Please join us on Wednesday, June 24, for our fourth and final webinar in the series, "Chevy Chase at 250: What's Next?" that explores what we as a community can do to redeem the promise of the Declaration of Independence as we consider our neighborhood's future.

Register here for the free June 24 webinar

This episode, on Zoom from 7 p.m. to 8:15 p.m., is the final installment of a thoughtful examination of all the elements that shaped Chevy Chase DC. They span from its Colonial role in producing tobacco and other crops that helped build America's industrial strength; to its heroic and often torn alliances in the Civil War era; to the Jim Crow leanings that enshrined an exclusivity still evident today; to the mid-century struggles of the Civil Rights Movement embodied by the many progressive leaders of our nation who chose to live here.

In this episode, our panelists will discuss how Chevy Chase DC was never a bystander in any of these eras, and certainly not in the peak of the Civil Rights Movement, when Walter Tobriner lived at 33rd and Rittenhouse streets. His work to desegregate DC schools demonstrates that Jim Crow was not universally accepted in DC’s white population. Appointed by President John F. Kennedy as DC’s defacto mayor, his job was to facilitate DC’s democratization and inclusive development.

Our panel will include myself, educator and genealogist Tanya Hardy, and historians Tim Hannapel and Mark Auslander. Chas Cadwell will host the evening. We will reprise this story and the recovery of our local history over the past decade. A key to historical recovery is connecting with descendants of the families displaced from our community in the 1920s and '30s, and our panelists will talk in depth about that process of discovery.

In the Q&A we will endeavor to address this question: How should our history shape our understanding of the present as Chevy Chase DC reflects on how to relate to the rest of DC and the DMV?

Listen to the first three webinars by using this link. The first webinar, on Jan. 29, is titled  "The First 100 Years. The second, held March 26, is "The Civil War Came to Chevy Chase." The third, titled "Chevy Chase Under Jim Crow," was May 14.

I hope you'll join us for this exciting discussion. As always, we thank you for your continued support of HCCDC!

Carl Lankowski, President, HCCDC