Architects of History: Studying Women as Activists in Washington, D.C.

By Dr. Elizabeth Clark-Lewis, Heurich Humanities Scholar-In-Residence

As the Humanities Scholar-In-Residence, it is a pleasure to return to the Heurich House as a researcher. My relationship with this historical organization began many years ago. As an undergraduate history major, I often used the Columbia Historical Society’s specialized library, whose collections were focused on Washington, D.C. As a graduate student researching the migration patterns and family history of the thirty-three children of Peyton Johnson, I again benefited enormously from the Society’s substantial and specialized holdings. Later, as one of the founders of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society, I continued to draw on the library’s comprehensive local history collection.

My career has remained deeply connected to studying, preserving, and interpreting Washington’s history. I previously served as Director of Public History at Howard University, Banner Professor at George Washington University, Visiting Scholar at Penn State University, and Professor of History at the Alexandria Campus of Northern Virginia Community College. During my tenure at Howard University, where I directed more than forty-three master’s theses and twenty-two doctoral dissertations, many of my students developed research projects focused on the history of the District of Columbia. 

For me, the center of my scholarship is a commitment to defining the lifeline of United States history through the lens of the African American experience – and beyond it, to understand how local communities have shaped the nation’s broader narrative. At Heurich House, my research focuses on the historical and contemporary ways selected Washington, D.C., local, grassroots organizations were founded, sustained, and
transformed by women. I am particularly interested in examining how, as women entered small and large institutional arenas, they gained access to the government and non-governmental organizations in the nation's capital. My research examines the historical, organizational, strategic, and practical issues that engendered change and helped women become new sources of leadership, power, and vision.

One dimension of my research at Heurich is refining my research on the historical figure Mary Johnson Sprow. It builds upon my book, Living In, Living Out, a study of African American women who migrated to Washington, D.C., during the first three decades of the twentieth century. I want to expand my research on how women who worked as household service workers for wealthy families developed leadership strategies.
Although often rendered “invisible,” these workers designed strategies for social survival, leadership, and community building. They formed and sustained organizations that became conduits for personal agency, organizational leadership, community enhancement networks, mutual support systems, and economic and social reform. Household workers’ stories challenge conventional understandings of leadership and
reveal that leadership did not always emerge from formal political offices, prominent institutions, or highly visible public positions. In many instances, it developed in homes, churches, neighborhood associations, mutual-aid societies, workplaces, and informal community networks. These women transformed limited opportunities into networks of influence that strengthened families and communities throughout Washington, D.C.

Mary Johnson at about 17 (shown in the white blouse) with her brother Memphis Johnson (holding the hat); Elizabeth Bundy (his future wife, who is wearing the patterned dress); and Glen Bundy (Elizabeth Bundy's brother).  © Elizabeth Clark-Lewis

My second focus is on a contemporary activist in the nation’s capital. The activism of Marjorie Kinard, an award-winning leader, has local, regional, and national significance. A respected District of Columbia activist, Mrs. Kinard’s focused on redefining work, family, civil rights, and community development strategies while enriching neighborhood-based educational and historical initiatives. As the wife of John Kinard, a social activist, pastor, and the first African American director of a Smithsonian museum, Marjorie Kinard occupied an important historical environment. Yet her significance extends well beyond her relationship with her husband. She built her own spheres of influence and established herself as a respected agent of change. My presentations will chronicle her extraordinary educational and community impact and outline how her far-
reaching agenda reshaped communities throughout Washington, DC. Her work included developing innovative social safety nets, public health initiatives, housing improvement programs, civic and political discourse programs, and new local preservation processes. Discussions centered on her book Called To Lead: The Life and Legacy of Marjorie Williams Kinard show how she responded directly to emerging local needs while fostering the social connections needed to create safer, healthier, and more resilient neighborhoods. Mrs. Kinard’s scholarship provides an essential contemporary counterpart to the experiences of earlier African American women like Mary Sprow. Both women show how women transformed community activism into political, social, and educational leadership.

Taken together, these two projects allow me to examine women’s leadership across different historical periods and social circumstances. Although Mary Johnson Sprow and Marjorie Williams Kinard worked in very different environments, both demonstrate the ways African American women activists changed Washington, D.C. These activists faced challenges—such as inequality and changing economic landscapes—and both proactively became catalysts for growth in family, neighbors, community, employment,
and institutional change while enriching the history of the entire city.

The story of the nation’s capital cannot be fully understood through its formal institutions alone. The city's history also lives in its families, neighborhoods, churches, workplaces, civic associations, and grassroots movements. These activists confirm that African American women were not simply participants in that history; they were architects of it. My work at Heurich House brings the provocative stories of these “architects of history” into greater visibility. It demonstrates how the leadership of women activists—particularly women whose work has often remained outside the traditional historical record—helped transform people, communities, organizations, and ultimately the city itself.

Learn more about Dr. Clark-Lewis and the Heurich Humanities Scholar-in-Residence Fellowship