Glen Echo Park Integration

On June 30, 1960, students from Howard University’s Nonviolent Action Group (NAG) held a sit-in at the Glen Echo Park. Five of the picketers were arrested, and NAG, with the support of residents from the Bannockburn neighborhood around the park, began a campaign against Glen Echo Park. The park remained segregated when it closed for the season. In 1961, Hyman Bookbinder, a Bannockburn resident and assistant to the Secretary of Commerce, used his connection to US Attorney General Robert Kennedy to have Kennedy threaten to revoke the land lease of the park’s trolley. That March, the park integrated.

“And they stopped me because of my color didn’t fit with what they allowed into the park. I think in the next day’s park it kind of showed up as, ambassadors are not let into the park because of their color. Hey, it was interesting and that’s all I can say about that one.” — Dion Diamond, Courtesy of the George Washington Memorial Parkway