Sarah Jane Shoenfeld is an independent scholar and public historian focused on African American and DC history. In 2014 she co-founded, with Mara Cherkasky, both the historical research firm Prologue DC, LLC, and the digital public history project Mapping Segregation in Washington DC.
Written By Sarah Jane Shoenfeld
The history and evolution of Anacostia’s Barry Farm
In 1867, the federal government purchased a 375-acre site in Anacostia, later known as Hillsdale, and as Barry’s or Barry Farm (more recently as Barry Farms) for the settlement of African Americans after the Civil War. The isolated community was self-contained by design, requiring residents not only to demand the installation of…
Mapping segregation in D.C.
For the past several years, Mapping Segregation in Washington DC has been documenting the historic role of real estate developers, citizens associations (white homeowner groups), and the courts in segregating the city. Our work has been focused on documenting properties subject to racially restrictive deed covenants, which barred the sale or rental…
Race and real estate in mid-century D.C.
This article is adapted from “Teachable Moment: ‘Blockbusting’ and Racial Turnover in Mid-Century D.C.,” which originally appeared in Washington History, Vol. 30, No. 2 (Fall 2018), published by the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., and is reprinted and adapted with permission. Many of the documents discussed in this article can be viewed…
The rise and demise of racially restrictive covenants in Bloomingdale
This article is adapted from “‘A Strictly White Residential Section’: The Rise and Demise of Racially Restrictive Covenants in Bloomingdale,” which originally appeared in Vol. 29, No. 1 (Spring 2017) of Washington History: Magazine of the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., and is reprinted and adapted here with permission. You can also…