Photograph as originally submitted to this page in the Historical Marker Database www.HMdb.org. Click on photo to resize in browser. Scroll down to see metadata.

Photographer: Allen C. Browne
Taken: April 13, 2014
Caption: Morris Leroy Johnson
and Lonnie Richard Johnson
Additional Description: Morris Leroy Johnson and his brother Lonnie Richard Johnson, ages 9 and 11, were buried in the [Oakland Baptist Church] cemetery next to their father, Morris Johnson. Their deaths precipitated a change in the City of Alexandria a decade before the Civil Rights movement. At that time the only municipal pool was open to white residents only. African Americans had two ways to swim; take a bus (weekly) to a DC pool or go to the Potomac River (Hunting Creek). The brothers, made a “boat” out of cardboard and launched into the Potomac river; both drowned. After this tragic mishap, the City opened the Johnson Memorial Pool...Close-up of photos on "Oakland Baptist Church Cemetery" marker at Fort Ward
Submitted: February 15, 2015, by Allen C. Browne of Silver Spring, Maryland.
Database Locator Identification Number: p300390
File Size: 1.029 Megabytes

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