Welcome to my very first installment of Emily’s Posts!
Part of my new job as the social media coordinator for the Historical Society is to take really cool field trips (a real hardship, I know) and let our blog readers know what’s going on in the world of D.C. history. I’m writing today to tell you that the Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum’s A Right to the City cannot be missed. Seriously.
A 1967 quote from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., at the end of the exhibit perfectly sums up the show’s big idea: “Prepare to participate, and you will give to your city and our nation a constructive example of how we can deal with one of the most serious problems confronting us today.”
The museum’s new exhibit emphasizes the importance of community participation in shaping neighborhood change. It takes in-depth looks at key moments in the histories of six areas—Adams Morgan, Anacostia, Brookland, Chinatown, Shaw, and Southwest.
I had a chance to chat with the museum’s head curator, Dr. Samir Meghelli, who gave me a tour and relayed (quite humbly, I might add) just how much research and collaboration went into this three-year project. For the exhibit, Meghelli interviewed some 200 residents and community leaders, many of whom are given voice in the show. He uncovered a scarcely viewed video of the 1967 parade in Shaw when Dr. King spoke at Cardozo High School. Meghelli also leaned on local repositories, such as the Historical Society, and private family collections for photographs and objects.
I eagerly explored the exhibit’s two distinct spaces and small theater showing a short film.
The curators grapple with an important question: What rights do people have to their city? Do developers or governments take priority over residents? Who gets to make decisions?
In each neighborhood section, the exhibit team answers these questions with instances of community participation that changed the District for the better. The posters by Sammie Abbott, seen in the Brookland section, reveal how activists rallied to stop freeway construction that would destroy homes and displace families. In Chinatown fraternal organizations and family associations helped sustain community life by supporting business and embracing newly arrived Chinese immigrants.
The exhibit skillfully presents a complicated narrative of the city’s evolution. While some text panels yield stories of heroes and triumph, the exhibit also acknowledges the struggles that citizens face today. The fight launched by Anacostia’s African American residents to desegregate D.C. public schools is celebrated, but the story does not end there. As a result of Brown v. Board of Education, white residents left Anacostia, creating what the curators term “resegregation” in D.C. public schools. In Southwest, the exhibit describes the church and community groups that formed to help those displaced by urban renewal, but also poses the question: “Is urban removal happening again, only in slower motion as widespread gentrification?” The exhibit’s repeated nods to present-day D.C. give visitors no choice but to reflect on their own experiences.
Luckily there is quite literally a space for visitors to reflect and share. Just before the exhibit exit, an entire wall of historical fliers is designed to look like a community bulletin board. A vintage phone invites visitors to listen to more interviews or call in to record their own stories of neighborhood transformation. Elsewhere visitors write their own stories on paper to add to a wall display or can combine words into commentary using magnets. When asked how to create a “more just neighborhood,” visitors wrote:
together we will motivate
share is good
with peace love justice
a good government
And my personal favorite…
good affordable coffee
Don’t miss your chance to visit Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum’s A Right to the City, open today through April 2020. Until next time!
#ACMcity