51 Steps To Freedom® Trail
“One flag, one land, one heart, one hand, one nation forevermore!”
- Oliver Wendell Holmes
Every Step Tells A Story®
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.
Locations
Interests
Steps on the Trail
51 Steps To Freedom is a powerful collection of stories about what binds the United States together. It highlights the hidden figures who helped shape America’s strength — and includes monuments, museums, churches, meeting houses, burial grounds, slave quarters, parks, homes, and gardens.
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.
Stops Include:
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Emma V. Brown & Matthew Henson Homes
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Dumbarton Oaks Place and House
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Patrick Francis Healy Hall, Georgetown University
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Rose Park and the Peters sisters
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.
Stops Include:
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Alexander Graham Bell Home
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Dr. Charles Drew & Dr. Rayford Logan Homes
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Duke Ellington Birth-site, Marvin Gaye Mural, Bo Diddley Home
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Kennedy Center
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Leonard Grimes Underground Railroad, Alexander Pushkin Statue
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Lisner Auditorium, Ingrid Bergman, Toni Morrison, Nelson Mandela Garden
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O Museum in the Mansion
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.
Steps Include:
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Frederick, Charles, and Lewis Douglass Homes
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Mary Church Terrell Home
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Josephine Butler Center & Joan of Arc Statue
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Langston Hughes Home & Golf Course
There were slave quarters on the grounds of The White House and The Decatur House.
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.
Steps Include:
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African American Civil War Museum & Grimke School
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Ben's Chili Bowl, Jelly Roll Morton, Jungle Inn, Lincoln Theatre, The Colonnade Inn, Lee's Flowers, Bohemian Caverns
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Griffith Stadium, Washington Senators, Redskins, Negro National League
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Howard Theatre, Chuck Brown Way
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Women's Leadership Legacy Walk, Howard University
6
Downtown & The National Mall
This is the center of Washington, DC — often called “America’s Front Yard.” It’s home to some of our most iconic landmarks, but also to stories still missing from many history books.
Throughout the National Mall and downtown DC, we find a deeper truth: that freedom in America has never come all at once — it has been claimed, step by step, by people who believed in the promise of a more just nation.
This place is a paradox — where powerful ideals were written into law, even as many lived without their full protections. It is where our government shaped the rules — and where people from all walks of life have gathered to challenge, expand, and redefine them. Every group that has pushed for dignity, voice, and equal treatment has left a mark here.
America’s Front Yard reminds us: the journey toward freedom continues. And when people raise their voices here — they help decide what America becomes.
Steps Include:
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Capital One Arena
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Constitution Gardens, Declaration of Independence Memorial
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DAR Hall
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Freedom Plaza; The Willard Hotel, & The John A. Wilson Bldg., MLK Memorial, Marion Barry
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FDR Memorial, Eleanor Roosevelt Statue
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Ford’s Theater
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Lafayette Square Park
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Library of Congress
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Liberty Plaza
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Lincoln Memorial
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Metropolitan AME, James Wormley Hotel, Franklin Square, Charles Sumner School Newspaper, Snow Riot, The National Council of Negro Women
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National Archives
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National Museum of African American History & Culture
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Red Summer, Slave Escape on The Pearl, The National Era
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Supreme Court
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U.S. Capitol
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Wilkins Coffee; The Muppets, Sesame Street, Jim Henson
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Washington Monument
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White House
"Without a struggle,
there can be no progress."
~ Frederick Douglass
Did You Know?
On top of the U.S. Capitol is a bronze statue called the Statue of Freedom. It’s a woman wearing a headdress in the shape of an eagle’s head. It’s over 19ft. tall and weighs around 15,000 lbs.
The statue was constructed with the help of enslaved ironworker Philip Reid who assisted in the molding of it. When it came time to erect the statue, they turned to Reid for his expertise to figure out how to hoist and assemble it, overlooking the city.
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.”
Steps Include:
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Barry Farm/Hillsdale (Freedmen's Village) & The Goodman League, The Hillsdale School, The Birney School, Campbell AME, The John Moss House
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Frederick Douglass Home on Cedar Hill
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Go Go Museum & We Act Radio
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United States Colored Cemetery & St., Susie King-Taylor ElizabethsHospital
Did You Know?
Griffith Stadium (now the site of Howard University Hospital) once echoed with cheers for legends like Lou Gehrig, Josh Gibson, Mickey Mantle, and Jackie Robinson — and before they took the field, a young Duke Ellington sold popcorn and peanuts there. The stadium was home to both the all-White Washington Senators and the Homestead Grays, a Negro League powerhouse whose star, Josh Gibson, was officially named MLB’s all-time home run leader in 2024.
In 1951, gospel star Sister Rosetta Tharpe held her wedding there in front of 20,000 fans — a concert event so grand it helped set the stage for stadium-sized rock shows.
Did You Know?
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.
Alice Paul wrote the original Equal Rights Amendment in 1923 — and spent the next five decades fighting for its passage. She believed equality needed to be protected not just by laws, but by the Constitution itself.
Did You Know?
Bonus
Special Bonus Stops
From innovation and advocacy to intelligence, education, and inclusion, each site adds a surprising layer to the journey toward freedom and opportunity in America.
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Gallaudet University
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Department of Energy, Former Atomic Energy Site
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NASA
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RFK Stadium
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Spy Museum, Benjamin Banneker Park
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The Wharf