WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — If you love to explore the depths of history within communities across the DMV, rejoice. The National Park Service (NPS) announced on Dec. 16 that 19 new National Historic Landmarks (NHL) were named including three within the Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C. area.
Officials said the new historical landmarks contribute to underrepresented histories in the NHL Program.
One of the recently added landmarks was the historic Charles Hamilton Houston Courthouse in the Leesburg area of Loudoun County.
The courthouse was built in 1894. The decision to be named a National Historic Landmark, came just four months after the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors held a ceremony designating the building in honor of celebrated civil rights attorney Charles Hamilton Houston.
Houston tried the national case of George Crawford at the Charles Hamilton Houston Courthouse.
Crawford was a Black man who was accused of murdering two white women in Middleburg. According to NPS, his legal defense team, of all Black lawyers who trained at Howard University, argued that Crawford would not get a fair trial by an all-white jury.
The case shined the light on the issues with all-white juries, facilitated recognition of the abilities of Black lawyers and laid important groundwork for the NAACP’s campaign to use federal constitutional law to dismantle racial segregation.
The argument from Crawford’s lawyers raised issues of racial equity and representation across American courtrooms.
Back in the nation’s capital, the Furies Collective headquarters and the Lucy Diggs Slowe and Mary Burrill House were also added to the list.
The Furies Collective headquarters is in D.C.’s Capitol Hill community. From 1971 to 1973, the rowhouse on 11th Street SE was the home and operational center for twelve lesbian feminists and the separatist group, The Furies Collective.
The women used their news publication, The Furies, to address major questions of women’s identity and relationships with other women and men.
The park service noted that the home was used to hold political and editorial meetings, which most likely took place in the main living room area and on the first floor.
NPS said the group influenced lesbian culture for nearly two decades and inspired the creation of a women’s culture and a national network of woman-owned businesses, women artists, and feminist thinkers.
Lastly, the Lucy Diggs Slowe and Mary Burrill House National Historic Landmark can be found on Kearney Street NE.
Lucy Diggs Slowe, who was the first Dean of Women at Howard University, lived at the house. She advocated for gender equity at the university and educational parity between men and women students.
According to NPS, Slowe fought an extended battle with Howard University’s administration to be treated equally by deans who were men. This includes the right to live off-campus with her woman partner, Maryl Burrill.
Officials said Slowe advocated for the right to privacy concerning her living situation, which represented an example of 20th-century LGBTQ activism.
Slowe and Burrill lived in the house for more than 10 years.
To learn more about the additional landmarks, click here.