Who is Adams Morgan?

First held in 1978, the Adams Morgan Day Festival celebrates the international and cultural diversity and creativity that is the hallmark of Adams Morgan. Adams Morgan Day also showcases the neighborhood as an ethnic and eclectic retail, entertainment and restaurant locale.

Who's Adams Morgan?

Adams Morgan is not the name of a person -- it's the name of our neighborhood. The name reflects the spirit of Adams Morgan Day and comes straight from the Civic Rights era.

In 1955, the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling led to the integration of two segregated schools in what is now called Adams Morgan: the all-White John Quincy Adams Elementary School and the all-Black Thomas P. Morgan Elementary School.

In 1958, the principals of the schools (Florence Cornell and Bernice Brown), met and discussed how the neighborhood could respect for racial and cultural differences.

They organized the Adams Morgan Better Neighborhood Conference and combined both schools into a single district -- the neighborhood now called Adams Morgan.

Famed community leader Josephine Butler (1920 - 1997) also helped lead the integration of Adams and Morgan Schools. The Josephine Butler Parks Center, at 2437 15 St. NW, is named after her.

Adams Morgan was named one of the 20 best neighborhoods in the United States in 2005 by Project for Public Spaces.

Though still under construction, click above photo to visit my 2006 Adams Morgan Day Festival photoset. See also my Cherif Mamadou 15 September 2006 Friday's Photo of the Week.