Our names are Lily and Eliza Dorton, we are seventeen and fifteen years old, and have lived in Washington, D.C. our entire lives with our younger brother and parents. We are currently high school students at the Holton-Arms School in Bethesda, Maryland. About a year or two ago, we realized that as young people living in the nation’s capital, there has never been any focus on the Civil Rights Movement in our city. We have been on countless field trips to landmark places such as the Smithsonian Museums or the National Mall, and learned about Civil Rights in our various school classes, but never specifically about it in our hometown of DC. We found it remarkable that no one in Washington had created a well-known tour specific to the Civil Rights Movement, and even more remarkable that we had not given it any thought before.
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The two of us wanted to create a way for not only tourists but people who reside in the Washington area to learn about the complex, enthralling history of civil rights right here in Washington. There are numerous locations where civil rights leaders held meetings, resided, protested, and where black culture thrived in the 60s and 70s. We wanted to create a tour where everyone is able to educate themselves on DC’s past regarding Black Americans during a point in time when inequality was flooding the neighborhoods of DC.
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Black people had to find a way to fight for and achieve equal rights at a time when it was nearly impossible to get their voices heard. The tour focuses on hidden locations that are not a part of the mainstream museums or tours you might go on in DC, but were significant to some during the Civil Rights Movement. We feel it is important as kids living in the DC area that educating people about both the good and bad history of this city is crucial to the new generations who may not get the opportunity to realize their city’s rich past.