Urban planning and DC

 On September 23 your editor will appear with DC Channel Four reporter Derick Ward to discuss the interesting history of  urban planning in DC and some of the bad effects it had on the colonial capital. Details. below. 

“Federal Experiments and Their Consequences: Urban Renewal”

An Online Conversation with Sam Smith and Derrick Ward

 

Presented by the DC History Center

Wednesday, September 23                   Register for the event at https://bit.ly/32y5SYQ

7:30 pm           

            How does the lack of voting representation in Congress touch the lives of Washingtonians? Today more than 700,000 people are without a voice when the country’s lawmakers decide to go to war or impeach the president. The founders thought proximity to power would mean access to power for Washingtonians. Instead the city’s position as home to the federal government and under its legal control has often made DC into a laboratory for such federal experiments as urban renewal, in which citizens and local lawmakers have no say.

            What are some of the federal experiments that reshaped our city? When and how did Washingtonians band together to take control of their destiny? Where were federal government programs when we most needed them?

               Journalist/activist Sam Smith and NBC4 reporter Derrick Ward have written about, and lived through, many years of DC’s experiences as that experimental lab for Congress. They will look at the history of urban renewal across the District to consider implications of federal control for our current day.

 

               Federal Experiments and Their Consequences is the latest installment in our Context for Today series of online conversations with thoughtful and provocative historians and observers.

            Sam Smith is a native Washingtonian who covered his first Washington story in 1957 as a 19-year-old radio news reporter. He has edited alternative journals for over 56 years, most recently the online Undernews. An activist and social critic, Smith is also the author of four books, including Captive Capital: Colonial Life in Modern Washington and, in the 1970s, was a co-founder of the DC Statehood Party. Smith now lives in Maine with his wife, historian and author Kathryn Schneider Smith.

            Derrick Ward is a native Washingtonian. He lived through the 1968 riots and attended H.D. Woodson High School and the University of Maryland. Ward's journalism career began in radio. He worked for WPFW, WAMU and WTOP, covering major stories such as the Iran-Contra hearings, the Sept. 11 attack on the Pentagon, and the Washington-area sniper shootings. He has been reporting for NBC News 4 since 2006.

 

               Register here to receive your link to the Zoom event. Suggested registration donation: $20 (supports current and future program costs). If you are not in a position to pay that amount, please pay what you are able. Donations beyond $20 help cover the cost of someone else’s registration.

                

  The Historical Society of Washington, D.C. is a 501(c)3 non-profit educational organization that makes local history available to the public to promote a sense of identity, place, and pride in Washington and to preserve this heritage for future generations. Visit us at www.dchistory.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @dchistory.

 

                 This educational program is supported by grants from the Office of the Secretary of the District of Columbia, the Kiplinger Foundation, and HumanitiesDC and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as part of the 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act of 2020.