Revisiting Washington's Black History

Jan. 5, 11:00 AM: The Quander Family, Nearly 300 years in America
Lecture by Rohulamin Quander, retired Senior Administrative Judge for DC and Founder, Quander Historical Society 

Judge Quander traces the history of his family, one of the oldest Black families in America, from roots in West Africa to the United States today. The first American Quander was sold into slavery in the Maryland colony in the 1600s. Judge Quander’s ancestors  were enslaved in both Virginia and Maryland for almost two centuries.  At least three worked at Mount Vernon.  They were freed more than sixty years before the Civil War by the terms of George Washington’s will. The family’s journeys from the fields to the board rooms will be spelled out in a new book to be published this year to tell the story of an uncommon multi-generation American family.
View a recording.

Jan. 12, 11:00 AM: Washington’s Role in American Music
Conversation with Maurice Jackson, Associate Professor, Georgetown University, and Davey Yarborough, Chairman and Artistic Director, Washington Jazz Arts Institute, plus introduction and kibitzing by Milton Coleman, retired Senior Editor, The Washington Post, and DC music aficionado.     

Professor Jackson knows DC’s music history and Yarborough is a present day personification of the music, the city, and the performers of jazz in the nation’s capital. Go-go may be the official music of the District of Columbia, but the town has a rich tradition of Great Black Music-- including jazz, before, during and after the life and times of its native son, born in Shaw, educated in DC public schools, the 19^th Street Baptist Church and the pool hall next door to the Howard Theater--Edward Kennedy Ellington.  Before jazz was a big thing at the Kennedy Center, it was a very big thing at the Pigfoot off Rhode Island Avenue NE, at the Crystal Caverns on U Street and the Cellar Door in Georgetown.  DC jazz is a homegrown musical cocktail, flavored by the off and on mixing of its people, their jobs and their neighborhoods.
View a recording.

Jan. 19, 11:00 AM: Howard University –Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris’ Alma Mater
Lecture by Michael Winston, PhD, former Provost and Chief Academic Officer, Howard University, with introduction by Carole Watson, retired Acting Chair, National Endowment for the Humanities

Dr. Winston, through long service at the highest academic and administrative levels, describes what sets Howard University apart from other institutions of higher learning in the history of the United States.   Its unique role was established by the vision of the founders:   to build the intellectual foundations for a genuine democratic society on the ruins of a slave society devastated by an enormously destructive war. Dr. Winston was at Howard during the period when Vice President-elect Kamala Harris was a student. She was particularly taken by Howard's role in promoting international knowledge and understanding. 

Jan. 26, 11:00 AM:  Covenants, Redlining and Segregation
Presentation by Mara Cherkasky, Co-director, Mapping Segregation in Washington DC, followed by panel with Edward Hayes JD, President Emeritus, Chevy Chase Citizens  Association and former Chair, So Others Might Eat; James Jones, JD, MD, former Director, DC Youth Opportunity Services; and James Pittman, Dunbar Alumni Federation and Founder, Historic Kappa House Restoration Foundation; moderated by Colbert King, columnist, The Washington Post. 

Cherkasky is a historian who has examined more than 100,000 original DC property deeds. She has plotted on detailed maps the racial covenants included in many of these deeds, designed to segregate the city. She will discuss court cases that affirmed the legality of these restrictions on land in the nation’s capital—and then the case that declared them unconstitutional, and the redlining and insurance restrictions that remained a barrier to geographic mobility. King will lead a panel of DC residents who experienced the segregated city and will talk about how they navigated homeownership in Chevy Chase, Eckington, and Dupont Circle.