In her discussion of the “Power of Place: Suburbanization, Segregation, and Community Development in Arlington,” Dr. Lindsey Bestebreurtje will help us explore segregation and racialized zoning and planning laws in Arlington to see how these policies impacted the County’s growth during the 20th Century. She’ll investigate the race-based policies of early boosters at the dawn of Arlington’s suburban growth, and continue into discussions of restrictive covenants, planning laws, and how Arlington’s communities – both Black and white – grew together and in opposition. The majority of this research comes from Bestebreurtje’s book Built by the People Themselves: African American Community Development in Arlington from the Civil War through Civil Rights (USC Press, 2024).
Dr. Lindsey Bestebreurtje is a historian of African American community development and the built environment in the 19th and 20th century American South. She holds a Ph.D. in History and a Masters in Museum Studies from George Mason University. For the last 15 years she has worked at various public history sites, including the Historic American Landscape Survey, the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, and the National Park Service. Bestebreurtje has worked as a Curatorial Assistant at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture since 2015. Dr. Bestebreurtje also serves on the Arlington Historical Society’s Advisory Board.
This event will be in-person and via Zoom. AHS will have the book for sale so attendees can buy it and have the author sign it. If you do not plan to attend in person, you can buy the book on the AHS website: https://arlhist.org/product/book-built-by-the-people-themselves/
PREREGISTER FOR ZOOM ACCESS. You can attend this event on Zoom or in-person on the Marymount University Main Campus. If you want to attend this event virtually, please CLICK HERE to register. You can also cut and paste this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdHop4BcGF7GbbnShuHNO4DGYiB1WyNQqL8zxITWK5Zp3lBfg/viewform into your own browser and complete it there. Please register by Wednesday, July 9. Zoom access information will be sent to you in an email on the morning of the event on Thursday, July 10.
DRIVING DIRECTIONS and FREE PARKING: Attendees planning to attend the event in-person should enter the Marymount University campus at the library gate on N. 26th Street. From Glebe Road going north, take a right onto 26th Street. Pass the intersection with Yorktown Road and then enter the campus through the next gate on your left. The library is to your left as you enter the campus. Free garage parking is just past the library at the bottom of the small incline. (Handicapped parking is immediately to your right as you enter through the gate onto campus.)
- If the university has lowered the garage gates, push the button and let them know you’re here for an Arlington Historical Society event in the library. To leave, push the button and they’ll raise the gate.
This event is one of the monthly series of free public programs sponsored by the Arlington Historical Society. This event is hosted courtesy of the Marymount University politics program’s American Heritage Initiative. For more information, please email: info@arlingtonhistoricalsociety.org.
