Ask A D.C. Native: Why do D.C. natives have an official day?

One of my first ideas when I joined The 51st was to launch this Ask A D.C. Native column. I wanted to position D.C. natives as authorities on the city. Our families have deep roots here; we’ve matriculated through the public school system, started businesses, and contributed to the music, food, and arts scenes that make this such a vibrant city. If you want to know about D.C. — not Washington — who better to ask than one of us? 

D.C. also has a reputation as an especially transient city. People rotate in and out to attend our universities, take internships, and find work in the government and related industries. While some newcomers settle here for the long haul, many stay just a few years before venturing off to other opportunities. 

These are the D.C. residents most outsiders are familiar with — people who work on the Hill, frequent Le Diplomate, and think all of Southeast is Anacostia. Meanwhile, D.C. natives — folks who were born and raised here — regularly get overlooked. 

Case in point: In May 2018, Washingtonian dropped an Instagram post marketing its new t-shirts that read “I’m Not a Tourist. I Live Here.” The series of photos featured “various well-groomed young people modeling them in picturesque, unironically tourist-y locales,” Washington City Paper reported at the time. 

The problem? In a city known for decades as Chocolate City, no Black people were represented. Not one. 

Black people, our institutions, and movements have made indelible impacts on the District, many of which have reverberated across the country. In 1870, Dunbar High School became the first public high school for Black students in the U.S.(its faculty included Black scholars such as Carter G. Woodson and Mary Eliza Church Terrell). 

D.C. became the first major city in the country with a majority Black population in 1957. Six years later, more than 250,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial to hear Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, which played a crucial role in securing the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In 1973, Walter Washington became the first Black mayor of a major U.S. city. 

Meanwhile, Howard University, one of the nation’s top historically Black colleges, has educated Black leaders in law, medicine, the arts, and activism, with alumni including Toni Morrison, Kamala Harris, and Chadwick Boseman.

While the city’s Black population has decreased in recent years due to intense gentrification and other factors, we’re still present in the city and deserve to be seen. 

Back in 2018, Washingtonian’s depiction of District residents sparked swift online backlash, and rightfully so. “[We] felt confused by the campaign and the erasure of people who look like us,” entrepreneur Angel Gregorio tells me in a recent interview.  

She and activist Tony Lewis, Jr. wanted to set the record straight, so they organized a photo shoot at Union Market on May 20, 2018 and put a call for D.C. natives to come out. More than 200 people showed up. “It felt like a big family reunion,” Gregorio recalls. “You weren't sure who you were going to see, and you ran into people you expected and some you hadn't seen in a long time. Some people you didn't even know were D.C. natives until they showed up.” 

Though Washingtonian issued an apology, that wasn’t enough for Gregorio and Lewis, who pushed for legislation to have May 20 recognized as D.C. Natives Day. The resolution was introduced by then-Ward 5 councilmember Kenyan McDuffie and approved in April 2019. 

And those, dear readers, are a few reasons why we have — and deserve — our own official day.