Barbara Morgan interview, 2020-10-01

Item

Identifier: dcpl_dcohc035_02.wav

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

From the Collection:

D.C. Oral History Collaborative (DCOHC) is a citywide initiative to train community members in oral history skills, fund new and ongoing oral history projects, connect volunteers with oral history projects, and publicize existing oral history collections. DCOHC is a project of DC Public Library, HumanitiesDC, and the Historical Society of Washington, D.C. This collection contains oral history interviews, transcripts, and indexes produced by DCOHC grantees.

Dates

Creation: 2020-10-01

Creator

Grant, Paul (Person)
Middleton-Grant, Tracey (Person)

Language of Materials

English

Biographical / Historical

Barbara Morgan (born 1930s) is a second-generation Washingtonian and a well-known community activist. She comes from a long line of Black educators and proudly navigated her distinguished career from starting as a public school teacher to ending up serving in the Democratic National Committee. She was married in 1959 and moved into the Ft. Dupont Park/Penn Branch Community in 1962. At that time the neighborhood was a majority-white enclave. The Morgan family experienced hostility as they, and other African American professionals began to integrate the neighborhood. She has witnessed a lot of change in Washington, DC. However, her strong sense of civic duty has kept her actively engaged in the community affairs for more than 50 years

Extent

From the Collection: 1.13 Terabytes

Additional Description

Abstract

Barbara Morgan is a second-generation Washingtonian and a well-known community activist. In her interview, she shares her extraordinary family history and her early experiences growing up in Northwest quadrants of Washington, DC during the 1940s and 1950s, during segregation. Barbara moved into Penn Branch approximately one year after she married her husband in 1962. The neighborhood was then known as Ft. Dupont Park. However, she explains how the name of the neighborhood was changed out of resistance to integration, as more Black professionals began to move into the neighborhood. She describes the racial hostility that she and her family endured from her neighbors and how she has remained a civically active in the community for over 50 years.