used sit-ins at the Benjamin Franklin
School in 1964 to help cause the desegregation of private business schools. Julius Hobson won a suit to
outlaw the existing rigid track system and teacher segregation. He fought for the human rights of black
people, women, and Mexican Americans.
During the 1960s, Washington, D.C. saw the growth of the Black Arts, Black Power, Womens, and
Statehood movements. There were strong anti-war protests in D.C. throughout the 1960s and during the
1970s in opposing the unjust Vietnam War. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wanted to promote the Poor Peoples
Campaign which were to happen in D.C. The first black mayor came into Washington, D.C. was Walter
Washington in 1967. He was appointed. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in April 4, 1968. This
caused people to be said and outraged at such an evil action. Later, the 1968 riots came about in D.C.
Buildings were burned and destroyed. Washington, D.C. was occupied by military troops, which never
occurred except during the Civil War.
In 1974 residents chose Washington as the city's first elected black mayor and the first mayor of the 20th
century. By 1975 African Americans were politically and culturally leading the city with more than 70
percent of the population. Marion Barry would be mayor too after Walter Washington.
Today, Go-go (or DCs home grown version of funk), jazz, blues, salsa, etc. flourish in Washington, D.C. The
African American experience is a long, beautiful experience. African Americans make up a huge part of the
strength and resiliency of Washington, D.C.

Home Rule
There is the issue of home rule in the District of Columbia. Home rule is the concept that allows the
residents of Washington, D.C. to govern their own affairs. The Constitution grants the United States
Congress exclusive jurisdiction over the District in all cases whatsoever. Since 1973, Congress has allowed
some powers of the government to be carried out by locally elected officials. Although, Congress maintains
the power to overturn local laws and exercises greater oversight of the city than exists for any U.S. state.
Furthermore, the District's elected government exists at the pleasure of Congress and could theoretically
be revoked at any time. D.C. has a lack of voting representation in Congress. The city's unique status
creates a situation where D.C. residents do not have full control over their local government nor do they
have voting representation in the body that has full control. Because of this, I do believe in D.C. Statehood.
Washington, D.C. elects a delegate to the House of Representatives. This person has the usual rights of
membership like seniority and committee membership except there is no formal vote. The 23rd
Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified on March 29, 1961. This gives people a voice in
the electoral college of the size of the smallest state (or three votes). In 1973, Congress passed the District
of Columbia Home Rule Act. This ceded some of its power over the city to a new directly elected city council
and mayor. Walter Washington was the first elected mayor of Washington, D.C. He was the first African
American mayor of a large city in America from 1967. Richard Hatcher of Gary, Indiana and Carl Stokes of
Cleveland were both elected mayors in their respective cities too. Walter Washington had to deal with
racial divisions, and civil rights legislation. He sent his first budget to Congress in late 1967. Democratic
Representative John L. McMillan (who was a reactionary person), chair of the House Committee on the
District of Columbia, responded by having a truckload of watermelons delivered to Washington's office.
That is an evil, racist act from McMillan. So, racism is found in the Republican and Democratic Parties.
Soon afterward the evil assassination of Dr. Martin Luther king Jr., the rebellion happened in D.C. (and in
other places of America). Although he was reportedly urged by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover to allow
authorities to shoot the rioters, Washington refused. He told the Washington Post later, "I walked by
myself through the city and urged angry young people to go home. I asked them to help the people who
had been burned out." Only one person refused to listen to him. Republican Richard Nixon retained
Washington as Mayor-Commissioner after being elected as president in 1968. By the mid 1970s,
Washington, D.C. became a mostly black city. By January 2, 1975, Walter Washington was sworn in by the
African American Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. He had to deal with a unique city that was
newly autonomous. He had to experiment with things. Later, some folks criticized him. The Washington

Post opined that he lacked "command presence." D.C. Council Chair Sterling Tucker suggested that the
problems in the city were because of Washington's inability as a manager of city services. Council Member
Marion S. Barry, Jr. accused him of "bumbling and bungling in an inefficiently run city government. Some
accused him of being not firm enough to move the citys bureaucracy.
In the 1978 Democratic mayoral primary between Washington, Tucker, and City Councilman Marion Barry,
Washington finished third. He left office on January 2, 1979, when the victorious Barry was sworn in. Upon
his departure from office, Washington announced that city had posted a $41 million budget surplus, based
on the Federal government's cash-on-hand financial system. Barry shifted city finances to the more
common accrual system, and he announced that under this system, Washington had left a $284 million
debt. The first 4.6 miles of the Washington Metro subway system opened on March 27, 1976. That came
after years of acrimonious battles with Congress over funding and highway construction. There was a
rejected proposal to build a north-central freeway. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
had been created in 1973 through a merger of several local bus companies. Several new Metro stations
such as Friendship Heights, Van Ness, Gallery Place, Columbia Heights, U Street, and Navy Yard Ballpark
eventually became catalysts for commercial development. The Kennedy Center opened, as well as several
new museums and historic monuments on and around the National Mall. In 1978, Congress sent the
District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment to the states for ratification. The amendment would have
granted the District representation in the House, Senate, and Electoral College as if it were a state. The
proposed amendment had a seven-year limit for ratification, and only sixteen states ratified it in this
period. Walter Washington passed away in 2003.

The era of Marion Barry started in 1978 when she defeated Walter Washington in the Democratic Party
primary. He would later be mayor and serve three successive four year terms. He would be praised by his
supporters and criticized by his opponents. He served from 1979 to 1991 and from 1995 to 1999. He served
on the Council of the District of Columbia for three terms. Before being mayor, Marion Barry was involved
in the Civil Rights Movement. He was part of the Nashville Student Movement and was the first chairman of
the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee or SNCC. In essence to understand Washington, D.C., you

have to understand Marion Barry. He was born in rural Itta Bena, Mississippi. Mattie Cummings and Marion
Barry are his parents. He moved into Memphis, Tennessee. His father died young. He attended Florida
Elementary and graduated from Booker T. Washington High School in Memphis.
Barry was active in the NAACP while he was in Le Moyne College. Barry earned an M.S. in organic chemistry
from Fisk University in 1960. He was arrested in Nashville for working in sit ins to desegregate lunch
counters and other civil rights events. He graduated from Fisk. Being in SNCC, Barry led protests against
racial segregation and discrimination. He worked with the MFDP or the Mississippi Freedom Democratic
Party. He worked in Washington, D.C. and opened a chapter of SNCC in 1965. Barry organized greatly in
boycotts and other actions. He quit SNCC in 1967. In 1967, Barry and Mary Treadwell co-founded Pride,
Inc., a Department of Labor-funded program to provide job training to unemployed black men. The group
employed hundreds of teenagers to clean littered streets and alleys in the district. Barry and Treadwell had
met while students at Fisk University, and they later met again while picketing in front of the Washington
Gas Light Company. He organized through Pride Inc. a program of free food distribution for poor black
residents whose homes and neighborhoods had been destroyed in the 1968 rebellion. Barry convinced the
Giant Food supermarket chain to donate food, and he spent a week driving trucks and delivering food
throughout the city's housing projects. He also became a board member of the citys Economic
Development Committee, helping to route federal funds and venture capital to black-owned businesses
that were struggling to recover from the rebellions.
When President Richard Nixon declared July 21, 1969, National Day of Participation in honor of the moon
landing by Apollo 11, Barry criticized him. Barry believed that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. deserved a national
honor day on his birthday, which Nixon had opposed. Said Barry, "Why should blacks feel elated when we
see men eating on the moon when millions of blacks and poor whites don't have enough money to buy
food here on earth? Later, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would have a national holiday. Barry was in the D.C.
Board of Education by 1971. He opposed the Super Fly film since he believed that it glorified drug abuse
and it was harmful to black youth. He wanted a larger budget for education for D.C. During his first term as
Mayor, Marion Berry saw an increase of efficiency in city administration and government services, in
particular the sanitation department.
Barry also instituted his signature, famous summer jobs program, in which summer employment was made
available to every school-age resident. At the same time, Barry straightened the citys chaotic finances and
attacked the deficit by introducing spending controls and laying off ten percent of the citys workforce.
Each year of his first term saw a budget surplus of at least US$13 million. District of Columbia political
reporter Jonetta Rose Barras characterized the first Barry administration as "methodical, competent, and
intellectually superior. The crime rate and the unemployment rate started to increase too. There was a
slowing down in rehabilitating dilapidated and condemned housing units. For thousands of people in the
District, Marion Barry was the reason they had a job, which meant he was the reason they could keep their
home, feed their children, or keep their lights on. Poor and working-class kids in the city have been getting
their first jobs from Barrys summer jobs program for thirty-five years. His administration increased
assistance to the elderly and the poor. This caused Marion Barry to be very popular even today.
In 1982, Barry faced re-election against a challenge from fellow Democrat Patricia Roberts Harris, an
African-American woman who had served in two cabinet positions under President Jimmy Carter, as well as
from council members John L. Ray and Charlene Drew Jarvis. In the primary election held September 14,
1982, Barry won by a landslide, with over 58% of the vote. He won 82% of the vote in the November 11

general election against Republican candidate E. Brooke Lee. His second term had more problems than the
first. There was a massive real estate boom that helped to alleviate the citys fiscal problems for a time.
Government spending increased and there was a fifth straight budget surplus. Yet, the next year the city
had a $110 million deficit. There were problems of oversight. The cost of services such as heating oil for the
public schools inflated 40 percent, without any guarantee that the goods and services were being provided.
City councilman John A. Wilson commented that What started out to benefit the minority community at
large has meant some politically influential blacks can move out to posh suburbs. There were scandals of
former officials like Ivanhoe Donaldson and Alphonse G. Hill. During this time, more people found out about
Barrys drug abuse. In 1983, Barry's ex-wife, Mary Treadwell, was convicted of fraudulently using federal
funds given to Pride, Inc., a group that helped local youth find employment. In 1984, Barry's one-time lover
Karen Johnson was convicted of cocaine possession and contempt of court for refusing to testify to a grand
jury about Barrys drug use.
Barrys second four years in office had some high points, including the Districts entry into the open bond
market with Wall Streets highest credit rating, and Barrys nomination speech for Jesse Jackson at the 1984
Democratic Convention. Marion Barry easily won the third term in 1986. Barry suffered addictions of
cocaine and alcohol. Crack addiction exploded in Washington, D.C. in 1987. Territorial wars among drug
dealers for territory grew. In 1988 there were 369 homicides in Washington, D.C, the most ever in the city.
That record was broken when the next year had 434 homicides, and it was broken again in 1990 with 474
homicides, making Washington's murder rate the highest in the nation (during that time period). The
Washington, D.C. government's unemployment and deficits grew as city services suffered; in particular,
there were frequent press reports of deaths occurring because police lacked cars to get to crime scenes,
and EMS services responded slowly or went to the wrong address. The FBI investigated Barry since 1989 for
illegal drug possession and use. Many of his associates were convicted of cocaine use like Charles Lewis (or
a native of the United States Virgin Islands). On January 18, 1990, Barry was arrested with a former
girlfriend, Hazel Diane "Rasheeda" Moore, in a sting operation at the Vista Hotel by the FBI and D.C. police
for crack cocaine use and possession. Moore was an FBI informant when she invited Barry to the hotel
room and insisted that he smoke freebase cocaine before they had sex, while agents in another room
watched on camera, waiting for Barry to accept her offer. He lost the election in 1990 and served 6 months
in federal prison. He was released in April 1992. He served on D.C. Council from 1992 to 1994.
Sharon Pratt Kelly was the first African American woman mayor of a major American city. She served from
January 2, 1991 to January 2, 1995. She made good on her promises to clean house, requesting the
resignations of all Barry appointees the day after her election; however, as she began to slash the city
employment payroll, her political support began to weaken. She angered labor leaders who claimed she
had promised not to fire union employees, and began mandating unpaid furloughs and wage freezes
citywide. She fought for D.C. statehood. Marion Barrys last term is part of Mayoral fights over budgetary
issues and fights for home rule. Marion Barry wasnt perfect, but he shown a great love for black people. He
would pass away in the year of 2014.
After being imprisoned for six months on misdemeanor drug charges in 1990, Barry did not run for
reelection. Barry was elected again in 1994 and by the next year the city had become nearly insolvent. In
1995, Congress created the District of Columbia Financial Control Board to oversee all municipal spending
and rehabilitate the city government. Mayor Anthony Williams won election in 1998. His administration
oversaw a period of greater prosperity, urban renewal, and budget surpluses. The District regained control
over its finances in 2001 and the oversight board's operations were suspended in September of that year.

Williams did not seek reelection in 2006. Council member Adrian Fenty defeated Council Chairwoman Linda
Cropp in that year's Democratic primary race to succeed Williams as mayor and started his term in 2007.
Shortly upon taking office, Fenty won approval from the city council to directly manage and overhaul the
city's under-performing public school system. However, Fenty lost a Democratic Party primary to former
Council Chair Vincent Gray in August 2010. Mayor Gray won the general election and assumed office in
January 2011 with a pledge to bring economic opportunities to more of the city's residents and underserved areas.

The 21st Century

The 21st century in Washington, D.C. began with many events. By the year 2000, the Million Mom March
was held in D.C. This was the rally of thousands of people to call for tighter gun control laws. The march had
an attendance of 750,000 people. On September 11, 2001, the Pentagon (which is in Arlington, Virginia)
was attacked. The Pentagon is across the river from Washington, D.C. United Airlines Flight 93, which was
also hijacked and which went down in an open field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, supposedly intended to
target either the White House or the U.S. Capitol. From 9/11 onward, Washington D.C. became more
involved in security protection measures. Soon, many high profile incidents and other evil acts have
occurred in Washington, D.C. In October 2001, there were the anthrax attacks. It involved anthrax
contaminated mail sent to many members of Congress. It infected 31 staff members and killed 2 U.S. Postal
Service employees who handled the contaminated mail at the Brentwood sorting facility. An FBI and DOJ
investigation determined the likely culprit of the anthrax attacks to be Bruce, a scientist, but he committed
suicide in July 2008 before formal charges were filed. There were the acts of the Beltway Sniper attacks in
October 2002. It lasted for 3 weeks around the DMV area. John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo
were the shooters and they were arrested on October 24, 2002. They murdered 10 innocent people. 3
other people were wounded. In 2003 and 2004, a serial arsonist set over 40 fires, mainly in the District and
the close-in Maryland suburbs, with one fire killing an elderly woman. A local man was arrested in the serial
arson case in April 2005 and pled guilty.

She is U.S. House Delegate Eleanor

Holmes Norton of the District of
Columbia. For decades, she has
worked with SNCC, the ACLU, and
other progressive organizations. She
has fought for voting rights in D.C. for
years.

This image shows rowhouses on 11th St. NW in D.C.

The toxin ricin was found in the mailroom of the White House in November 2003 and in the mailroom of
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist in February 2004. These events caused more screening devices, metal
detectors, and other high tech security measures in Washington, D.C.(especially in major federal
government buildings). The Washington Convention Center was rebuilt in 2003. By 2007, Adrian Fenty
became mayor. After 2007, student achievement tests at the secondary level reportedly rose 14 points in
reading and 17 points in math. Student SAT scores rose 27 points in 2010. Graduation rates rose each year
since 2007, and 72 percent of District students took the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT), which
functions as a practice test for college bound students. The Nationals Park stadium opened in 2008. Under
Fenty, 16 neighborhood and school playgrounds were opened and nine play courts and fields were
completed. Fenty wasnt a progressive on every issue though, especially on collective bargaining (Fenty
opposed collective bargaining, which is his mistake). Vincent C. Gray became mayor in 2011 and the City
Center DC construction started in the same year.

The Era of the Mayor and Sister Muriel Bowser

In 2015, Sister Muriel Bowser became mayor of Washington D.C. She is the second African American
woman to be mayor of Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is dealing with many issues from education,
health care, and criminal justice matters. Sister Muriel Elizabeth Bowser has an interesting story. She was

born in August 2, 1972. She grew up in Michigan Park in northeast DC. Bowser graduated from Chatham in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with a bachelor's degree in history, and she graduated from American University
with a Masters in Public Policy. She is 43 years old. She was elected to the Advisory Neighborhood
Commission in 2004. She was elected to the Council in 2007 via a special election. She was reelected (as a
member of the Council of the District of Columbia in Ward 4) in 2008 and 2012. On March 23, 2013, Bowser
announced that she would run for the Mayor of the District of Columbia in the 2014 election. Her
campaigns chair was former council member William Lightfoot. Bowser said that she can connect with
longtime residents who are concerned with massive changes in the District. She wanted free Metro fares
for students. She was against increasing the minimum wage only for employees of large retailers.
Muriel Bowser has been mayor since January 2, 2015. She is the second black woman to be mayor of D.C.
The first one was Sharon Pratt Kelly. Muriel Bowser (like mayors nationwide) had to deal with crime and
other issues in Washington D.C. In October 2015 (in response to an increase of homicides in her first year as
Mayor), Bowser proposed legislation allowing law enforcement officials to perform warrantless searches of
violent ex-offenders. The bill was widely opposed by citizen's groups and the D.C. Council. She also deals
with homelessness in the city. DC General closed, so by 2016, she proposed various housing sites to house
the homeless. Although Bowser supports the outfitting of Metropolitan Police Department with body
cameras and has requested $6 million in her 2016 budget proposal to complete the task, she also included
a provision that would make all footage from the cameras exempt from Freedom of Information Act
requests, with the goal "to respect privacy." She is early in her mayorship. She launched an inclusive
technology program to support startups and entrepreneurs offering products and services to poor
communities. The issue is that she has to deal with corporate forces trying to exploit D.C. and she has to
promote the interests of the community in D.C. irrespective of the goals of select corporations.

The Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. is

located in 601 F Street Northwest. Its
found in the Chinatown neighborhood of
D.C. too. It is home to the Washington
Wizards, the Washington Capitals, the
Georgetown Hoyas, the Washington
Mystics, and the future Washington Valor
(of the ALF) starting in 2017.

Also, it is important to outline the progressive actions of

the Mayor Muriel Bowser. She promoted projects to increase
jobs. She devoted an historic $100 million to the Housing
Production Trust Fund, which can help to build many
affordable housing units in D.C. She has supported
investments in education. Muriel Bowser gave her State of
the District speech in the beautiful Arena Stage Theater in
Southwest, D.C. In her speech, the mayor spoke of elected
officials having three choices when building the city. One is
to reject growth and accept decline; two is growing without
regard to our roots, and risk losing what makes D.C. great;
and the third is to balance change with preservation and
growth.

She believes in fulfilling the third choice. She touted existing successful programs, like having 500 mentors
for boys who need it most; the money saved by families when Kids Ride Free on public transportation;

8,200 families reading to their children benefiting from the Books from Birth program; and various
Cornerstone, Common Core and Career Academies. Mayor Muriel Bowser signed a youth suicide
prevention bill in April 27, 2016. The bill requires the citys public schools to adopt suicide prevention
policies. D.C. has the fastest improving urban school district in America. It is very early in her mayorship.
One thing that is true is that Muriel Bowser is a very qualified black woman, she loves Washington, D.C.,
and we wish the best for her.

The Culture of Washington D.C.

Washington D.C.'s culture is alive, strong, and greatly influenced by black people. African American culture
and Washington, D.C. go hand in hand. Cedar Hill is found on a hillside in the historically black Anacostia
neighborhood. Cedar Hill is the mansion where Frederick Douglass lived during the late 1800s. It is now a
museum celebrating the life and work of the great orator and abolitionist Frederick Douglass. Across the
street in Canal Square (in Georgetown), there are the walls at the Parish Gallery. It is a monument that
shows the spectacular paintings and sculpture from artists throughout the Diaspora. In between, in the
famous U Street Corridor, Georgia Avenue and other neighborhoods, have places that have Southern
cooking, hangouts for spoken word poetry, etc. There are also jazz joints, dance clubs, and other part of the
black arts. Black cultural life is abundant in Washington, D.C. The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial is also
a great monument in Washington, D.C. It celebrates the life of one of the greatest fighters for human
justice in history. There is the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House, which is a townhouse in the Logan
Circle neighborhood that celebrates the contribution Bethune made to black education during the late
1800s and early 1900s.

One cant know about Washington, D.C. without understanding about Howard University. It is an attractive,
tree covered, 256 acre campus. Its located in Washington, D.C.s Northwest quadrant. It has many
Victorian Revivalist style buildings. It is one of the most prominent historically black colleges in America. It
was created in 1867. Many black leaders have graduated from (or had connections with) Howard University
like Thurgood Marshall (the first black Supreme Court Justice), Charles Houston, Kwame Ture, Dr. Patricia
Bath (she is an ophthalmologist and the first African-American woman doctor to receive a patent for a
medical invention), Dr. Marjorie Lee Browne (she was an educator. She was one of the first African
American women to receive a doctorate in mathematics in the United States), Dr. Alexander Darnes, Cheick
Modibo Diarra, Edward Brooke, L. Douglas Wilder, Andrew Young, Zora Neale Hurston, etc. Malcolm X Park
in D.C. have people using drums and enjoying life. Meridian Hill Park runs between Euclid and Florida
avenues between 16th and 15th streets. The U Street corridor is along U Street in Northwest D.C. between
15th and Seventh Street. In that location, there are boutique shops, cafes, restaurants, and bars. The D.C.
Shaw neighborhood has black musicians, writers, and artists. Duke Ellington was born in this area and spent
most of his early life. There are plaques of Ellington, Toomer, and other people there too. Writer Jean
Toomer, author of the classic novel Cane, also lived here as a teenager.
The African American Civil War Memorial & Museum is found in U and Vermont Street. It celebrates the
courage of black people during the Civil War. There is a 10 ft. Spirit of Freedom o sculpture there. It shows

the images of uniformed soldiers and a sailor. The wall displays the names of more than 200,000 United
States black troops, who fought during the Civil War. The Civil War Museum documents their story. The
Lincoln Theatre is a strong staple of black culture. It was built in 1922. It was a place where musicians like
Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, and other shown the world their gifts. Back then, it was the only place black
residents could watch live shows since D.C. was segregated.
Today, the Theater is returned to its 20s glory. Georgias Brown is off McPherson Square downtown. It had
old school Southern dishes. It has fried chicken, collard green, peach cobbler, and other great foods. Many
celebrities go there including President Barack Obama and First Lady Sister Michelle Obama. D.C. ex-mayor
Vincent Gray has been there too. Sankofa, Cadence, and the Everlasting Life Caf where people do open
mic. Busboys and Poets on 14th Street, is one of the main hangout spots for youthful black people and
others in D.C. Held in the Langston Room, a long, private dining area decorated with posters of Martin
Luther King, Malcolm X and other black leaders, this event boasts a strong following of regulars, mostly
young African Americans. Washington, D.C. also is known to a multicultural group of people form blacks
from across the Diaspora, white people, Asians, Hispanics, etc.

Washington D.C. has a large amount of music. Many famous and underground musicians in Washington
D.C. celebrate house, jazz, bluegrass, hip hop, go-go (or local funk genre of music). John Philip Sousa was a
military brass band composer. Duke Ellington is one of the most famous musicians in the world. He was
born in Washington, D.C. back in April 29, 1899. His parents were James Edward Ellington and Daisy
(Kennedy) Ellington. Both of his parents were pianists. He lived with his maternal grandparents at 2129 Ida
Place (Ward Place today), NW in the West End neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Duke's father was born in
Lincolnton, North Carolina, on April 15, 1879, and moved to Washington, D.C. in 1886 with his parents.
Daisy Kennedy was born in Washington, D.C., on January 4, 1879, the daughter of a former American slave.
He was not only an American composer and pianist. He was a bandleader of a jazz orchestra. His music and
respected and loved from people through every walk of life. His orchestra performed nationwide including
at the Cotton Club in Harlem, NYC (from the 1920s onward) during the Harlem Renaissance. His orchestra
toured Europe during the 1930s as well. Though widely considered to have been a pivotal figure in the
history of jazz, Ellington embraced the phrase "beyond category" as a liberating principle, and referred to
his music as part of the more general category of American Music, rather than to a musical genre such as
jazz. He worked with others and he wrote more than 1,000 composition.

He has an extensive work of jazz. Many of his works are standards of jazz. He worked with composer
arranger pianist Billy Strayhorn too. By July 1956, after doing a Newport Jazz Festival, Ellington and his
orchestra had a career revival. He was in many films, and composed stage musicals. His son was Mercer
Kennedy Ellington who would have his own band too. After his passing in May 24, 1974 (of complications
from lung cancer and pneumonia), he was awarded posthumous a Special Pulitzer Prize for music in 1999.
Famous. D.C. jazz musicians include legends like Charlie Rouse (who was a saxophonist with Thelonious
Monk), drummer Billy Hart, Ira Sullivan (tenor saxophonist), and Leo Parker.

Roberta Flack is another soul singer who was raised near the
Washington, D.C. area as well. Robert Flack is one of the greatest
singers of all time. Flack was the first to win the Grammy Award
for Record of the Year two consecutive times. "The First Time
I love the music from Caroyln
Ever I Saw Your Face" won at the 1973 Grammys and
Malachi. She is a woman with great
"Killing Me Softly with His Song" won at the 1974 Grammys.
passion and she loves to please the
She remains the only solo artist to have accomplished this feat.
crowd. Bless Her.
She went into Howard University too. He was a teacher in
Washington, D.C. too. She collaborated with many songs with the legend Donny Hathaway. Marvin Gaye is
a legendary soul singer from D.C. as well. He has his 1968 hit I Heard It through the Grapevine. Choral
music is common in D.C. including the opera. Peaches & Herb are from Washington, D.C. too. Ginuwine and
Mya are from D.C. too. Hip hop groups like The Amphibians & Freestyle Union laid the foundation for artists
like Asheru, Wale and Low Budget to help put DC's hip hop scene on the map. Washington, D.C.'s hip-hop
scene was notably featured in the 1998 film Slam, about a would-be slam poet's ordeal in the D.C. Jail.
Pharaoh Jonez, an Emcee from Southeast DC is one of the most successful rapper/producers from the
DMV's underground scene. Wale was the first D.C. artist to really break out on the national scene. He was a
member of XXL's 2009 Freshman Class and released his debut album, Attention Deficit on Interscope
Records. Another great singer from Washington, D.C. is Sister Carolyn Malachi. She has immense talent, a
great singing voice, and shes a beautiful black woman inside and out. I love her music. The Verizon Center
and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts have tons of musicians and artists performing their
work.

By Timothy