In 1944, eight young black women boarded a segregated bus heading from Fairfax County to D.C. and sat in the front area, setting in motion a fierce challenge to Virginia’s Jim Crow laws.
The Howard University students’ story is the subject of a new, nine-minute documentary released last week by NOVA Parks and Howard University, “The Student Bus Protest That Challenged Jim Crow.”
When Paul Gilbert finishes leading NOVA Parks, the regional park system will be nearly 2,000 acres larger than it was when he started.
The Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority announced last Friday (April 11) that Gilbert will retire as its executive director by the end of 2025. His 20-year tenure included the addition of 15 new parks and several signature attractions, from the Turning Point Suffragist Memorial at Occoquan Regional Park to the winter light festivals in Bull Run and Meadowlark Botanical Gardens.
Before it became Meadowlark Botanical Gardens, Caroline Ware’s farm in Wolf Trap served as the staging area for a noteworthy yet little-known battle in the civil rights movement’s long struggle against segregation.
A constitutional history and social sciences professor at Howard University, Ware hosted a picnic on May 14, 1944 for friends and students, four of whom got arrested after refusing to move to the back of the bus they boarded to return to D.C.
The Virginia Chamber Orchestra is tuning up for a fall concert series at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Wolf Trap.
The “Music in the Gardens” series will kick off at 3 p.m. this Sunday (Sept. 4) with “Viva Violas!,” a showcase of that oft-overlooked member of the string family.
