Barry Farm

Barry Farm. Empower DC , Est. 2003 , Organizing Community Power. , Uplifting a Living History, Ensuring a Just Future ,

"The very things that we champion in this country , hard work, personal responsibility , this was the Barry Farm community. A thriving Black community." , - Dr. Michael Fisher, DC Legacy Project Advisor

, In 1867, the federal government sold 375 acres of land in the nation's capital to African Americans, many who came to DC during the Civil War. The families who moved to the site, known as Barry Farm, built homes and churches, formed civic organizations, and operated small businesses. It was a self-sufficient Black community., Over time, the government seized much of the land for public projects, eventually demolishing 32 houses in the most desirable section of the village for a segregated public housing complex. The new tenants formed a tight-knit community., In recent years, everyone who lived at Barry Farm was forced to move in preparation for redeveloping the site. Empower DC and former residents won historic landmark protection for five buildings. DC Legacy Project is an outgrowth of this work. We invite you to learn about this history and our shared vision for the future of the site., Anacostans , 1600's , Today's Barry Farm area is home to the Anacostans, ancestors of the Piscataway, who still live in the DMV today., Washington DC Established , 1791, Civil War , 1861-1865,

"Grandma and Frederick Douglass were like sister and brother, great abolitionists. I sat on his knee in his office in the house that is now a museum in Anacostia, where we were born." , Granddaughter of Emily Edmonson

, Barry Farm , 1867 , After the war, the Freedmen's Bureau, buys 375 acres from the descendants of enslaver James Barry and sells it lot-by-lot to Black settlers. This new community is called Barry Farm. The community successfully lobbies the city council to change the village's name to Hillsdale, but the new name never becomes official., Emily Edmonson , Tewnety-five year old Emily (Edmonson) Johnson, a teacher, became a founding resident of the Barry Farm community in 1869, when she bought two large lots on the banks of the Anacostia River. Emily and her five siblings had survived the Pearl Incident, the largest attempted escape from slavery in American history when they sailed away from Southwest DC's 7th Street wharf in 1848.,

"Nowhere in the country where there is a dual school system, are educational opportunities so well integrated that a Colored pupil may pass from kindergarten through university, without suffering special disadvantages." , Garnet Wilkinson, 1926

, Garnet Wilkinson , For 30 years, Garnet Wilkinson was in charge of all DC schools for Black children. Wilkinson moved with his parents to Barry Farm around 1888. He attended Birney Elementary until his family moved to LeDroit Park. Unlike many of his peers, Wilkinson believed all-Black schools were essential for Black advancement during segregation. He took great pride in the excellent education that Black residents of the nation's capital received., Displacement: , Barry Farm Dwellings , 1941 , The federal government takes 34 acres and 23 homes, using eminent domain, for the construction of segregated public housing, the Barry Farm Dwellings., Displacement: , Suitland Parkway , 1942 , Eminent domain is used to displace 600 residents for the construction of Suitland Parkway. The new road is routed through two of the community's cemeteries.,

"I just got tired of being shuttled around. I'd see my children standing out on Nichols Avenue waiting for a bus when Sousa was within walking distance." , Luberta Jennings, 1954

, School Desegregation , 1954 , Children from Barry Farm are plaintiffs in the Supreme Court case Bolling v. Sharpe, which rules that segregation is unconstitutional. White residents march in protest against integrating Anacostia High School and other all-white schools in the area.,

"You sit up here on the Hill and talk about building subways and bridges and parking lots for the tourists and people from suburbia…It's time to talk about the people who live here." , Etta Mae Horn, 1969

, Tenant Organizing , 1965 , Barry Farm residents demand repairs and upkeep of the complex. Etta Horn and others advocate on Capitol Hill against cuts to welfare and for their rights as recipients of public assistance. Between 2,600 and 3,000 people live at the site, 70 percent of them children., Etta Horn , Etta Horn lived at 1123 Stevens Road in the 1960s. She and her neighbors organized to demand improvements at Barry Farm Dwellings. She helped found the National Welfare Rights Organization, which grew to 25,000 members across the country. Horn and other NWRO representatives advised the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the platform for his 1968 Poor People's Campaign. Horn also formed the Citywide Welfare Alliance, which established high quality day care centers for children in Southeast DC that she oversaw for more than 25 years.,

"We're trying to raise some money so that we can buy some real instruments… We're all shooting for the top. And we're going to make it." , 12-year-old Tony Leonard, JYB Member, 1981

, Go-Go Music , 1980's , Barry Farm is home base for the city's beloved teenage go-go group, the Junkyard Band., The Junkyard Band , In the early 1980s, a group of boys who lived in Barry Farm formed the Junkyard Band. Today they are managed by Maurice Shorter, who lived at 1214 Stevens Road for 25 years. The director of the Barry Farm Recreation Center remembered their original instruments were "soda bottles, tin cans, picnic benches, and whatever else they could find." The group played free shows at the rec for almost 40 years, until the housing complex was torn down in 2018., Displacement , 2006 , DC launches the New Communities Initiative to redevelop four public housing sites, including Barry Farm. In anticipation of being forcibly relocated, tenants move out over the next decade but new tenants fill vacancies. Residents fight for repairs as property conditions decline., Resistance , 2018 , The Barry Farm Tenants and Allies Association, with support from Empower DC and Stoop Law, wins an appeal of the site's Zoning approval, affirming the right of all displaced residents to return and securing additional replacement units., Preservation , 2020 , The Barry Farm Tenants and Allies Association and Empower DC win a historic landmark designation for five buildings on Stevens Road, saving the former homes of notable residents. The DC Legacy Project is formed to secure community serving uses in these last remaining buildings., The Future , Led by developer Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH), Barry Farm is being redeveloped into a mixed-use and mixed-income neighborhood with apartments, home ownership opportunities, recreational space, and a retail corridor. Efforts continue to ensure residents return home., The Jennings Sisters , Adrienne and Barbara Jennings lived at 1139 Stevens Road with their family. In the early 1950s, they became plaintiffs in a lawsuit demanding that the schools desegregated. The courage of the Jennings sisters and their peers led to the Supreme Court's unanimous decision in Bolling v. Sharpe, upending the doctrine of "separate but equal."