In 1877, 18 men and 15 women from Barry Farm–Hillsdale signed a petition to Congress demanding voting rights for women. The petition drive was part of a nationwide movement spearheaded by the National Woman Suffrage Association led by Susan B. Anthony. The petition included 10,000 signatures collected from all over the United States and was delivered to Congress later that year. Barry Farm–Hillsdale residents who signed the petition included Frederick Douglass Jr., Virginia L. Douglass, Elizabeth Chase, and Solomon G. Brown.

For many years, Barry Farm–Hillsdale lacked essential services, including electricity, running water, sewers, paved streets, public transportation, and mail delivery. Houses were allowed to burn due to the lack of water mains. Families were forced to collect water from nearby streams, which led to disease outbreaks. Community groups, including the Barry Farm Civic Association, fought for and won essential services. But the pace of change was slow, and the lack of piped water and sanitation was still a problem in the 1940s.

In the 1940s and 1950s, Barry Farm–Hillsdale residents opposed multiple attempts to redevelop their neighborhood. In the 1940s, the National Capital Park and Planning Commission planned to demolish the neighborhood, which it said suffered from “‘rural’ blight and slum conditions.” But Barry Farm–Hillsdale residents stood up for their community and testified before Congress opposing the plans. In 1949, Congress passed an act prohibiting the redevelopment of Barry Farm–Hillsdale. In 1954, Republican Representative John Phillips of California helped strike down another attempt to redevelop the neighborhood.

Barry Farm–Hillsdale residents faced relentless segregation and discrimination from the very start of the neighborhood. World War II saw the beginnings of resistance, as military service members and others stood up for their rights. During the 1940s, Barry Farm–Hillsdale residents, including Norman E. Dale, picketed White-owned businesses on Nichols Avenue that refused to hire African Americans.

African Americans were barred from the nearby Anacostia Pool. Instead, many local children swam in the Anacostia River, which was dangerous and led to multiple drownings. In 1949, a group of young residents from Barry Farm–Hillsdale tried to enter the Anacostia Pool and were turned away. They returned several times, and violent clashes broke out. Officials closed the pool due to the violence. It reopened in 1950 and was integrated without incident, although White attendance dropped considerably.

Schools had been segregated from the very beginning of Barry Farm-Hillsdale. In 1950, a group of local students attempted to enter the all-White Sousa Junior High School and were turned away. The students filed a legal case, known as Bolling v. Sharpe. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, where it was heard as a companion case to Brown v. Board of Education. In 1954, the Supreme Court ordered that segregated schools were unconstitutional. DC schools were desegregated, but African American students continued to face protests, hostility, and discrimination from White students and teachers.

In 1966, Stokely Carmichael, the recently elected leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), came to Washington, DC. Future DC mayor Marion Barry’s organization, Free DC, arranged Carmichael’s visit to Barry Farm Dwellings. More than 150 people attended the rally. In his speech, Carmichael used the slogan “Black Power,” which he had coined just a few days before. Soon the slogan would become a rallying cry for the civil rights movement.

In the 1960s, Barry Farm–Hillsdale residents worked with the Southeast Neighborhood House (SEH) organization to fight poverty and racial discrimination. SEH hired local residents and trained them to help those in need find jobs, housing, legal aid, medical care, and assistance with welfare. Among SEH’s earliest recruits in the neighborhood was John Kinard, who became the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum’s first director. The Anacostia Neighborhood Museum was the original name of the Anacostia Community Museum.

By the 1960s, Barry Farm Dwellings were in disrepair. Residents were afflicted by vermin infestation, leaks, faulty faucets, and defective furnaces inside their units. With the help of the Southeast Neighborhood House, a group of local women organized themselves under the name the “Band of Angels.” They secured a promise from DC Mayor Walter Washington to make repairs to the buildings. The group went on to protest inadequate income, inferior housing and health care, and the lack of attention to poor women by public agencies.

In 1966, Barry Farm–Hillsdale resident Leroy Washington organized a group of local residents to advocate for jobs and recreational facilities for local youth. They called themselves the “Rebels with a Cause.” The group reached more than 1,500 young people with their programs, which included clubs, dances, and field trips to museums. They also succeeded in having a recreation center built in the neighborhood. The group became a model for future programs empowering youth in Washington, DC.

For decades, toxic pollutants, including mercury, lead, and hydrocarbons, leaked from the Navy Yard into the Anacostia River. These pollutants endangered the health and lives of Barry Farm–Hillsdale residents, who lived just across the river. Local activists, including Dorothea Ferrell of the Barry Farm Residents Council, demanded that the government take action. Thanks to their efforts, the government agreed to investigate and clean up the pollution.

In 2019, Barry Farm Dwellings were slated for demolition as part of plans to redevelop the neighborhood. Most of the buildings have been demolished. But the Barry Farm Tenants and Allies Association and local nonprofit Empower DC succeeded in preserving a small section of the housing complex as a historic landmark. This historic designation will help ensure that part of the community’s history will be preserved for future generations.