The few years after the Civil War came to an end were a time of hope and energy in the federal capital. President Andrew Johnson approved the Congressional charter for Howard University in 1867, and in the same year Congress overrode his veto to bring universal suffrage to most adult males, including African Americans. Mayor Sayles Bowen, elected in 1868 with strong African-American backing, rewarded their support by focusing attention on improvements to schools and educational opportunities for the Black population.

Despite this political energy, however, the capital city was a physical mess. Its population had far outstripped its infrastructure. The City of Washington, separate from Georgetown and Washington County at that time, was still a city of mostly dirt roads, with an open sewer known as the Washington Canal where today’s Constitution Avenue exists. A serious move was afoot for Congress to move the capital of the country to St. Louis. In this climate, Bowen’s civil-rights priorities were not appreciated by all, and under the impetus of White dissatisfaction, he was ousted in 1870. The City’s newly-elected mayor, Matthew Emery, was an architect and builder who had made his name as a contractor on several government projects, and notably laid the cornerstone of the Washington Monument. He began undertaking a number of necessary infrastructure projects, but stronger winds of change were already forming to sweep him away, as well. In less than a year, Washington City’s elected government would be abolished by Congress, the City merged with Georgetown and Washington County to form a federal territory under Congressional control. And the person who did most to orchestrate this change was a hard-to-categorize individual named Alexander Robey Shepherd – better known in retrospect as “Boss Shepherd,” a sobriquet he did much to earn.

But I’m getting ahead of things.

Alexander Robey Shepherd was born in Washington City in 1835, his parents, the last in a line of slaveholders from Charles County, Maryland, having moved to the nation’s capital about a decade earlier. The family then moved north to a farm in Washington County in 1842, and his father manumitted his seven remaining slaves at the time of his death in 1845. As the eldest son, Alexander dropped out of school at the age of thirteen to support his family. He went to work for the J.W. Thompson plumbing company, rising to partner in the firm, and by 1865 he owned the company. In the meantime, he had briefly served in 1861 on the Union side in the National Rifles local militia, but that was the extent of his military service once he was elected in the same year to the Washington Common Council on the “Unconditional Union” slate, becoming the council’s president in 1862. Following his unsuccessful opposition that same year to Radical Republicans’ push for slavery’s abolition in the capital, he subsequently pivoted to championing the Union while sidestepping as much as possible questions of race. By the war’s end, as head of the newly-created Washington Board of Trade, he began militating for the creation of a unified capital that would incorporate the three distinct units then known as Washington City, Georgetown, and Washington County.

Over the course of the next several years, while debate over the issue of universal male suffrage in DC swirled around him, Shepherd claimed not to care about political matters, arguing that a unified federal district would serve to solidify the economic base of the federal district and foil those who were calling for the capital to move to St. Louis. However, he explicitly favored its establishment as a territory along the lines of those in the western U.S., with an appointed governor. Throughout Bowen’s mayoral term, Shepherd continued promoting this priority, and after gaining a seat on the ward-based Board of Aldermen in 1870 alongside the newly-elected mayor Matthew Emery, he continued pressing his case while making a few concessions on racial issues, for example favoring a single school board and requiring charities to serve Blacks and Whites equally. Possibly thanks to his having tacked in the direction of greater sensitivity to the concerns of African Americans, he succeeded in getting Congress to vote in favor of the new, unified federal Territory of the District of Columbia in January 1871. Shepherd was passed over for the role of governor, though, and Henry David Cooke, a well-known fundraiser for the Union cause and a Shepherd ally, was instead named to that position. But the territorial legislation also created a Board of Public Works, responsible for the financing and implementation of all infrastructure projects and answerable to Congress, and as Vice President of this board (Cooke was its chair but rarely attended), Shepherd proceeded, over the next three years, to undertake a whirlwind of activity with essentially no checks on his power.

For three years, Shepherd served as overlord of the territory he had worked so hard to create, while others stood back and allowed him to do as he wished. And what he wished to do was a mixture of good and bad. Because he proceeded to fill in the fetid Washington Canal, to pave hundreds of miles of roads, and to lay tens of miles of sewer lines and gas and water mains. He also saw to the planting of tens of thousands of trees, established horse-drawn streetcars for public transportation, and installed street lights. All of this brought jobs to many African Americans and earned him grudging respect in some quarters of the Black population.

However, this activity came at a high cost, and by the time Cooke formally stepped aside as governor in September 1873 and Shepherd was named to the role, much of his time had to be spent in trying to clean up the territory’s finances which had gone deep into deficit while he pursued these upgrades. He hurriedly tried to push through a number of social reforms in his limited time on the job, prompting Frederick Douglass to state a few years later, in 1877, “I want to thank Governor Shepherd for the fair way in which he treated the colored race when he was in a position to help them.” But the financial condition of the territory swamped his other efforts. Some people had gone into debt themselves thanks to punitive local taxes, and a thousand residents petitioned Congress to conduct an audit, which declared the territory bankrupt and found Shepherd guilty of financial mismanagement and possibly malfeasance. In mid-1874, Shepherd’s territorial experiment came to an end, he was removed from office, and Congress instituted the three-member board of appointed commissioners that would rule the district over the next century.

So “Boss” Shepherd’s ultimate legacy boiled down to:

- Vast infrastructure improvements which may have secured the federal district’s continued existence on the banks of the Potomac

- Consolidation of the city of Washington with Georgetown and then-agricultural Washington County into a short-lived federal territory

- An overwhelming debt burden leading to bankruptcy of that territory

- Establishment of fully unelected government by a three-member commission, which lasted for one hundred years until passage of DC Home Rule in 1973

As a result, perspectives on Alexander Robey Shepherd have always been mixed: appreciation, on the one hand, for his role in truly realizing Pierre L’Enfant’s vision of a beautiful capital for the United States, and calumny, on the other, for bankrupting the capital and setting in motion the complete rollback of local self-governance, only partially restored a century later.

These mixed reactions go far toward explaining the fate of Shepherd’s posthumous statue. First dedicated in 1909 and placed with great fanfare in front of the newly-completed District Building, the statue was moved in 1979 when work began on the new Freedom Plaza just across Pennsylvania Avenue. But once it had been relocated to an obscure site across the Anacostia River, it took a long while for the powers that be to agree to bring the statue back. Finally, in 2005, it was returned, not quite to its original site, but near it, at one corner of the Wilson (formerly District) Building near 14^th Street, where you still will find it today.

As for Shepherd himself, he was able to escape legal judgment for his financial overreach, but two years after leaving the governorship, he declared personal bankruptcy. He later found his way to Batopilas, Mexico, where he tried his hand at silver mining before dying a quarter-century later, in 1902, from a botched appendectomy.

https://hbcuconnect.com/colleges/39/howard-university

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_of_Columbia_Suffrage_Act

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayles_Jenks_Bowen

https://ghostsofdc.org/2013/11/18/last-mayor-of-washington-matthew-g-emery/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Robey_Shepherd

https://www.aoidc.org/uploads/1/1/8/5/11853240/john_richardsons_article_in_wh_22_03_017-035.pdf

https://ghostsofdc.org/2026/05/11/boss-shepherd-alexander-robey-father-of-modern-washington/

https://web.archive.org/web/20071001004207/http://mysite.verizon.net/vzenube1/aoi_of_dc/id22.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/magazine/1991/04/28/boss/f24b317c-f441-47af-af66-8b1509b78b54/

https://www.aoidc.org/governor-shepherd.html

The Wilson Building, on Pennsylvania Avenue NW a stone’s throw from the White House, was itself renamed - sort of in the opposite direction - in 1994. Originally known as the District Building, it had been dedicated by the president of DC’s Board of Commissioners on the 4^th of July in 1908 and has been DC’s seat of government ever since. Unlike the federal government buildings that surround it, the architecture of the District Building is in the Beaux-Arts style, and you’ll find it on your next visit at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 14^th Street NW. The 1994 renaming was undertaken to honor an altogether different Wilson -- the recently-deceased chair of the DC council, John A. Wilson.

John A. Wilson was born in 1943, not in DC but in nearby Baltimore, and he was raised on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. While attending Maryland State College (now UMES, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore) in the 1960s, he made his mark on the civil rights stage by successfully protesting segregation in the college’s host town of Princess Anne. From there, he moved onto the national stage, becoming active in the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) and SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee), and working alongside such well-known personalities as comedian and author Dick Gregory, future congressman John Lewis, and future DC mayor Marion Barry. This work, along with his role in charge of the DC office of the National Sharecroppers Fund, soon landed him in DC, where he became an active and vocal advocate for Home Rule. Following that successful effort, he was elected in 1974 to represent Ward 2 (DuPont Circle, Shaw, Georgetown) on the newly-formed DC council, sworn in on the same day that his ally Marion Barry assumed his at-large council seat. However, by the time he ran in 1990 to chair the council, Wilson was the longtime chair of its finance committee, and had earned a reputation as a combative and tough-talking counterpoint to what he saw as the free-spending ways of the Barry administration. Once Wilson became council chair starting in 1991, Barry was no longer mayor, but Wilson continued pressuring for greater budgetary stringency from then-Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly’s administration. By 1993, he was himself beginning to contemplate a run for the mayoralty in the 1994 election, although he was struggling with the decision.

Then, unexpectedly, on May 19, 1993 his wife discovered his body hanging from a rafter in the basement of their home, the evident suicide cutting short John Wilson’s strong chances to be elected mayor the following year. A shocked and saddened DC council renamed the District Building in Wilson’s honor in 1994, the same year in which Barry was re-elected as mayor after a four-year hiatus. Within a few short months of Barry’s return to that office, President Clinton named a federally-administered financial control board to assume responsibility for the District’s finances and many of its essential services.

Given his laser focus on controlling the DC budget, had Wilson remained alive, the course of DC’s subsequent history might have been substantially different. But instead, DC saw very rocky times in the latter years of the last century. And as it is, only a building commemorates John Wilson’s legacy - the building, and the smiling portrait that greets the visitor near its entrance.

So no, not Woodrow. Of the many Wilsons, DC remembers the one named John.

A local hero.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson-Reed_High_School

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_A._Wilson_Building

https://www.beachesbayswaterways.org/storyways/from-princess-anne-to-powerhouse-the-inspiring-story-of-john-a-wilson-dcs-trailblazing-clivil-rights-activist

Eleanor Roosevelt “My Day” article on National Sharecroppers Fund

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1992/11/25/wilson-wants-dc-council-to-have-a-tighter-rein-on-citys-finances/c7cb2b3b-5188-4f34-aae4-2c0ad8929e4e/

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/465944/today-in-d-c-history-d-c-council-chairman-john-a-wilson-commits-suicide/

But to you folks in Florida, or in any one of the fifty states for that matter, let me ask this: How would you like to:

1) defend our country in its military or have family members who do, and 2) pay some of the highest federal taxes in the country, but

3) have no vote on the floor of either the House or the Senate and 4) know that members elected in the fifty states, and the occupant of the White House, have ultimate control over any and all your local decisions?

For us, the 700,000 residents of DC, this is the daily reality, and the only place where all of this is true. Despite appearances, your nation’s capital is not a democratic place.

I would love for you to go back and read (or re-read) my first few posts to DClives, where I laid out my major themes for this weekly Substack and tried to help you understand the basics of our DC history. Our fight to obtain full representation dates back to some of the earliest days of our country’s existence, and it is a fight that, five years ago, we came closer to winning than we ever have before. That was when, in 2021, for the second of two years in a row, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 51, The Washington, DC Admission Act, which would have created a state out of a portion of what is now considered the federal district of the United States. I wrote that last sentence carefully, because one thing you need to understand is this: Congress, not the US Constitution, decided where the federal district would be located and what its size would be. The Constitution only said there would be a federal district and that it couldn’t be more than 10 miles square.

Yes, there have been different approaches besides the one in H.R. 51 attempted or proposed, in order to get us representation - to try to right the historic wrong that has deprived DC residents of full representation ever since Congress passed the Organic Act of 1801. (For the previous decade, after land had been ceded by Virginia and Maryland to form the federal district, its few residents had continued to vote in one of those two states.) You probably cannot imagine all the different ways in which the effort to obtain representation for District residents has been approached, but have a look at the timeline produced by the (nonpartisan) League of Women Voters below and you’ll see the issue isn’t a new one. But as of now, our only national rights are to participate in the presidential election (since 1964) and to elect a non-voting representative to the House – and any of our local laws can be overturned at the federal level.

Now there are some who consistently argue that it would take a constitutional amendment to grant full representation to the residents of the District as it is currently configured. That may be so – I’m not a constitutional scholar. But I do know that this was already tried, back in the 1970s when, just after Congress had passed a law granting us (highly limited) Home Rule in 1973, both houses went on, on a bipartisan basis, to pass the District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment in 1978, requiring ratification by ¾ of the states within seven years of its passage. Only 16 of the required 38 states ratified that constitutional amendment within the seven-year window, and because this deadline was written into the language of the amendment itself, even Congress was unable to extend it to allow for further consideration.

Others argue, as though it’s a new idea (it’s not), for retrocession to Maryland of the land it ceded for the federal district in 1791. (Virginia’s land ceded for the federal district was returned by Congress, or retroceded, to that state in 1846.) Retrocession to Maryland would require an affirmative vote in both Congress and the Maryland general assembly. While this may seem elegant to those who don’t want to see a new (for now) Democratic-leaning state admitted to the union, Maryland has consistently opposed it, and over the last half-century DC has developed governmental institutions with state-level, not just municipal responsibilities that already are recognized nationally and would have to be dismantled. And can you really imagine, once the proposal actually came to a vote in Congress and before the president for signature, that the federal powers that be would be inclined to give the state of Maryland control over the territory on which the White House, Capitol, Supreme Court and National Mall are located?

Still, both of these ideas are trotted out regularly, usually by those who, in reality, don’t want to see DC residents represented at all and will throw up any roadblock they can think of to delay or deny representation for those of us who live here.

So how could DC become a state? Let’s look more closely at what is proposed. First: What you think of as Washington, DC would not be a state. The land on which the White House, Capitol, Supreme Court and National Mall are situated, and then some, would remain the federal territory called for in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution (“such District [not exceeding ten Miles square] as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of Government of the United States”). But the areas where residents of DC now make their homes would become a new state – the “Douglass Commonwealth,” named for Frederick Douglass. In 2016, we who actually live in DC overwhelmingly (85%) approved a referendum calling on our DC council to petition Congress in favor of statehood. The approach we’re taking to try to gain our rights follows the “Tennessee Plan,” successfully used by that state in 1796 and also used by Michigan, Iowa, California, Oregon, Kansas and Alaska.

This may sound like a pipe dream – but again, back in 2021 when you weren’t looking, we came surprisingly close. And if the idea of a 51^st star on the US flag seems strange to you, our president has certainly demonstrated that he’s open to the idea – he’s simply been looking too far afield.

[We actually want it..]

https://statehood.dc.gov/page/why-statehood-dc

https://www.lwvdc.org/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=263021&module_id=725326

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_of_Columbia_Voting_Rights_Amendment

https://www.51for51.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2021/06/210617-Retrocession-One-Pager.pdf

https://douglasscommonwealth.us/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Washington,_D.C.,_statehood_referendum

https://statehood.dc.gov/page/path-statehood

You would maybe think, from listening to our president, that East Potomac Park is all about golf. That isn’t true though, and for many of us locals the name that comes to mind isn’t even East Potomac Park. We often think of the tip of the park, which is known as Hains Point and named for Major General Peter C. Hains, the military man and engineer who helped reclaim the swampy Potomac Flats in the 1880s to produce the well-loved space we know today. And for those of us with grown children, Hains Point also conjures up The Awakening. Many were the weekends when we would drive to Hains Point (it’s a considerable distance out to the tip) and our young son would clamber over the head, arms and legs of J. Seward Johnson’s impressive sculpture of a giant on the cusp of emerging from below ground. It seemed both scary and fun at the same time. Alas, though, in 2008 the statue was transported to National Harbor, down the Potomac, where it now sits in the middle of a giant sandbox. I suppose this location is also special for kids of more recent generations – but though still fronting the Potomac, it doesn’t have nearly the view that Hains Point does.

Because East Potomac Park is indeed prime real estate, this finger of land stretching between the Potomac River and the Washington Channel, with a peek beyond at the Anacostia River. Out at Hains Point, while the kids were playing on The Awakening, they and their parents were also getting a breathtaking view of water and sky – including planes taking off and landing at National Airport across the Potomac. The view here is better than the one from nearby Fort McNair across the Channel, where, the same year The Awakening was moved to its present location, I was briefly a student at the National Defense University. And unlike Fort McNair, Hains Point is still – for now - available to the public, and very much enjoyed by picnickers, as well as the hikers and bikers who take the significant trek out Ohio Drive past the Jefferson Memorial to its picturesque tip.

East Potomac Park isn’t only about Hains Point, it’s true. On the way out to the Point, there is the golf course, which has been a part of the landscape for over 100 years. And as an affordable course with both 18- and 9-hole options in a beautiful location, it’s much appreciated by locals and tourists alike. However, for months now, the administration has been at loggerheads with the National Links Trust (NLT), which has long managed the three NPS public courses in our area – Rock Creek, Langston and East Potomac. The Department of the Interior, where NPS is housed, first cancelled the NLT’s contract, claiming the group’s stewardship of the sites was inadequate, then in May granted the NLT a new long-term lease to continue operating the three sites, but, at East Potomac, only “until the National Park Service is ready to commence a historic renovation there.”

So nothing in the NLT agreement prevents the NPS from moving ahead with the president’s plan to turn East Potomac Park into a championship golf course, gobbling up the entire peninsula for the purpose. Recent publicized plans appear to erase the picnicking areas and hiking and biking trails, quite possibly making the entire area available only to golfers. For the rest of us, what has been a National Park Service site widely available to the public will, if present plans proceed, apparently be off limits. Neither of the two boards that normally review significant changes to public spaces in DC – the National Capital Area Planning Commission and the Commission on Fine Arts – has been contacted about the plans, but they don’t meet in August and the president says the plan is to break ground September 1. This comes notwithstanding a judge’s order that she receive advance warning of any proposed renovations, and a lawsuit asking her to proceed with an injunction to prevent any work from moving forward. The plaintiffs in the suit have also called attention to potential environmental harms arising from the demolition material from the White House East Wing construction that already has been dumped at the East Potomac golf course.

If things here follow the standard pattern, it seems likely at this point that the administration will move ahead and outpace the slow hand of justice, as it has with the East Wing ballroom, the Reflecting Pool, and the Kennedy Center. Our president is indeed remaking the landscape in and around DC, but to what extent this will make the capital any safer or more beautiful is highly debatable. And with respect to East Potomac Park, it looks more like the plan is to make the capital more inaccessible to the general public.

https://ghostsofdc.org/2022/04/08/why-is-it-named-hains-point/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Awakening_(sculpture)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Potomac_Park

https://wtop.com/dc/2026/07/judge-wont-stop-east-potomac-plans-but-shes-not-throwing-the-case-out-either

https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/18/politics/trump-dc-golf-course-east-potomac-links-takeover

https://www.nationallinkstrust.org/whats-happening-now

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/dc-cycling-community-protests-plans-to-renovate-east-potomac-park/4131785/

https://www.thefriedegg.com/articles/east-potomac-golf-dc-trump-plans-update

I mentioned the FitzGerald Center, site of the DC Open, here some months back, when I was telling you about the role this portion of 16^th Street, once part of Washington County, has played in DC’s history. And as I post this on Monday, Sunday’s rescheduled finals are due to begin very shortly, with Jessica Pegula and breakout Filipina star Alexandra Eala resuming their match, and Taylor Fritz playing Rafael Jodar after that. You’ll be able to find more about this year’s tournament at the Mubadala DC Open website below – including the names of some of the luminaries who already were knocked out of the running last week.

In case you aren’t a tennis aficionado, though, the DC Open is one of the oldest tournaments on the men’s ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) tour, and the only combined ATP/WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) 500 tournament in the world. At first it was only a men’s event, known as the Washington Star International, and it came into existence thanks to the efforts of tennis superstar Arthur Ashe, who chose the site, along with partners John A. Harris and Donald Dell. From 1969 through 1986 the game was played on clay courts, but with the building of the FitzGerald Center, the tournament reopened in 1989 on hard court. Andre Agassi has the record for most men’s titles in the DC Open, having won five times in the 1990s, while Magdalena Rybarikova holds the women’s title with two wins, in 2012-13, after the Women’s Tennis Association had joined the ATP at FitzGerald in 2012. “Mubadala” refers to an Abu Dhabi-based investment firm previously sponsoring the women’s Silicon Valley Classic, which merged with the DC Open in 2023. Consistent with its founders’ intentions, to this day part of the tournament’s proceeds goes to the Washington Tennis and Education Foundation to benefit low-income DC youth.

[With thanks to Wikimedia Free and the photographer who donated this 2008 picture]

The FitzGerald Center (also labeled, in somewhat confusing and mysterious fashion, the William R. Morris Memorial Stadium) has needed a facelift for some time though. It was already 20 years old when the picture accompanying this article was taken, and now it’s pushing 40. When Mark Ein took over the tournament in 2019, he made clear the need for substantial renovations, but the money to make a start on those has only come through in the past couple of years. And although plans to have DC take over management of the site from the National Park Service fell apart last year, the money for the renovations has been voted by the DC council, not Congress (these things get very complicated in DC.). At the same time though, the NPS has begun a search for a private lease holder and operator of the site, and many expect Ein will win the prize. That has brought its own controversy, since Ein seemingly has big plans for the site, but neighbors have not felt consulted about them and the council does not want to find itself subsidizing a private lease holder for years to come. The current council member for Ward 4, where FitzGerald is located, none other than presumed future DC mayor Janeese Lewis George, has become actively engaged in seeking assurances about community engagement in Ein’s plans and avoiding ongoing demands on an already-straitened DC budget.

So, the DC Open is a signature sports event for tennis and for DC itself. But as often is the case, politics (local but also local/federal) comes into play, every time.

https://www.mubadaladcopen.com/en/event-info/event-info

https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/mubadala-dc-open-finals-matches-015436624.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_DC_Open

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WTA_500_tournaments

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATP_500_tournaments

https://wamu.org/story/18/07/27/fifty-years-ago-arthur-ashe-helped-bring-pro-tennis-tournament-d-c-still-going-strong/

https://www.wtef.org/

https://stadiumandarenavisits.com/visitsreviews/161-rock-creek-park-tennis-center/

https://wamu.org/story/26/07/06/d-c-budgets-more-money-to-overhaul-rock-creek-tennis-center-but-who-will-manage-it/

[House Oversight and Government Reform Chair James Comer (R-KY)]

Now look, I know the House committee Comer heads – Oversight and Government Reform – does have certain prerogatives where the District of Columbia is concerned – for example, reviewing each and every bill that the DC council passes and overturning them if they care to – but now he and the other Republicans on the committee want instead not to review and disapprove if they want, but to explicitly approve, each and every individual change (decrease or increase) in a DC local tax or fee. (Remember, folks, this is DC residents’ money, not federal taxes, we’re talking about.) And, as our DC council chair Phil Mendelson explained on radio station WAMU’s Politics Hour broadcast three days ago, the bill would apply to any change whatever to Title 47 of our DC tax code, including even tax incentives for certain businesses to help diversify our local economy in the wake of massive federal layoffs.

Do you want to know who voted in favor of this travesty of democracy? Well, here are those 23 Republican members who passed the bill in committee on July 22 - and it’s off to the full House now. If I were you and I lived in a House district represented by any one of these people, I would want them to know that I’d rather have them spend time on my business instead of micromanaging DC revenues…so call or write to them now! And while you’re at it, call your House member and tell them not to vote for H.R.9720 when it comes to the floor!

This is the third year running that Comer and Company have messed with DC revenues, and each time, it takes reams of time and effort by our nonvoting representative in the House, Eleanor Holmes Norton, as well as a bevy of local DC officials, to fend off the worst effects on our local budget. But if this bill passes the House and Senate (let’s hope not!), not only will it completely gum up the works for DC’s budgeting, it will be immensely time-consuming for your House members as well – whether or not you care about this utterly undemocratic move to further encroach on what little self-rule we have here. This just goes to show how inadequate DC’s so-called Home Rule really is, when it can be chipped away by an ill-intentioned Congress at will.

And there’s a subtext, involving popular delivery service DoorDash. Annoyed by a surtax on deliveries recently passed by our DC council, the company apparently went over the heads of our local officials and threw its support behind H.R.9720. Which has earned them a local boycott (but you can join too - #DeleteDoorDash)!

Do I sound angry? You bet I am. By Comer’s own admission, this is a transparent attempt to tie the hands of Janeese Lewis George, likely to be elected our mayor in November. So it’s nothing but the first salvo in the effort to overturn what little democracy we 700,000 Americans living in DC have. Because we aren’t just a bunch of monuments here – we’re real people, we vote…and then the federal government and Congress just run roughshod over us, at will.

Needs to stop, folks – and you can help.

______________

https://dccouncil.gov/how-a-bill-becomes-a-law/

https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/9720/text

https://wamu.org/topic/the_politics_hour/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_of_Columbia_Home_Rule_Act

https://dc.citycast.fm/dc-politics/dc-tax-doordash-boycott-delete

https://deletedoordash.com/

https://wtop.com/dc/2026/07/new-house-bill-that-would-block-dc-from-raising-taxes-to-be-debated-on-hill/

Just a few weeks ago, I wrote that my jazz group would be singing at a club called Mr. Henry’s. And we did, on May 21. It was a special treat, since this well-known DC watering hole, due to celebrate its 60^th anniversary next month, has hosted some of the greats over the years in its intimate jazz space, up those unassuming stairs at the rear.

[Mr. Henry’s at 6th and Pennsylvania SE; the legendary stairs to Flack’s second-floor performance space; and my jazz group performing there in May]

And no “great” was greater than Roberta Flack, whose name is forever associated with Mr. Henry’s, and most especially its long and narrow upstairs space. Because it was, in fact, designed for her. It was very shortly after the club’s 1966 opening that she began playing there, and in 1968, after asking for additional hours so she could quit her school-teaching career, she became a five-night-a-week regular. That was when Henry Yaffe, the owner for whom the club was named, reconfigured the second floor into an intimate performance space that’s still part of the club’s attraction to this day. Flack - a North Carolina native born in 1937 whose family moved to Arlington in the DC suburbs when she was little - was one of the youngest students (at age 15) to attend Howard University, on a music scholarship of course. Then, after having bounced back to North Carolina for a time after her father’s death, she was back in DC proper, teaching in the school system and giving private music lessons from her home on Euclid Street NW. But she was also a performer – and while she had begun her training with opera and classical music, she made her own mark by blending elements of jazz with soul, blues and even folk music.

Now if you ask most people, and certainly if you ask the folks at Mr. Henry’s, she was first “discovered” right there at Mr. Henry’s, although that part of the record is a little blurry. I noticed, for example, in a 2017 interview with the Washingtonian magazine, that Flack hedged a bit when asked about the location of the benefit concert at which Les McCann heard her and asked for a demo tape, and I later found an article stating that that benefit occurred at the Bohemian Caverns club on U Street’s Black Broadway. But I’m not here to dig too deeply on the detective work. By the time she was discovered by McCann, Flack had already been performing at multiple locations around DC, but Mr. Henry’s was without a doubt her most regular musical home in 1968-1969 before she was launched to stardom with “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” and it is where the photograph was taken for the cover of her 1969 album, First Take.

But Mr. Henry’s is much more than Roberta Flack’s launching pad, in any case. When Henry Yaffe took over an existing club on that corner, he renamed it for himself, Mr. Henry’s Victorian Club. Yet sadly, Yaffe’s own involvement with his eponymous club came to an end a few short years later, when he lost it in a poker game to the Quillian family. They kept his name on the Capitol Hill site – though the “Victorian” part dropped away - and he went on to open other clubs around town, all of them now closed, while the first one he opened lives on.

For everyone who performs on the cozy stage at one end of that upstairs space, the aura of Robert Flack remains fully alive, helped along by the fact that she graced the place periodically with her own presence whenever she had occasion to be back in the DC area - for example, to perform at the White House, as she did many, many times. Through her performing, but also through her teaching in DC, she also inspired another generation of notable jazz figures here, including Davey Yarborough who went on to mentor others at the Duke Ellington School. Flack passed away last year, so we won’t be seeing her at Mr. Henry’s anymore. But I promise you will not be disappointed if you come over there on your next visit – it’s only a few blocks from the Capitol, the Supreme Court, and the Library of Congress, but when you get there you’ll instantly feel like a local.

And don’t be put off if you encounter young Guard members on patrol – they’re bored to death and wishing they could join you for the music and camaraderie in this special location dear to our DClives.

https://www.mrhenrysdc.com/about-us

https://www.yout-ube.com/watch?v=-iv7HgDroB0&t=21s

https://washingtonian.com/2017/06/13/roberta-flack-still-goes-capitol-hill-bar-got-big-break/

https://www.popville.com/2012/02/dear-popville-roberta-flack-lived-in-dc-anyone-know-the-exact-address-of-her-euclid-street-home/

https://blackpast.org/african-american-history/flack-roberta-1937/

https://www.capitalbop.com/remembering-roberta-flack-dc/

https://library.arlingtonva.us/2021/03/18/roberta-flacks-arlington-roots/

I also didn’t mention National Guard participants in that parade - because, happily, there weren’t any! But that’s because they were all over downtown, and although I reported over a month ago that their numbers were going to rise to 5000, that turns out to have been an understatement: the estimate is now 5100 Guard members patrolling in the Metro and on our streets. They were very much in evidence pretty much anywhere that tourists might go in the leadup to the July 4^th events and the just-concluded Great American State Fair on the National Mall. Which makes the purpose of their presence plain: it’s intended to scare them into thinking DC is unsafe unless military troops are present (although crime here has been going down for years now), and to make the militarization of DC seem normal.

But recently, there’s been a new wrinkle, involving the presence in DC of National Guard troops sent by governors from Democratic states. Although it hasn’t been unusual in the past for states to send Guard members in support of major national events such as inaugurations, now, with National Guard troops in DC wholly under the control of the president’s so-called “DC Safe and Beautiful” task force, things take on a different cast. And far from all Democratic governors chose to send Guard members to DC in this case. I agree with the governors who demurred, and the former military leaders who agreed with that choice. Sending Guard troops to DC in these circumstances is inherently controversial, given that the Congressionally-mandated bipartisan July 4^th organizing committee, America250, was usurped by the overtly divisive Freedom 250. What’s actually odd is that some of these Democratic governors who sent Guard troops have been oh-so-shocked to find them diverted by the federally-run task force to patrol our streets just like the 4800 Guard troops already sent here by Republican governors. So, for the 250^th anniversary of our country, DC got the gift of a few hundred more Guard members to wander around in camouflage for no particular reason other than political theater.

Most of these Democratic governors have now withdrawn their Guard members, although some, including Michigan’s Whitmer, after making a public statement opposing her troops’ use in neighborhoods far from the National Mall, continue to leave them in place. Our DC council has just sent letters to her and to the governor of the US Virgin Islands asking them to withdraw their Guard members (see DC council chair Mendelson’s statement below), although I’m not sure why Hawaii, which just sent more troops for a 90-day stint here, wasn’t included in the letter. Look: I bear the individual Guard members no ill will, and sometimes even chat them up in the Metro, sharing my DClives card, when they’re receptive, to help them better understand the real DC. But their presence here on an ongoing basis, when there’s no crisis and no major national event requiring extra logistical support, is simply wrong. Yet now the plan is to have them on patrol here until 2029.

There’s more, though.

By now, I imagine you’re aware of the photograph taken by Reuters photographer Cheney Orr in the DC Metro on the 4^th of July. It’s been widely analyzed as appearing like a throwback to a different era, with a Black woman sitting in the middle of a train car, while other passengers, standing and sitting around her, are avowed White supremacists with their faces obscured by white gaiters. (Only the white cowls were missing.) Fortunately, the Patriot Front’s march in the Capitol Hill neighborhood dissipated quickly and without incident, but the image in the Metro car will no doubt last far beyond the event itself.

I saw more in the picture, though. Reading an in-depth Washington Post story about the woman in question, I saw that she and her brother, quoted in the article, were born and raised in DC. That made me think again about how the symbolism of the photograph captured so well not just our national stain of racism, but also its impact on the longstanding denial of rights to the residents of the capital. The woman pictured, then, is both the target of group hatred and unable to effect national change through our country’s democratic process. Unable, because our shining-beacon-on-the-hill nation persists in its choice to deny democracy to the residents of DC. I wonder: did any of the cheering people celebrating our 250^th on the National Mall consider the irony that the big event was happening smack in the middle of a disenfranchised DC?

If I could, I would sit each of them down to watch the show “The Last Battlefront,” about the history of DC’s efforts to win national representation. Unfortunately, I can’t find all those people, but I can ask my readers to view it - here is the schedule on PBS stations, and you can also stream or rent it. And please also recommend the film – as well as my weekly DClives – to those around you. Education is power, y’all.

https://www.niskanencenter.org/washington-dc-crime-decline-and-its-lessons-for-american-policing/

https://www.yout-ube.com/watch?v=Tg9pDSTSpCM

https://www.npr.org/2026/06/26/nx-s1-5871231/democrats-national-guard-dc

https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/dc-safe-beautiful-task-force-0

https://www.axios.com/2026/07/02/retired-military-leaders-back-18-governors-over-national-guard-refusal

https://america250.org/

https://www.freedom250.org/

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/democratic-led-states-face-backlash-over-national-guard-deployments-in-dc/4127255/

DC council chair Mendelson asks troops to leave: https://www.yout-ube.com/watch?v=lDRiwvSyJfk

https://wtop.com/dc/2026/07/dc-council-asks-governors-to-recall-national-guard-troops/

https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/npr/2026/07/11/nx-s1-5887666/minnesota-is-pulling-troops-early-from-d-c-as-pressure-grows-on-michigan/

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-250-washingtondc-picture/

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/04/neo-fascist-patriot-front-washington-dc

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2026/07/07/family-black-woman-seen-viral-july-4-photo-says-shes-more-than-symbol/

https://www.dcbattlefront.com/

But long before the evening festivities on the Mall, people who actually live here had been gathering with family and friends in neighborhoods all around DC to mark the day in our own special ways. Here is a sample of some of the other things we had going on:

- The 60^th annual parade in the Palisades neighborhood, in northwest DC near the Potomac

- Another parade in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Barracks Row, along 8^th St SE

- A patriotic sing-along at the not-to-be-missed Planet Word museum in Franklin Square

- Country music and fireworks in the evening at The Wharf in SW DC

- A celebration of Revolutionary War heroes buried at Congressional Cemetery

- An ice cream social and art workshop at the Anacostia Museum

- A “Fourth of July on the Farm” potluck at Edgewood Community Farm in Northeast DC

I was with my family at the Palisades parade, which fortunately took place in the morning before the heat became completely unbearable. We know our way around that neighborhood, so we managed to find some street parking and to snag a small bit of shade for our chairs alongside the parade route. This was, as it always is, an upbeat and kid-friendly affair, a parade in which anyone can register to participate, so there were nearly as many folks in the parade as there were watching! The scout troop leading off the parade handed out paper bags that were then used, Halloween-style, to contain the many different candies thrown to the crowd by parade participants throughout the morning. Our Ward 3 council member was there of course, but he was also joined by our current shadow senators, our current shadow representative (who hopes to be elected as an at-large council member in November), and the recently-elected Democratic candidates for mayor and for our official (but nonvoting) seat in the House of Representatives, both of whom are current council members. (See last week’s article for more on the recent primaries!) Beyond that, though, there were the predictable groups of musicians and dancers, all representing our proud diversity and some dressed head to toe in colorful spangled costumes – hard to imagine how they were surviving the heat when we were overwhelmed in our shorts and T-shirts! My sister commented that she hadn’t been to anything feeling like such a small-town parade in many years. Right here, in DC.

My memory goes back far enough to recall times when the National Mall events also had a more comfortable, easygoing aura. Back in the 1980s, just anyone could stroll onto the Capitol grounds and plunk down with their blankets and picnic in front of the bandshell, waiting for the final rousing strains of Sousa and the “1812 Overture,” against the backdrop of “ooh-aah” fireworks a couple of miles away at the Washington Monument. (Sadly, this weekend the concert took place on the 3^rd and the fireworks that night were miles up the Potomac at Mount Vernon, so the in-person crowds at the concert couldn’t see those displays, although the TV audience for “The Capitol Fourth” could.) As the years passed, crowds became larger and security ever tighter, so we defaulted to watching the fireworks from the grounds of the National Cathedral with our young son, but when new buildings blocked that expansive view there weren’t many easy spots we could find to get a really good perspective. So – like most of you – we started watching on TV. Not the same. Now, from our house about 7 miles from the Mall, we don’t see the fireworks, but we sure can hear the booms – even more so this year according to my husband, who was kept awake on Saturday night.

The fireworks this year were indeed much later than ever – already scheduled an hour later than usual to accommodate the president’s planned speech, then both pushed even later by the rain and thunderstorm activity. In the lead-up to the massive display, there were particular worries among people who live closer to the Mall – concerns their pets would be spooked, and children awakened by the late fireworks, on top of the military jets overhead in the hours and days beforehand. My son, who lives much closer to the action, phoned around 10:00 saying that nearby fireworks were keeping him from getting a good night’s sleep in preparation for church Sunday morning, and I didn’t have the heart to tell him that he’d be bothered at least as much two hours later when the big display began. In the aftermath, on Sunday we had some of the worst air quality in the world following the would-be-Guinness-record fireworks the night before, but for some I guess that was considered a small price to pay.

All in all, it was an easy call to stay away from the ginormous event on the National Mall on the 4^th. Memories of years long past on the Capitol grounds are too sweet, and the little neighborhood parade we attended felt just right in meeting the moment. I’m confident that many of those other neighborhood events around DC felt as intimate and friendly as the Palisades parade…and as patriotic. Because we are - all seven hundred thousand of us living here in DC - patriotic Americans, always hoping against hope that others around the country will see that and grant us the representation that most of you out there take for granted. Representation that we still long for on this 250^th anniversary of our country.

https://wtop.com/fourth-of-july/2026/06/20-fourth-of-july-dc-area-celebrations-away-from-the-national-mall/

https://palisadesdc.org/4th-of-july-parade-marching-faqs/

https://www.barracksrow.org/4thofjuly

https://planetwordmuseum.org/events/we-sing-america-planet-word-celebrates-the-4th-of-july/

https://www.facebook.com/events/846726065112544/

https://congressionalcemetery.org/event/elbridge-gerry-america250-commemoration/

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sweet-land-of-legacy-ice-cream-social-art-workshop-tickets-1989676549119

https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/fourth-of-july-on-the-farm

https://uschs.wordpress.com/2014/07/03/music-song-and-fireworks-thirty-three-years-of-capitol-fourth-performances-on-the-west-lawn/

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/watch-live-a-capitol-fourth-250th-weekend-celebration

https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/05/politics/dc-air-quality-fireworks-show

First, several things surprised me. For example, I didn’t expect the Democratic selections for mayor and for DC’s representative in Congress to emerge so quickly from our first effort at ranked-choice voting. Yet there it was, before I posted last week’s article: Janeese Lewis George right away received over 50%, to become Democratic candidate for mayor, and Robert White exceeded 50% to run as the Democrat for our seat in Congress. (Remember – we have no senators, and only one Congressional representative who has no vote on the House floor.) On the other hand, I had expected Oye Owolewa, who has gained unaccustomed visibility in the shadow representative role, to quickly emerge victorious as the Democratic candidate for one of the at-large council seats, but it took several more rounds for him to reach 50%. And I had never expected that Elissa Silverman, a past at-large council member whose abrasiveness had lost her that post in 2022, would handily win the special election for one of the two at-large seats designated for non-Democrats.

I could go on about other votes, but you likely aren’t riveted by discussion of the parties’ state committee elections or by candidates for our shadow senator and shadow representative. I will say this, however: nowadays, as virtually all of us know, DC is a predominantly Democratic place, and so the Democratic primaries that just occurred, barring very unforeseeable events, will determine who wins the general elections come November. And the results of the Democratic primaries, including state committee selections, seem to tip clearly in the direction of the Free DC slate, which has activated progressives, young people and citizens wanting to take a more frontal approach toward federal overreach in DC.

Speaking of federal overreach, our president already had something to say about the impending (now almost certain) election of Lewis George as DC mayor, but recently he has seemed more focused on preparing for his Great American State Fair on the National Mall. Although it’s clear that Trump can’t roll back DC home rule in a formal sense, he can do a great deal, as he has over the past 18 months, to disrupt and to override our local will, not only in the monumental core of the capital but well beyond, where the militarization of our streets continues apace. It isn’t just the omnipresent National Guard either. I can still recall when our Congressional representative could successfully push back with the Department of Defense about military helicopters flying too low over DC residential neighborhoods: now my son calls us in fear of low-flying military jets swooping over his downtown apartment, and no one can do a thing. And much more troubling is the fact that the National Park Police have been given permission to do high-speed chases through the streets of DC, one predictable result being that last Saturday a delivery driver lost his life.

And no, that isn’t all. The president and his acolytes in Congress also have been able to do a lot of damage to DC’s budget, starting with federal bloodletting but also including direct hits at the use of our own local tax dollars. With respect to this year’s Congressional refusal to allow DC to delink from the OBBBA, our DC council has, interestingly, chosen to act on the attorney general’s finding that Congress was too late in revoking the council’s decision, and has used the “found” local taxes, along with a portion of our budget reserves, to restore many of the cuts that Mayor Bowser (still in office until January!) made in her FY2027 budget submission. Still it remains to be seen how much of this budget will make it through to the final FY2027 budget.

If all this just sounds like a lot of insider baseball, try to understand that that is not how it feels for those of us living under federal control in our day-to-day lives. What made voting so hard this year was knowing that reactions from Congress and the White House have as much of an effect on outcomes here as our voting does. In the end, vision and energy won out in our primaries over pragmatism and caution, and that may or may not turn out to be a good bet. If both houses of Congress stay red and keep following the president’s lead, then 2027 and 2028 could be a very rocky road for us. If one or both turn Democratic, then we’ll have an easier road.

But either way, here in our nation’s capital, we still will not have democracy. And I believe that should matter as our country marks its 250^th year. Don’t you?

PLEASE SHARE THIS WITH ONE OTHER PERSON, AND HELP THEM UNDERSTAND WHY IT’S TIME TO ALLOW THE PEOPLE OF DC FULL REPRESENTATION IN OUR COUNTRY’S HALLS OF POWER.

https://51st.news/washington-dc-democratic-primary-election-results-2026/

https://51st.news/dc-council-explainer/

https://wamu.org/story/26/06/11/an-obscure-race-to-control-the-dc-democratic-party-comes-with-high-stakes-and-controversy/

https://www.freedcslate.com/

https://www.yout-ube.com/watch?v=d-ziiMPr-Yw

https://wjla.com/news/local/great-american-state-fair-national-mall-dc-freedom-america-250-anniversary-president-donald-trump-fourth-of-july-ferris-wheel-smithsonian-rodeo-monument-fireworks-events-things-to-do-guide-celebration

https://51st.news/what-to-know-about-dc-home-rule/

https://www.yout-ube.com/watch?v=UCRUctmRouU

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/05/15/national-guard-troops-dc-summer-surge-00924578

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/delivery-drivers-mourn-bystander-killed-in-police-chase-crash/4121784/

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/after-the-fork-greater-washington-leads-the-nation-in-regional-job-loss/

https://www.cbpp.org/blog/congress-must-allow-dc-to-spend-its-own-local-dollars

https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/dc/dc-council-approves-the-2027-budget-but-the-chief-financial-officer-warns-it-could-be-unbalanced-mendelson-lee/65-b93eb61e-1778-4627-b468-484f17d21002

https://dccouncil.gov/how-a-bill-becomes-a-law/

This week, I’ll touch instead on another DC figure, who was widely known for her roles on both stage and screen. You may recall that I wrote an article here last year about people you probably didn’t know were from DC, and one of those was the famous actress Helen Hayes. In case I have some younger readers who don’t automatically recognize the name, I’ll summarize:

- Helen Hayes’ acting career spanned 82 years, and she was known in the 20^th century as “First Lady of the American Theatre.” She was a consistent presence on Broadway from 1910 to 1970, and she received the very first Tony award for Best Actress, in the 1947 Broadway hit Happy Birthday. (She later won again, in 1958, for Time Remembered.) Others among her acclaimed Broadway roles included Mary of Scotland, Caesar and Cleopatra, What Every Woman Knows, and Victoria Regina. She also performed on stage in London’s West End. Her last Broadway show was a 1970 revival of Harvey, with James Stewart, for which she received her final Tony nomination, but she retired from stage acting the following year, citing the effect of stage dust in aggravating her asthma.

- Although her first love was the stage, she starred in a number of well-known films alongside such actors as Gary Cooper, Clark Gable, and Robert Montgomery. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1932 for her first “talkie” (sound film), The Sin of Madelon Claudel, and in 1970 received another Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in Airport. While she received her only Emmy in 1953 as Best Actress for her performance in “Not a Chance” on the Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, she was nominated many more times over the coming decades. Her final television appearances in the 1980s came as Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple. Based on her performances on stage and on the large and small screens, she was the first person to have received the Triple Crown of Acting (Oscar, Emmy, Tony).

- Then, in 1977, Hayes received a Grammy for the 1977 spoken-word album, Great American Documents, becoming the first woman, and the second person ever, to win the EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony).

- In addition to her TV work in the 1980s, she was heard on radio, narrating “Mutual of Omaha’s The Best Years” from 1981 until 1986. And beyond her performing career, Hayes was known for her philanthropy, particularly her work in support of the Helen Hayes Hospital in West Haverstraw, NY. She was a lifelong and visible Republican, and spoke in support of George H.W. Bush at the 1988 Republican convention.

- President Reagan presented Hayes with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1988. She died in 1993 in Nyack, NY.

So where does DC come in?

Helen Hayes Brown was born on Q Street NW in 1900, the daughter of an aspiring actress who became her daughter’s primary promoter and manager, and at age 5 Helen was already on the stage in DC, performing at the Belasco Theater (formerly the Lafayette Square Opera House) with the Columbia Players. While launching her acting career, she attended a number of DC schools, including John Eaton Elementary, Holy Cross Academy, Central (now Cardozo) High School, and the Academy of the Sacred Heart, from which she graduated in 1917. In 1972, she sent her regrets to the John Eaton alumni gathered for their 1983 reunion, and true to her Catholic roots, in 1987 she served as grand marshal at DC’s annual St. Patrick’s Day parade.

While she started on Broadway at age 9 and continued on the New York stage for decades thereafter, she also performed frequently in DC, and her very last stage appearance, as Mary Tyrone in Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night, was at Catholic University’s Hartke Theater in 1971. She lent her name to the newly-established Helen Hayes Awards for theater excellence in the DC area in 1984, and on May 13, 1985, she hosted their inaugural presentation at the National Theatre on Pennsylvania Avenue.

[Sorry for the foreground - the president continues “beautifying” Freedom Plaza.]

Over the years, Hayes had performed frequently at the National, starting in 1919 in On the Hiring Line. In 1935, she debuted one of her foremost roles there, as Queen Victoria in Victoria Regina, which she then took to Broadway. But perhaps her most significant role with the National came when, as Vice President of Actors’ Equity, she took a stand in 1947-48 in trying to force integration of the theater, pointedly playing instead at the integrated Olney Theatre outside DC. Rather than capitulate to the pressure, the owner chose to shut the National as a live theater, though, and its stage didn’t reopen until a new owner took over in 1952. The first show at the newly-integrated National was Call Me Madam, starring Chita Rivera (also a DC native), and Hayes herself returned to the National the following year, in Mrs. McThing.

So yes – Helen Hayes, queen of the American stage, in New York as well as DC.

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/787554/d-c-primary-election-results-are-still-coming-in/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Hayes

https://www.kennedy-center.org/artists/h/ha-hn/helen-hayes/

https://variety.com/1993/scene/people-news/curtain-falls-on-hayes-105065/

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0371040/awards/

https://www.facebook.com/1852dumplin/posts/helen-hayesfirst-woman-to-have-won-an-emmy-a-grammy-an-oscar-and-a-tony-award-an/1363538869135794/

https://theatrewashington.org/helen-hayes-first-lady-american-theatre

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1993/03/18/helen-hayes-the-light-of-the-theater/51eb3a97-9db6-4040-aa6f-c53642c5291f/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lafayette_Square_Opera_House

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1983/06/22/dc-school-holds-first-reunion-in-72-years/03dfd435-8351-4091-9bb2-1219a71ca6c3/

https://dcstpatsparade.com/stpatswordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/1994-Parade-Magazine-Small.pdf

https://dcstpatsparade.com/history/

https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/theater-biographies/helen-hayes

https://theatrewashington.org/helenhayesawards/history

https://www.nytimes.com/1984/05/01/arts/helen-hayes-awards-created-in-the-capital.html

https://www.nytimes.com/1985/05/28/us/required-reading-i-m-an-award-now.html

https://boundarystones.weta.org/2016/06/22/how-helen-hayes-helped-desegregate-national-theatre

https://thenationaldcleadingladies.org/helen-hayes

Born Alethia Browning, her life began in the early 1780s, in enslavement to a family named Pratt (Belt according to some records) on their Chelsea Plantation just outside of DC in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Her two sisters, Sophia and Laurena, were born on the same plantation, but when the parents died and their daughter, Rachel Pratt, inherited the property, she sent Laurena to a neighboring plantation while Alethia and Sophia remained together at Chelsea. In the early 1800s, Sophia was able to begin a vegetable stand in Alexandria (at that time a part of the federal district), and she bought her freedom in the early 1800s.

Seemingly inspired by her sister’s entrepreneurship, Alethia, still enslaved, opened her own successful vegetable stand in President’s Park (now Lafayette Park), across from the White House. (Some enslaved people were permitted to earn money “on the side,” although I find it interesting that both Alethia and her sister Sophia were able to set up stands so far away from the Pratt plantation along the Patuxent River. One source suggests that Rachel Pratt may herself have moved into town with them.) Tradition has it that Thomas Jefferson, during his 1801-1809 presidency, may have been a customer of Alethia’s, and The White House Historical Association has found a document suggesting that she may also have been enslaved for a time in the White House itself. In another connection, Thomas Jefferson’s footman, Joseph Dougherty (or Daugherty), seems to have “purchased” her in 1810, and manumitted her four days later, perhaps using the money she had had herself earned through her sales. (A different source suggests she bought her freedom directly without an intermediary.)

What is clear is that Alethia, who at some point married and took the name Tanner, went on to use her earnings to buy the freedom of other family members, including her sister Laurena and her husband. Later, in the 1830s, she paid for the freedom of other neighbors and friends. In total, it is estimated that she freed upwards of twenty individuals through her earnings and efforts. She also joined with others to found the Bell School, DC’s first school for free Black children, and later a second school. Neither school thrived, however, in the face of financial hardship and segregation.

It seems that in her later years, she became best known for her religious activism. At first, she chose the Methodist church, due to its initial stance in opposition to slavery. But as a schism appeared between northern and southern Methodists, and with the church’s requirement for segregated seating of Black members, she joined other abolitionist Blacks in migrating to the African Methodist Episcopal, or AME, denomination. Along with other family members, she founded Israel Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1821, the first AME church in DC.

Looking into Tanner’s life, I unearthed a dark event in DC’s history of which I had been completely unaware: the Snow Riot. The year was 1835, and memories of Nat Turner’s 1831 rebellion in nearby Virginia were still fresh, while the issue of abolition was gaining increased attention throughout the capital. (A dozen years later, in reaction to abolitionist sentiment in the capital, Virginia would ask for, and gain, “retrocession” of the land it had originally donated for the federal district.) With these roiling tensions, a strike by mechanics and carpenters at the Washington Navy Yard morphed quickly into attacks on free Blacks and their property throughout the district, starting with Beverly (Beverley) Snow’s Epicurean Eating House near today’s Gallery Place and Capital One Arena. The havoc spread, and in face of the danger, some Blacks, including John Cook, Tanner’s nephew and a prominent educator and Presbyterian minister, fled the city. Snow, whose restaurant was destroyed, left for Canada and went on to open a number of restaurants in the Toronto area. It appears that Alethia herself rode out the tumult. It can’t have been an easy ride, though, as the tensions only continued to build for DC’s growing free-Black population over the years leading up to the Civil War.

Alethia Tanner lived through the start of that war, but she died in 1864 and did not see its end. Her name lived on though, and when the park was being developed by the National Park Foundation and its partners just a few years ago, her legacy emerged victorious through a naming competition. Now a large metal arch at the southern end of the park proclaims “Alethia Tanner Park,” and will serve to keep her heritage - her challenges, her energy, her generosity - in the public eye for many years to come.

Not a bad example for all of us in our nation’s 250^th year.

https://nomaparks.org/nomagreen/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alethia_Tanner

https://enslaved.org/fullStory/16-23-126837/

https://chairmanmendelson.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/B23-172-Tanner-Park-PACKET.pdf

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=234912

https://www.whitehousehistory.org/photos/slavery-in-the-thomas-jefferson-white-house-photo-4

https://www.pbs.org/thisfarbyfaith/journey_2/p_5.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Riot

https://www.facebook.com/HeritageToronto/posts/this-emancipationday-we-share-the-story-of-randolph-beverley-snow-a-beloved-toro/5235121819899144/

As you can imagine, given my activism on the local scene. I’m paying a lot of attention to these elections. But this time around, things are harder than usual. In the past, since 1973 when we gained home rule, Congress and the president have intervened in only limited ways in our day-to-day lives, the most notable incursions being restrictions on the availability of abortions since 1980 and on the commercial exploitation of marijuana after DC residents voted to legalize it here in 2014. But since Donald Trump was returned to power a year and a half ago, bringing along a pliant Congress, we have seen a dramatic change in our lives. Many of you reading this may feel that’s no different from the rest of the country, but you would be dead wrong. Here are some of the ways in which the 700,000 of us living here have been directly affected by the federal government in the last 18 months:

- Regular patrols with our local police by a variety of federal agents under the so-called “DC Safe and Beautiful Task Force,” including an unprecedented surge by the Department of Homeland Security, which has engendered fear and stifled civilian confidence in law enforcement – while our DC council has only limited ability to provide local awareness of federal actions;

- Frequent grandstanding and intrusion by the US attorney for DC with respect to our council’s and our attorney general’s local law enforcement oversight, presenting wild and unsubstantiated claims of out-of-control violent crime;

- The presence of camouflage-clad National Guard troops, set to increase to 5000 members in honor of the 250^th, providing a “visible presence” in the Metro and around federal buildings - a high-cost means of deterring petty crime, according to a recent report - and engaging in “beautification” in some neighborhoods;

- Congressional actions for two years in a row to deny DC the ability to raise and spend our own local tax monies, causing budgetary shortfalls while the municipal government gets the blame for anything that goes wrong;

- Repeated consideration of bills in Congress to curtail DC control over our own streets, finances and day-to-day lives – incidentally, taking committee and floor time away from the business of the nation with which your senators and representatives are elected to concern themselves.

We are, quite simply, an occupied city. And that makes these local elections, and how the officials we select, more important than ever. Because it’s hard to know the best way to regain meaningful control over our local affairs without risking a rollback of what “home rule” we have. One perspective is that advocated by the organization known as Free DC (“Prioritize Joy. Take Up Space. Organize.”), which takes an assertive, in-your-face approach to federal encroachment on our local affairs, with a broader anti-authoritarian national ambition as well. And then, generally speaking, the other approach is to focus on keeping the much-battered DC economy afloat and to push back on federal overreach while cooperating where possible with our federal overlords, knowing that they have many tools for exerting control beyond those they already have brought to bear. In a very broad-brush way, Mayor Bowser has espoused the second approach during Trump 2.0, whereas our DC council has often tried to push her in the former direction. And different candidates to replace Bowser and the soon-to-retire nonvoting DC representative to Congress, Eleanor Holmes Norton, tend to tip one direction or the other.

Which brings us back to the midterms. Because what we know here in DC is that if we continue to face not only Trump in the White House, but also a Senate and House of Representatives largely prepared to do his bidding, a frontal approach by our local officials could lead to more and more federal control, perhaps including a withdrawal of a half-century of home rule. Whereas, if even one of the houses of Congress tips in favor of the Democrats (who have not always been our friends, but come closer nowadays than the Trump party), then our local government will have more breathing space. But we don’t know any better than you where things will land in the November midterms. So, as we begin our voting in these DC primaries, which will in large measure determine the outcome of our November election, that customary federal cloud and uncertainty hang over us more than ever. Even if one or both houses flip in the November midterms, the president and his facilitators can do us damage in the intervening months if they so choose.

This has made me pause. And think. And change my mind. Over and over again. Because for those of us, full-blooded Americans, living in DC, our fate is never really in our hands. And never will be, until we get statehood.

https://dcboe.org/

https://51st.news/what-to-know-about-dc-home-rule/

https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/document/asset_upload_file974_40235.pdf

https://www.congress.gov/crs_external_products/LSB/PDF/LSB11188/LSB11188.2.pdf

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/one-week-trumps-dc-takeover-attempt

https://safedc.gov/

https://policecomplaints.dc.gov/release/police-complaints-board-releases-reports-federal-law-enforcement-presence-and-mid-year?ref=eltiempolatino.com

https://dccouncil.gov/council-increases-scrutiny-on-federal-law-enforcement-officers-in-force-death-cases/

https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc

https://oag.dc.gov/public-safety

https://www.yout-ube.com/watch?v=Tg9pDSTSpCM

https://www.axios.com/local/washington-dc/2026/01/05/violent-crime-dc-decrease-2025-donald-trump-federal-takeover

https://www.npr.org/2026/05/25/g-s1-124213/number-of-national-guard-troops-deployed-to-washington-d-c-set-to-double

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5905888-national-guard-dc-crime-study/

https://www.nationalguard.mil/News/Article-View/Article/4290072/guard-members-from-six-states-dc-on-duty-in-washington-in-support-of-local-fed/

https://freedcproject.org/news/whats-going-on-in-congress-may-2026-updates

https://51st.news/washington-dc-2026-primary-election-june-16-mayor-council/

Heumann is renowned for many achievements, including: breaking barriers in the 1960s and early 1970s to attend school and obtain her teaching license in New York state; leading the 1977 sit-in to force enactment of Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act; expanding access to education for disabled children in the 1990s; and her vigorous, though ultimately unsuccessful, pursuit of Senate ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) during the Obama administration. But from 2007 to 2010, she served as the first director of DC’s Department on Disability Services. In that role, she set the new agency on a stable path, advancing programs to integrate people with disabilities into the broader DC community and working to kickstart broader reform of the DC system. When she was appointed in 2010 to the role of special adviser to the State Department, her local work was taken up by her deputy Laura Nuss, but Heumann had set the community on the glide path it has followed over the past twenty years, inspiring not only the agency she led, but – more importantly – the advocates who have pushed successfully for continued reform and increased federal and “state” funding.

And her accomplishments have not been forgotten, as demonstrated by three recent local initiatives:

- The JUDITH Campaign, a project launched by DC’s Developmental Disabilities Council to amplify the voices of local disabled advocates on issues of critical importance and ways to sustain and accelerate progress;

- The renaming of the bridge on Connecticut Avenue NW over Rock Creek Park, near the building where she lived, to honor her memory and remind passersby of her extensive accomplishments;

- The recent introduction of legislation, named for her, which if passed in the DC council will make it possible for people not qualifying for Medicaid (the basis for adult disability supports nationwide) to “buy in” and obtain such services. (As with all legislation passed by our council and signed by our mayor, Congress will have its customary 30 days in which to review the bill and delay its effectiveness.)

Many readers may be most familiar with Heumann through her “starring” role in the 2020 documentary, “Crip Camp.” You should go beyond that, though, to read her memoir and listen to her TED Talk, both of which are cited below. But as you become more educated about her broader role in the national and international arenas, don’t lose sight of what I’ve written here about Heumann’s local achievements and recognition.

Because, as reflected in the title of her TED talk, “we’re not done yet” with building on her legacy, right here in DC.

https://judithheumann.com/project/about/

https://wtop.com/dc/2023/03/dcs-first-disability-services-director-judy-heumann-disability-rights-activist-dead-at-75/

https://dds.dc.gov/

https://stateofthestates.ku.edu/sites/stateofthestates/files/2025-08/DC_8pg_accessible_0.pdf

https://ddc.dc.gov/page/judith-campaign-amplifying-voices-honoring-truth

https://ddc.dc.gov/

https://www.popville.com/2026/05/judith-e-heumann-memorial-bridge-washington-dc-woodley-park/

https://legiscan.com/DC/bill/B26-0463/2025

https://dccouncil.gov/how-a-bill-becomes-a-law/

https://www.yout-ube.com/watch?v=Fs0VRfOg7Wo&t=8s

https://www.amazon.com/Being-Heumann-Unrepentant-Disability-Activist/dp/0807019291

https://www.ted.com/talks/judith_heumann_our_fight_for_disability_rights_and_why_we_re_not_done_yet

We do care about our limited voting options, though. DC has one of the highest participation rates in elections – the triumph of hope over experience, I suppose – but there are still many, many living in DC who, unlike me, either don’t vote because they think it doesn’t matter, or because the demands of daily life are overwhelming, or because they’re among the small minority that’s focused nationally and doesn’t care much about the local DC government as long as neighborhood crime is low and their trash is picked up. And some of the latter are indeed just passing through, or continuing to claim residence, not always legally, in one of the fifty states to ensure they will have senators and representatives who can vote in Congress.

But there are lots of DC residents who, when Congressional elections roll around, sit at tables writing postcards or making calls to eligible voters in one of the 50 states – my “adoptive” state for these purposes has usually been Pennsylvania. Many even pile into cars to go door-to-door on weekends, usually in Virginia, Maryland, or easily reachable points in West Virginia or Pennsylvania. Because many who live here understand, from living daily alongside the national government, and from living daily without meaningful influence on events around us, that there is indeed a value in participation, in trying to move the political needle nationally.

Allow me to come clean at this moment. This year, I haven’t yet been able to generate much enthusiasm for talking with fortunate people whose vote actually counts but who, out of cynicism or inattention, can’t bestir themselves to fill in a ballot. From a practical standpoint, this is because I spend a good many hours each week focused on two main issues: local policies and budget issues affecting disabled residents of DC, which I have addressed in this blog since 2014; and keeping up to date on broader DC developments so I can prepare my weekly DClives post. And – this may sound like I’m making an excuse – others here and around the country are still writing those postcards, making those calls, and going door-to-door in battleground states, so I would be one among many. But I, now a half-century resident of DC, am in a position to keep the reality of living in DC front and center, and to make it harder for other Americans, of either party, to forget or ignore our situation. So, my time spent in writing this Substack is also an investment in the political future, even if not the one most of you are thinking about.

Some of what I’ve written here may sound bitter, and you, my readers, least deserve that, because you’re the 1000-plus individuals who each month open my Monday DClives article to see what you can learn. (Also, a hearty thanks to the150 of you who now subscribe!) And I know that some of you actually do take action from time to time to try to get your elected representatives to: 1) respect DC’s limited home rule by not trying to overturn our laws or control our day-to-day lives; and 2) keep the flame alive for DC statehood. (Have a look here at the DC Statehood PAC’s list of endorsements, to see if there’s a candidate you can donate to who has declared support for bringing democracy to DC.) When the John Lewis Voting Rights Act comes up again (and it will), DC statehood, quite simply, needs to be a part of it, not a standalone bill as has happened in the past.

So, while you’re deploring recent assaults to national voting rights, remember that residents of DC have been without voting rights for all but the first 25 years of our country’s 250. That should infuriate you as much as it does me.

https://www.lwvdc.org/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=263021&module_id=684955

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-87/pdf/STATUTE-87-Pg774.pdf

https://www.axios.com/local/washington-dc/2025/05/05/d-c-leads-u-s-in-voter-turnout

https://ggwash.org/view/64183/lets-stop-saying-nobody-is-actually-from-dc

https://suburbansolutions.com/blog/dc-residency/

https://my.lwv.org/lwvus/action-alert/tell-congress-stop-interfering-dc

https://www.dcstatehoodpac.com/

https://www.demos.org/blog/form-more-perfect-union-dc-statehood

https://dcist.com/story/24/02/02/50-years-dc-home-rule-statehood-voting-rights/

It’s no surprise to me to find that next month’s primary races, on June 16, are on everyone’s mind here in DC. Having presented her final budget proposal, Mayor Muriel Bowser will be hanging up her spurs at the end of this year, and the frontrunners to succeed her are most likely to be the two most prominent Democratic candidates, since – yes – we are a very Democratic city at this point in time. Those two candidates, both DC natives emerging from our DC council ranks, are Janeese Lewis George, with political views along the lines of New York City’s Mamdani and a fervent desire to take on the federal powers that be, and Kenyan McDuffie, a more traditional candidate in the “Bowser 2.0” mold (i.e. the more accommodating Mayor Bowser we’ve seen during Trump 2.0). Local races are never straightforward for us – least of all now – since the great federal bugaboo is always hovering above us, ready to strike when the mood hits to deny us the right to legislate for ourselves or spend our own money. (A recent internal review of possible crime-data manipulation by officers eager to please our previous police chief is now providing new fodder to the ever-vigilant Kentucky Congressman James Comer in his zeal for DC “gotcha” moments.)

Also in play, for the first time in many years, is our non-voting Congressional delegate position, filled for the past 25 years by civil-rights lawyer and former cabinet member Eleanor Holmes Norton. Here, too, there are two candidates out of the council, one a DC native and longtime councilmember, Robert White, who ran twice for mayor and lost to Bowser both times, and the other a more recent transplant to DC, Brooke Pinto, who has a solid network of national connections. This, too, is a tough call, given the importance of our having a Congressional representative in Congress who can influence others without the benefit of a vote.

The other factor that’s going to complicate these primaries for us is the introduction of ranked-choice voting, requiring voters to rank-order up to five candidates for each position. The first to exceed 50% will win. This means we have to think hard about our second choices, as well. But beyond that, what’s always top of mind is the fact that we DC voters don’t have the luxury of voting for the candidates we like and most agree with. No. Our voting must be very strategic – who can best follow through on their plans when Congress or the president can override our local decisions at will? This is our reality, and it isn’t a pretty, or fair, one.

These primaries also come smack in the middle of a very complex budget season for us, overshadowed by all those Congressional games I’ve referred to previously, which have left us with the inability to raise and spend our own local tax monies for two years in a row now - on top of national-level Medicaid cuts that affect us heavily since nearly 40% of our population is covered by Medicaid. And it gets worse, of course. Now that the federal government has been decimated, DC’s unemployment rate is the highest in the country, given all the knock-on effects that has for the services sectors. Our downtown area at lunchtime is surprisingly empty, where just a few years ago swarms of employees frequented eateries, shoe-repair shops, drug stores and the like during their lunch hour. And now, judging by its website, the Combined Federal Campaign – a United Way-style portal allowing federal employees to donate to charities of their choices – appears to be shutting down, which would affect many local nonprofits that need to step in with help for people in the area who – perhaps for the first time – need a helping hand.

So: oh yes, we need some recreation as summer 2026 approaches. But even though it looks like Meridian Hill/Malcolm X Park may open before September after all, all over DC there are National Park Service (NPS) spaces that are closed for interesting, and interestingly timed, “improvements.” While many would agree that renovation of some NPS parks in the area is overdue, the priority of restoring to Pennsylvania-Avenue prominence the statue of a well-known slaveholder is dubious at best (if in line with other recent NPS decisions), and the months-long closure of centrally-located Freedom Plaza where it’s being relocated seems overly expansive. Lowkey fountain upgrades and other slight improvements all seem to be taking place at the same time and causing whole park areas to be fenced off for long periods, apparently in the name of “DC beautification.” Let me tell you, friends: coming face-to-face with chain-link fences all over the place does not feel like beautification. And while the lease for management of accessible NPS golf courses has been renewed, the sword of Damocles still hangs over the course at Hains Point/East Potomac Park, popular not only with local golfers but also with bikers and birders. Our president apparently just can’t see those links without wanting to refurbish and fancify for the benefit of professional golfers and their high-stakes tournaments.

But yes, there are other things on the minds of my fellow DC residents at the moment. Like the fact that DC schools weathered the pandemic better than any other school system in the country. And the plans by transit agency WMATA – which runs our Metrorail and Metrobus system – for handling the crowds expected when the new Commanders stadium opens in 2030. Those plans tentatively involve refurbishment and expansion of an existing Metro station rather than building a new station, and the outcome remains to be seen, but the clock is ticking since four years isn’t too much time for significant infrastructure projects.

At least the stadium promises to bring new life and businesses to a part of the city in need of them. That’s more than can be said for an immense White House addition, a triumphal arch, and a new statuary garden near the National Mall. But then, the lives of real Americans living in the nation’s capital just aren’t a big priority for our national leadership.

Still, I have faith in the future, and in that vein, I’ve added my own voice to the “Statehood Stories” on the website of our DC chapter of the nonpartisan League of Women Voters. Give these a read!

https://www.ballotready.org/elections/dc-primary-election-c4fdac9e-d8bd-4282-bc75-b8a0f12506a3

https://janeesefordc.com/

https://kenyanmcduffie.com/

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/4361425/muriel-bowser-most-trump-friendly-year-2025/

https://wtop.com/dc/2026/05/multiple-high-ranking-dc-police-leaders-demoted-after-crime-stats-probe/

https://www.joinrobertwhite.com/

https://brookepintoforcongress.com/

https://www.lwvdc.org/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=263021&module_id=783337

https://usafacts.org/answers/how-many-people-are-on-medicaid-in-the-us/state/washington-dc/

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/07/washington-dc-highly-qualified-workers-unemployment

https://givecfc.org/

https://www.axios.com/local/washington-dc/2026/03/25/national-park-service-moves-up-meridian-hill-park-reopening

https://wtop.com/dc/2026/04/trumps-budget-plan-pairs-10b-for-dc-beautification-projects-with-national-parks-cuts/

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5791797-trump-administration-caesar-rodney-statue-america-250/

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/president-trump-politics/nps-sign-racist-past-historic-fountain-namesake/4090795/

https://thehill.com/policy/keeping-score/5870134-dc-golf-trump-controversy/

https://educationscorecard.org/states/district-of-columbia/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2026514_Newsletter_DC&utm_term=DC

https://wtop.com/dc/2026/05/no-new-metro-station-planned-for-rfk-stadium-site-but-new-gold-line-bus-service-proposed-to-handle-crowds/

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/president-of-parks-and-rec-trump-asserts-authority-over-public-spaces-in-dc/4102297/

Now, in the spirit of enjoyment, today I turn my attention to a low-key but much appreciated comic gem in a neighborhood not too far from mine. In fact, it’s a neighborhood I’ve written about before, but in a different light.

My first exposure to the Joke Phone was through the first article listed below. I really don’t know how I came across the article in the first place, but it convinced me to drag my husband over there one evening late last summer. We got sort of turned around and never quite found it, but I got luckier a few days later when I went back in the daylight. Still, I didn’t really “test-drive” the Joke Phone until a couple of weeks ago, when we went back and found that it does actually work as advertised!

So what exactly is the Joke Phone? It’s a pay phone that a talented tinkerer dreamed up, for his own fun and for the enjoyment of others. In 2023 he took an actual pay phone – some of my readers will remember what these are – and rewired it so it can communicate not only in the old-fashioned way (yes, it works as a phone, by VOIP), but also as a purveyor of jokes, riddles and fun facts. There are ten individual options for the random “caller” to choose from. Consistent with the phone’s proximity to an elementary school, there are age-appropriate riddles for different age groups, and also “positive thoughts” for young people. But also, for the erudite, there is an option dispensing Shakespearean insults, and also the ability to phone “G.O.D.” (Don’t be offended, it stands for “guy on demand,” who apparently happens to be the inventor himself or a good friend he’s recruited. I wonder how late you can call without waking them?)

When I spent a few minutes on that recent sunny afternoon, I enjoyed a few “knock-knocks” as well as treating myself to a Shakespearean insult or two. But I decided to save my call to G.O.D. for another day (or night?). One thing I know: there will definitely be times to come when I need to have my spirits lifted, so it’s a good thing the Joke Phone is nearby.

https://www.islands.com/1883656/repurposed-payphone-washington-dc-quirkiest-attraction-city-spot/

https://wtop.com/dc/2023/09/joke-pay-phone/

I’ve lived in DC now for nearly fifty years, but it’s hard for me to remember a time without Busboys and Poets. To call it a local restaurant chain just doesn’t do it justice.

My own introduction to Andy Shallal, without my realizing it, came at a once-favorite brunch location near DuPont Circle that was known as the Cafe Luna. Many were the times that my family would wind up at this cozy spot near our church, without ever knowing, or really thinking about, the personality behind it.

But let’s go back to the late 1960s, when Andy Shallal, an eleven-year-old Iraqi immigrant in the DC suburbs, had to consider whether he was White, Black or Other on school documentation. Later, he learned some would mistake him for “high yellow” in an American context. And throughout, as Shallal was climbing up through the local restaurant scene, starting with his father’s pizzeria in suburban Virginia, he was, in this and other ways, developing an awareness of the extremes of income and racial disparity in the area.

And by the early 2000s, he had become determined to bring back to life a part of DC that at one time had been the center of Black life in DC, that same “Black Broadway” that I’ve written about a couple of times recently. (Sure, go on back and have a look, here and here.) And in choosing the name for his first locale, he was inspired by another DC story: when the poet Vachel Lindsay decided, in a scheduled reading at the Wardman Park Hotel, to read aloud some of the works shared with him by Langston Hughes, a budding poet making ends meet as a busboy at the hotel. The event received a lot of press attention and went some way toward boosting Hughes’ career as a poet and, later, a central actor in the Harlem Renaissance.

Lindsay’s nickname for Hughes as “the busboy poet” was, then, the basis for the name of Shallal’s first Busboys and Poets space that he opened near 14^th and U Streets in 2005. Not just a restaurant, but also a small bookstore. Not just a bookstore, but a place for poetry readings. Not just a place for poetry readings, but a space for discussion of political, cultural and racial issues. It was like nothing we had had before in its variety and explicit purpose as a community gathering place. Since the first one opened, Busboys and Poets has brought additional branches, and that same spirit, to four other DC neighborhoods as well as three locations in the Virginia and Maryland suburbs.

When you walk into a Busboys and Poets, you’re greeted by several carefully curated shelves of books, with a focus on issues and concerns that align with the forward-leaning political and cultural themes defining Busboys and Poets. The small bookshop is not intended to represent the full array of political viewpoints, but rather to celebrate and promote the diversity of the DC region and its cultural ferment. Across from the bookshop, there’s a welcoming restaurant area, perfect for a friendly brunch or simple meal. Then there’s the vast set of events taking place across all eight locations, like this recent one – a favorite of mine, as you may imagine.

There’s no point in sugarcoating things: Andy Shallal is unlikely ever to be invited to this White House. His politics, and the Busboys ethos, are profoundly progressive, as is clear from his recent memoir, A Seat at the Table. Shallal is a vocal supporter of Palestinian rights, outspokenly anti-war, and relentless in addressing the nexus of race, hunger and homelessness in our own country. The year of Muriel Bowser’s first election in 2014, he had run for mayor himself, but at this point he seems satisfied with his role as a prominent local entrepreneur, philanthropist and thought leader. Recently he and his wife opened their home to supporters of mayoral candidate Janeese Lewis George, which likely means he won’t be running himself to succeed Bowser.

And I think that’s fine, because DC likes him, and our Busboys and Poets, right where they are.

https://yout-u.be/a5bpaTl0ELM?si=vOCO98NmdsYyqzq2

https://boundarystones.weta.org/2024/02/02/langston-hughes-dcs-original-busboy-poet

https://www.busboysandpoets.com/

https://washingtonian.com/2025/08/25/busboys-and-poets-owner-andy-shallal-on-mixing-politics-and-business/

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/mayoral-candidate-andy-shallal-i-feel-like-i-need-to-speak-up/126024/

https://www.facebook.com/Janeese4DC/posts/thank-you-andy-shallal-and-marjan-for-opening-your-beautiful-home-to-us-we-spoke/1310077344278119/

As restrictive covenants spread throughout DC in the early years of the 20^th century, Black residents were pushed increasingly into an area of the city known as the “U Street Corridor” or “Black Broadway.” (As it was last week, the book Black Broadway has been an important source for this article, along with the articles referenced below.) Businesses sprang up to serve this “city within the city” where the community learned to – was obliged to - meet its own needs. Those needs included the arts, and well-known music venues developed in the area – some of the best known being the Howard Theater, Lincoln Theater, True Reformers Hall and Bohemian (once Crystal) Caverns. These are places that hosted the greats – Billie Holliday, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong and, of course, DC native Duke Ellington. The Howard, in particular, served as the epicenter of the jazz scene up until the 1950s, after which it opened its doors to Motown and other sounds as DC slowly desegregated. Integration also meant greater availability of previously-segregated DC theaters, and that competition also contributed to the decline of “Black Broadway” as the nerve center of jazz in DC.

Although the jazz-infused days of the U Street area were limited to a few decades, they were rich ones. And jazz has never stopped being a crucial throughline in the musical culture of DC.

[Clockwise from bottom left: U Street where things started; monthly Jazz at Wesley, Haydee’s DC Jazz Jam, Buck Hill mural near 14th and U]

A particularly well-known local jazz haunt nowadays is Haydee’s in Mount Pleasant. It took me a while to discover this locale, but now I understand what attracts so many to its laid-back “DC Jazz Jam” on Sunday evenings. No cover charge, just tips for the musicians and solid Mexican food at picnic-style tables. It’s an intimate space, and the fun for spectators comes from just being there to watch how much the musicians enjoy riffing off one another and spotlighting both experienced and emerging instrumentalists – plus the occasional amazing vocalist who steps forward. This has become an essential testing-ground for new talent looking to be mentored by more-established musicians on the DC jazz scene.

Some of those established musicians often make their way to the monthly “Jazz at Wesley” events, on Saturday evenings in the social hall of a small Methodist church not far from me. These do have a cover charge, and also a delicious home-made dinner cooked up in the church’s kitchen. No alcohol flows, just appreciative vibes for those on stage who are usually a combination of well-known local jazz instrumentalists and vocalists. At these gatherings you can tell that many in the audience are themselves well acquainted with the folks on stage, following their careers closely and fully aware of the amazing talent on offer.

Both these locations have also made a point of highlighting gifted new musicians emerging from DC’s own Duke Ellington School of the Arts. For three decades, educator Davey Yarbrough was central to the school’s jazz department, but jazz expertise at DESA has outlived his career there. Still, he isn’t forgotten - they brought him back just last Friday for a performance as part of the “Jazz City” event that promotes the next generation of jazz artists in DC.

This is just a taste, far from the whole story of jazz in DC. The radio show Hot Jazz Saturday Night, on one of our very own public radio stations, WAMU, highlights the jazz greats of the early 20^th century, and popular clubs like Blues Alley in Georgetown and Mr. Henry’s on Capitol Hill (there’s more than Congress there!) keep current jazz in the public eye. In fact, the opportunity to sing at Mr. Henry’s next month was important in my decision to embark on the jazz tradition, so prominent in DC history and still so close to our hearts here in the real DC.

https://www2.gwu.edu/~jazz/performersb.html

https://www.kennedy-center.org/education/resources-for-educators/classroom-resources/media-and-interactives/media/music/jazz-in-dc/

https://www.capitalbop.com/dc-jazz-tells-a-history-of-the-people-and-places-that-made-d-c-an-important-home-for-jazz/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Theatre

https://dcjazzjam.com/

https://nationalchurch.org/jazz

https://www.yout-ube.com/watch?v=R6xs_IVJDVg

https://georgetowner.com/articles/2026/04/20/jazz-city-2026-returns-to-duke-ellington-school-of-the-arts/

https://wamu.org/show/hot-jazz-saturday-night/

https://www.bluesalley.com/

https://www.mrhenrysdc.com/calendar/

The Act as passed can seem controversial through our modern eyes, since it provided up to $300 per released individual in compensation to DC slaveholders, and also offered financial enticements of up to $100 to try to get formerly enslaved Blacks to emigrate. Besides those aspects of the Act, the freedom it offered came with some important caveats. At that time, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was still in effect, which meant that slavecatchers could come into DC, as they could to any and all states, grab anyone who had escaped enslavement, and return them for a hefty fee back to their “owners.” Given that the federal district was sandwiched between two slaveholding states – secessionist Virginia and union-but-slaveholding Maryland – there was an ever-present danger of seizure and return for those who had escaped into DC. Free men and women were also caught in the slavecatchers’ net if they weren’t carrying exactly the right identification at the right time. (This was a long time ago, but remember Mark Twain’s adage, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.”)

Just the year before Lincoln signed this Act, though, a clever general had come up with a workaround that improved matters somewhat for those who had escaped. It was Union Major General Benjamin Butler, at Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia (a prewar federal installation which surprisingly remained in Union hands throughout the Civil War), who in May of 1861 declared escaped slaves “contraband of war” – enemy property not to be returned to the South – and explicitly gave them protection in and around the fort. Congress lent Butler’s reinterpretation of the Fugitive Slave Act further weight when it passed the First Confiscation Act in August of 1861, allowing “confiscation” by the Union of any enslaved person who had been used for a military purpose against the United States. Congress went on to pass a law in March of 1862 – just a month before Lincoln signed the Compensated Emancipation Act - stating that Union military personnel were explicitly forbidden to return individuals who had escaped enslavement, although even this did not fully prevent slavecatchers from pursuing their odious vocation.

As more and more Blacks made their way into the federal district over the course of the war, the US military began finding work for them, especially in and near army forts. While the camps that sprang up nearby were often overcrowded and disease-ridden, their proximity to military installations provided a measure of security from slavecatchers. Gradually, local relief organizations and churches began bringing additional support, including schools, to the encampments, which continued growing in the war’s wake to become established communities – until, several decades later, discriminatory housing codes turned most of them into whites-only neighborhoods.

Celebration of Emancipation Day, the anniversary of Lincoln’s 1862 signing of the Compensated Emancipation Act, came hard on the heels of the war’s end, and in 1866, after ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment at the end of 1865, African Americans in the District began marking April 16 as a holiday, with speeches and a parade. Black Civil War veterans and members of civic organizations took part, and Presidents Andrew Johnson and Ulysses S. Grant – both, incidentally, former slaveholders - gave the celebrations their blessing. These annual events continued until 1901, when the pressures of Jim Crow and internal strains within the African American community brought them to an end. However, starting just over a century later, at the dawn of this century, DC Emancipation Day was resuscitated as a day of celebration, and it has been a public holiday since 2005. As I post this on April 20, there have been four days of events stretching over April 16-19, culminating in a parade and music festival starting yesterday afternoon all the way through Sunday evening. When I strolled the parade route along a stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue yesterday afternoon, after a morning rain had threatened to spoil the mood, the sun was coming out and preparations well under way. Beautiful weather for the balance of the day greeted the thousands who turned out for the celebration.

Yes indeed, DC does know how to party, and we’ll take our celebrations where we can get them – but just wait until you see the blowout when we finally become the Douglass Commonwealth!

https://you-tu.be/Uws2v1z69aU?si=R5-UZpDpPlyhHjS3

https://emancipation.dc.gov/page/history-emancipation-day

https://www.whitehousehistory.org/washington-d-c-s-contraband-camps

https://www.nps.gov/articles/living-contraband-former-slaves-in-the-nation-s-capital-during-the-civil-war.htm

https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/fort-monroe-during-the-civil-war/

https://www.whitehousehistory.org/emancipation-day

https://www.downtowndc.org/events/21st-annual-dc-emancipation-day/

https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/black-history/dc-emancipation-day-draws-thousands-residents-call-for-equity-accountability-amid-celebrations-crime-safety-housing/65-3ae6ae15-1689-4bde-8b4e-05e90d5b7877

P.S. You, my friends, are faithful readers, but I continue to suspect I am mostly preaching to the converted. Can you please get my writings in front of your friends and family who may need a bit more education about the real DC? Whether or not they subscribe, their eyes on the page are most welcome, and they may well learn something!