Abstract

Anita Hammond shares her life from her earliest memory as a child growing up in segregated, farming community of Seaford, Delaware to her currently life in Penn Branch neighborhood, in Washington, D.C. She has lived in the neighborhood, since 1965. She shares her vivid memories of the people, neighborhood association and nearby community businesses. Finally, Mrs. Hammond shares and how COVID-19 has impacted her life.

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...

Abstract This oral history interview was conducted for 'We Are Penn Branch' oral history project. Baxter Gee and Judith A. Gee shared stories about their lives before and after moving to the Penn Branch neighborhood in 1971. They gleefully tell the story of how they met and married. Baxter Gee also share stories about his military career traveling around the world and living for several years in Japan and Hawaii, before relocation to Washington, D.C. Both Judy Gee and Baxter Gee discuss memories of...

Abstract Diane Alexander and her daughter Yvette Alexander reflect on their childhood, family life, careers, and experiences as long-time residents of Penn Branch. Diane Alexander shares her experience searching for a home with her husband and becoming a first-time home buyer in Penn Branch. Once they settled into the neighborhood, Diane Alexander described it as a friendly and quiet to place to live with easy access to grocery stores, restaurants, and a movie theater. Although Diane and Yvette...

Abstract Dr. James Baldwin gives an overview of his life from his childhood in North Carolina to his enlistment in the U.S. Army and now legendary service as a part of the legendary 784th Tank Battalion that supported the liberation of Holland. He also discusses how he and his wife, Ann Baldwin (1921-2006), purchased their home in the Penn Branch neighborhood in southeast Washington, D.C., in the early 1960s and were among the first African American families to integrate the community. He briefly...

Abstract

Patricia Quander Hall shares hear earliest memories growing up in Lynchburg, Virginia and goes on to discusses how she and her husband, Burt Hall, Sr., ended up becoming a part of a wave of new, Black professionals who first integrated the Penn Branch neighborhood in southeast Washington, D.C. She shares what it was like to live in the community as a young person of color in the 1960s and she shares her opinions on life today as a senior living in Penn Branch.

Abstract This oral history project documented the personal narratives of the first generation of African Americans who integrated Penn Branch, a neighborhood of approximately 550 single-family homes in southeast Washington, D.C. (Ward 7), between 1960 and 1968. The Penn Branch neighborhood east of the Potomac River is bound by Pennsylvania Avenue SE to the south, Pope Branch Park and Pope Creek to the north, Branch Avenue to the west, and Fort Davis Park to the east. It is the sister neighborhood to...

Abstract

Susan Hormuth shares her childhood memories of life in Penn Branch and Hillcrest neighborhoods. She also describes the process of integration and what it was like for her attending DC Public Schools in southeast Washington, D.C. during the 1960s.

Abstract

Vildred Fitzgerald, a retired elementary school teacher from DC Public Schools, shares her earliest memories growing up in Danville, Virginia. She talks about how she met her husband, a prominent dentist in Washington, D.C., and they first settled in the Penn Branch neighborhood in southeast Washington, D.C.