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IN EARLY 1868, the federal Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands purchased 375 acres from the heirs of Washington merchant James Barry for the purpose of establishing a model community for Blacks.
BY 1871, the community had a school, a Baptist church and purchased a lot for a Methodist church. Prominent residents of Barry Farm included civil rights leader Frederick Douglass' sons, Charles, Lewis and Frederick Jr., as well as John Moss, the first Black judicial in the District of Columbia, Garnet Wilkerson, assistant superintendent for Black schools in the District, Georgiana Simpson, the first Black woman to receive a doctorate, Emily Edmond-son of the famous Pearl incident in 1848 and Solomon Brown, the Smithsonian Institution's lone Black professional employee who also served in the DC. House of Delegates.
FROM 1895-1918, DCs first Black-owned amusement park maintained operations on what is...