Oral History Coffee Chat - We are Penn Branch - DC Oral History Collaborative

The Penn Branch neighborhood is located east of the Anacostia River in Washington,DC , bounded by Pennsylvania Avenue SE to the south; Pope Branch Park and Pope Creek to the north; Branch Avenue to the west; and Fort Davis Park to the east. This community of quiet, mature tree-lined streets, well-manicured lawns, and approximately 550 single-family homes was an all-white enclave until a prominent African American doctor and his wife-purchased their family home in the early 1960s. By 1968, over 60% of the white residents of Penn Branch had relocated.
In 2021, Paul Grant organized an oral history project to document the personal narratives of the first generation of African Americans who integrated Penn Branch between 1960 and 1968. In June of 2022 Grant brought several of the project narrators together with members of the community to listen to clips from the project and to discuss the topics and themes that emerged from the interviews.