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Every Step Tells A Story®

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Black Mecca: A Curated Journey of Legacy and Light

For generations, Washington, DC has stood as a beacon of Black excellence — a city where culture, intellect, activism, and ambition converge. This curated experience honors the people and places that have made DC a Black mecca, from bold visionaries and barrier-breaking leaders to the everyday heroes who shaped the soul of the city. Walk this path of power, pride, and perseverance — and witness a living legacy still unfolding.

General Oliver Otis Howard 

Reverend Patrick Francis Healy

1

Georgetown

 

Georgetown was 50% Black in the 1770s to the 1960s (today it is 6%). Georgetown was also a major slave and tobacco trading port. Much of DC’s early great Black leadership came out of Georgetown where the church and education were early components of free persons of color in DC. Here you'll find the oldest Black church in DC, its historic cemetery and many hidden gems and stories not covered in traditional school books.

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Steps Include: 

  • Emma V. Brown Home

  • Alfred Pope, Hannah Cole Pope Home

  • Holy Rood Cemetery 

  • Mt. Zion United Methodist Church, Female Union Band Society Cemetery & Mt. Zion Heritage Center, Jerusalem Baptist Church, First Baptist Church, Herring Hill

  • John H. Fleet Home

  • Yarrow Mamout Residence 

  • Patrick Francis Healy Hall, Georgetown University

  • Rose Park, The Peters sisters, Margaret & Roumania

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Did You Know?

Howard University was founded by Union General Oliver Otis Howard — he was White. Father Patrick Healey, who was born into slavery, is considered the Co-Founder of modern day Georgetown University. He was  also the first Black Jesuit priest in the US.

3

Striver's Section/Dupont Circle East

 

The Striver's Section was historically an enclave of upper-middle-class African Americans, often community leaders, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Striver's Section takes its name from a turn-of-the-20th-century writer who described the district as "the Striver's section, a community of Black aristocracy" focused on striving for freedom and equality.  

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Steps Include: ​

  • The Charles Hamilton Houston Home & The Langston Hughes Home 

  • Delta Sigma Theta & Kappa Alpha Psi DC

  • Frederick, Charles & Lewis Douglass Homes 

  • Headquarters, and Zeta Phi Beta DC headquarters

  • Mary Church Terrell Home

  • The Josephine Butler Center at Malcolm X Park 

  • Charles and Lewis Douglass Homes

  • General Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. and Sr. Homes

  • St. Augustine Catholic Church

There were slave quarters on the grounds of The White House and The Decatur House.

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Did You Know?
5

U St. Corridor, Shaw & LeDroit Park

Known as "The Black Mecca", these contiguous communities are known as one of America’s most historic Black locations. This area boasts more historic churches, homes, venues, events, and personalities per capita than any Black community in the Nation. 

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Steps Include: 

  • Georgia Douglas Johnson Home

  • Dr. Alain Locke Home

  • Jean Toomer Home

  • Dr. MLK’s Poor Franklin Reeves Center, Club Bali, Peoples Campaign Office

  • Ben’s Chili Bowl, Lee’s Florist, Bohemian Caverns, The Colonnade, Jelly Roll Morton, The Jungle Inn, Lincoln Theater

  • Industrial Bank of Washington

  • DC historic murals walk

  • New Negro Alliances Sanitary Grocery Store Protest Site

  • The, The African American Civil War Museum

  • Grimke School

  • The Addison Scurlock Studio

  • The Howard Theatre & Chuck Brown Way

  • Congressman Oscar DePriest Home, 
    Paul

  • Howard Lawrence and Alice Dunbar Home & University

  • Dr. Anna Julia Cooper Home, 
    Mayor Walter

  • Washington Home, Jesse Jackson, Sr. Home

  • Woodson, Dr. Carter G. Woodson Home

  • Monument & Park & Shiloh Baptist Church

  • The A. Philip Randolph Home

  • Blanche Kelso Bruce & Josephine Bruce Home 

Did You Know?
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Pearl Bailey was brought up in D.C. and got her start on U Street. She coined the phrase  "America's Black Broadway" for the area. She returned to DC in her late 60's to study theology at Georgetown University earning her BA in 1985. Grammy and Tony award winner Pearl Bailey was appointed as a special ambassador to the United Nations by President Ford  in 1975. In 1988 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Reagan. 

"Without a struggle,
there can be no progress." 
~ Frederick Douglass

2

Foggy Bottom/Dupont Circle West

 

Original tobacco slave quarters were located here starting in the 1770s when the British tall ships moved slave and tobacco from Africa and England to America. From 1840 - 1970, this area was majority Black (today Foggy Bottom is 9.6% and Dupont Circle is 6%). The community boasts of the homes of Dr. Charles Drew, Duke Ellington, Dr. Rayford Logan, Mrs. Rosa Parks' home-away-from-home as well as an underground railroad site and more.

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Steps Include:​

  • O Museum in The Mansion

  • The Stevens School

  • Lisner Auditorium, Ingrid Bergman Call Box & The Toni Morrison Bench, The Nelson Mandela Garde

  • The Dr. Dorothy I. Height Bench

  • St. Mary's Episcopal Church

  • The Leonard Grimes Underground Railroad Site & The Alexander Pushkin Statue

  • Dr. Charles Drew & Dr. Rayford Logan Homes

  • Duke Ellington Birth-site and Mural, Bo Diddley's Home & Recording Studio

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Did You Know?

Bo Diddley — The legendary singer, guitarist, songwriter and music producer who played a key role in the transition from the blues to rock and roll lived in Foggy Bottom and had a recording studio on Rhode Island Avenue, N.E. from 1956-1966.  He discovered Marvin Gaye (a DC resident) and introduced him to Berry Gordy, founder of Motown Records. The rest is history.

4

Anacostia/Congress Heights

In the 1850s, America was heading toward a deadly confrontation between free and slave states. To promote unity between the North and the South, this area in Southeast DC was initially named Uniontown.  It was a White suburban community at the time.  After the "Uncivil War", new towns called Uniontown started cropping up all over, creating confusion for services like mail delivery. To ease the confusion, Congress enacted legislation to change the name to Anacostia on April 22, 1886, making Anacostia the only community whose name was affixed by Congress.  The name Anacostia was derived from a Native American word meaning “village trading center.”  

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Steps Include: ​

  • Frederick Douglass Home on Cedar Hill ​

  • Barry Farm/Hillsdale (Freedmen's Village) & The           Goodman League, The Hillsdale School​, The Birney

  • School, Campbell AME, The John Moss House​​

  • The Go-Go Museum

  • Macedonia Baptist, The Solomon Brown House
    Mayor Marion Barry Home 

  • United States Colored Cemetery & St. Elizabeths Hospital

  • We Act Radio

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Did You Know?

Frederick Douglass and Mrs. Rosa Parks' funerals were held 90 years apart at the Metropolitan AME Church off of Dupont Circle.

6

Downtown & The National Mall

This is center of our Nation's Capital and is "America's Front Yard." It is home to some of our Nation's most iconic sites.  But many of the stories on the National Mall and downtown are not taught in our history books because they highlight the horror of what happens when economics and personal beliefs allow for the oppression of one group over another. 

 

In American history, each major episode against oppression is a step toward freedom. This section of the city is a paradox — full of contradictory words and actions. It is where our federal government made the rules — and at the same time owned those they were ruling.  

 

ALL groups who fought and won their freedom have some connection with this part of DC — Blacks, women, Native Americans, Muslims, Asians, hispanics, LGBTQA+, and those with disabilities —  it is here that they coalesce to have their voices heard and enact change.  It is where we help define who America is going to become. What history and this part of DC teaches us is that by speaking up —  we CAN make a difference.


“When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.”              — Jimi Hendrix

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Steps Include: 

  •  The 1848 Slave Escape on The Pearl, Beecher’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, The 1835 Snow Riot 

  • 7th Street, The Red Summer of 1919​, Apex Building, Grand Army of the Republic Memorial, the Temperance Fountain, National Bank of Washington, The National Era Newspaper

  • DC's Slave Market and Slave Pens, The National Council of Negro Women

  • The National Archives and the Central Market 

  •  DAR Hall/Marion Anderson

  • Charles Sumner School

  • The Ford’s Theater

  • The Willard Hotel, & The John A. Wilson Bldg. and Mayor Marion Barry

  • The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial 

  • The Lincoln Memorial

  • The National Museum of African American
    History & Culture

  • Metropolitan AME Church, Charles Sumner School

  •  James Wormley Hotel, Franklin Square 

  • The White House, The Decatur House     

  • Liberty Plaza, St. Johns Church, Hay Adams Hotel, Ronald Regan Foundation, Motion Picture Association, AFLCIO

  • Lafayette Square​

NOTE: Bold text denotes African American Heritage Trail Site

Augmented Reality Trail in Washington DC

51 Steps To Freedom® is transforming Washington, DC into the largest outdoor museum — in the world. Spanning over eight miles, this one-of-a-kind augmented reality trail explores D.C.'s extraordinary history, culture, and its ongoing journey toward liberty and opportunity for all.

Did You Know?

A number of stops on the trail are being created by students in the DC area through our Student Voices Program.
LEARN MORE

Support & Volunteer for 51 Steps To Freedom™

As a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, the 51 Steps to Freedom Trail offers a unique Washington DC tour experience, highlighting key people and places in DC neighborhoods like Anacostia, Georgetown, Dupont Circle, U Street Corridor, where history and culture come alive.

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Our interactive history tour features a groundbreaking augmented reality experience that brings key moments and figures from DC’s history to life, from the Washington Monument, the US Capitol, and the White House to neighborhood landmarks, showcasing the variety of movements that shaped America’s journey for liberty and opportunity.

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By donating or volunteering, you help preserve and share these stories of freedom, resilience and opportunity. Your support ensures that these vital narratives are celebrated on the 51 Steps to Freedom Trail and brought to life through immersive web AR experiences, advancing our mission to create a liberty trail in DC.

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Join us in exploring DC's neighborhoods and supporting this transformative project. Whether you're interested in a monument tour, a city tour, or simply want to make a difference, your involvement is essential to making the 51 Steps to Freedom a lasting educational tool for all who visit Washington DC.

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Washington, DC — and America’s — journey  for liberty and opportunity.

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51 Steps To Freedom is a registered 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Donations are tax-deductible to the full extent of the law. Your tax-deductible donation funds their programs. No goods or services were provided for this gift. Please consult your tax advisor regarding specific questions about your deductions.

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