Dianne Dale grew up in Hillsdale in the 1940s, a time when the African American neighborhood was largely segregated from Anacostia, then exclusively White. She remembers many movie theaters, “but the Carver Theater was the only one we could go to…the Carver Theater was ours. We grew up with that movie theater. And we could go there on Saturdays for nine cents and stay all day and watch Lash LaRue [Westerns]”. That theater eventually became the first location of what is now the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum, a place Dale describes as “our museum,” where “you just stopped in to say hello to somebody that you knew who worked there.”
You can listen to Dale’s voice telling her story on the Anacostia Community Museum’s website. She is one of several women whose narratives offer a history of Washington, D.C., rooted in the city’s neighborhoods. The narratives draw on interviews the museum collected in the 1970s and 1990s, which were originally recorded on cassette tapes. As the tapes started to deteriorate, the museum sought funding from the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative to digitize and catalog them. As a result, hundreds of interviews have descriptions in the museum’s online archives, and the museum’s website presents a selection of audio clips of women speaking about their lives in the greater Washington, DC, region.
The stories offer a range of perspectives on our city, as early as the 1920s. Virginia Hool, who lived in Anacostia, recalls that “the police and firemen were appointed by Congressmen” until the force professionalized around 1925. “The police at that time were named Waters and Brooks and Brown, Mr. Stewart. They were Colored policemen… They all worked on the foot beats because they didn’t have cars and motorcycles or anything.” In the 1940s, Lillie Vaden recalls that her suburban D.C. neighborhood of North Brentwood, Md., “had one or two policemen. But Brentwood was such a peaceful place that we really didn’t have much need for anything like that.”
Many women recount being very involved in their communities in the 1960s and 1970s. Della Lowery led a group of parents who advocated for public schools in and around Anacostia. “We worked like the dickens. And I think it took ’em 10 or 12 years to build the schools that we said we wanted then…like Savoy and Green and McGogney…” In nearby Garfield Heights, Ophelia Settle Egypt organized to welcome residents in a public housing development: “We formed the committee… to visit all of the residents as they came into the new project and welcome them into the community and tell them about the [community co-op] store and get them interested in the civic…association.” Across the city in Columbia Heights, Casilda Luna worked with Latin American women to “assist them with counseling on the issue of the city, on bills payment, assist them with rental problems, assist them with educating them [on] how to go to school and learn English.”
Collectively, the stories give voice to a broad set of experiences and opinions. What emerges is a picture of Washington, D.C.’s diverse and dynamic communities, where, for over a century, neighbors have socialized and supported one another, patronized local businesses, contributed to community-building efforts and engaged in vibrant cultural and artistic endeavors. In many cases, women led the way. They communicated, collaborated, saw opportunities and developed plans. They also rolled up their sleeves and got the job done. Together, they created a very special hometown.
You can listen to their stories at anacostia.si.edu/DCwomenspeak.