This vibrant and culturally diverse D.C. neighborhood offers a bit of everything for lovers of food, art and history; its popular Adams Morgan Day festival is Sept. 8.
Adams Morgan blends a rich, diverse history from a legacy of immigrants, activists and revolutionaries with artistic and culinary expression that makes this neighborhood a must-see.
Originally known as simply “18th and Columbia,” which refers to its major crossroads in Northwest D.C., activists and urban planners in the 1950s sought to create a new identity for the neighborhood with a name that unified Washington, D.C., residents across racial lines.
Black and white families were fighting together for better education for all, even at a time when area schools were still segregated. To show their unity, parents from the whites-only Adams School (named for President John Quincy Adams) and the “colored” Morgan School (named for city Commissioner Thomas Morgan) organized as the Adams Morgan Better Neighborhood Conference, giving the area a new name.
In the 1960s as D.C.’s population expanded, Adams Morgan attracted younger and more diverse residents to the then-affordable residences. Artists and musicians gathered in the smaller neighborhood buildings, and the Black Panthers and anti-Vietnam War activists took up space along the 18th Street corridor.
Today, international shops and restaurants line the streets of Adams Morgan, and residents throughout the District take advantage of everything the neighborhood has to offer.
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Briahnna M. Brown 