This week I visited Malcolm X Park, or Meridian Hill Park depending on who you ask. Despite it being about a 20 minute walk from me, I’ve never been to this historically significant national park that sits on a hill in the middle of Washington.
The story Malcolm X park and the reason why it’s also called Meridian Hill Park by some Washingtonians is an interesting one. In 1819, the first secretary to the President, John Porter, built a mansion on Meridian Hill. The site was called Meridian Hill because it was on the exact longitude of the original District of Columbia milestone marker. In 1829, the mansion became President John Quincy Adams’ home. The U.S. government purchased the grounds in 1910 and landscape architects George Burnap and Horace Peaslee made it into an Italian style garden.
Though it was first dubbed Meridian Hill Park, many D.C. locals, specifically Black residents, refer to it exclusively as Malcolm X Park. To me, this name os more fitting and represents the different perspectives that history encompasses. An owner who acquired the land after the War of 1812 was the first to call it Meridian Hill. Mary Foote Henderson the wife of a senator in post-Civil War Washington who lived nearby, was the one who came up with the idea to covert thee area into a public park. To execute her vision, Henderson evicted the residents, a community of working-class African Americans. The land sits on land rightfully owned by Black people. This is why I call it Malcolm X Park. As stated by thee Washington Post, Angela Davis is often credited with calling for renaming the park after Malcolm X in 1969, mirroring demands by local organizers of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee to have a citywide holiday and a memorial in honor of Malcolm X.
During my time at Malcolm X Park, I reflected on this history and was able to block out all the outside noise. Yes, the park sits in the middle of busy streets, so I could still hear the cars honking, the sirens and the banging coming from a nearby construction site; however, peace and sounds of nature was much louder. Listen to and observe my journey through Malcolm X park, the aspects of of nature that struck me and the realizations that came to mind.
Thank you for taking this journey with me.
In Black and Write 