Hey to Your Mama N'em

Poor People’s March at Lafayette Park and on Connecticut Avenue

Washington, D.C., June 18, 1968

Warren K. Leffler, photographer

Library of Congress

“We ought to come in mule carts, in old trucks, any kind of transportation people can get their hands on. People ought to come to Washington, sit down if necessary in the middle of the street and say, ‘We are here; we are poor; we don’t have any money; you have made us this way…and we’ve come to stay until you do something about it.’” — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

This was the last known photograph taken of Dr. Anna J. Cooper in her Washington, D.C. home.

Scurlock Studio, photographers, ca. 1964

Dr. Cooper was an American scholar and educator. Born a slave in Raleigh, North Carolina, when she earned her PhD in history from the University of Paris-Sorbonne in 1924, Dr. Cooper became the fourth African-American woman to earn a doctoral degree. 

Photo Source: Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History

Nannie Helen Burroughs (May 2, 1879 – May 20, 1961) was a nationally recognized educator, orator, religious leader, business woman and suffrage activist. In 1909, she founded the National Training School for Women and Girls in Washington, D.C. The school specialized in vocational education, but it also offered classes in grammar, English literature, Latin, drama, public speaking, music, and physical education. Burroughs also required all of her students to take a course in Black history. The school’s motto:“We Specialize in the Wholly Impossible.”

The National Training School for Women and Girls was renamed the Nannie Burroughs School and continues to operate today as a private, coeducational elementary school in the District of Columbia.

Photo source: Library of Congress

An integrated classroom at Anacostia High School in Washington, D.C.

September 10, 1957

Warren K. Leffler, photographer

U.S. News & World Report Magazine Photograph Collection, Library of Congress

Three well-dressed children on steps

April 28, 1955

Scurlock Studio, photographers

Scurlock Studio Records, ca. 1905-1994, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.

Little girl in a park with Union Station in the background, Washington, D.C., ca. 1943

Photographer unknown

Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress

Sharon Jones’ birthday party at Mrs. Howard’s Nursery School, Mar. 1949.

Scurlock Studio (Washington, D.C.)

1949

Scurlock Studio Records, ca. 1905-1994, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Howie Williams with his wife and son, April 1963.

Willams attended Howard University and was a professional football player in the 1960s for the NFL’s Green Bay Pakers and San Francisco 49ers, and for the AFL’s Oakland Raiders.

Scurlock Studio (Washingotn, D.C.), photographers

Scurlock Studio Records, ca. 1905-1994, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.

[Mr. Williams celebrated his 76th birthday on December 4, 2012.]

Dr. Mordecai Wyatt Johnson and his family, November 1958

Scurlock Studio, photographers, Washington, D.C.

Scurlock Studio Records, ca. 1905-1994, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.

Dr. Johnson served as the first black president of Howard University, from 1926 until 1960.

Mrs. Noble Williams and her family, ca. 1945

Scurlock Studio (Washington, D.C.), photographers

Scurlock Studio Records, ca. 1905-1994, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.

Underdown Family Delicatessen circa 1904; Owners, Mr. & Mrs. Underdown, with two employees—14th & S St., N.W.

Washington, D.C., ca. 1904

Addison N. Scurlock, photographer

Scurlock Studio Records, ca. 1905-1994, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.

(Source: siris-archives.si.edu)

Women attending a convention of former slaves, left to right: unidentified, Anna Angales, Elizabeth Berkeley, and Sadie Thompson.

Washington, D.C., 1916

National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress

Boy holding the hand of small girl during an Easter egg roll at the White House, 1898

Frances Benjamin Johnston, photographer

Frances Benjamin Johnston Collection, Library of Congress

Little girl in slum area, Washington, D.C.

December 1937

John Vachon, photographer

OWI/FSA Collection, Library of Congress

Young woman voting at Cardoza High School in Washington,  D.C.

November 3, 1964

Marion S. Trikosko, photographer

U.S. News & World Report Magazine Photograph Collection, Library of Congress